Italian

Linguine With Mussels

You might label this shiny black musselled variation of linguine alle vongole, linguine alle cozze, but to be frank, this version is not very Italian-flavoured. It owes something to the French taste f…

View recipe

Panettone Stuffing Squares

I have written a recipe for panettone stuffing before: the sweet seasonal fruit bread was cubed, toasted and mixed with Italian sausage; this is very different, not least because I see it not as an ac…

View recipe

Parmesan Shortbreads

This is an Italian-inspired recipe that comes to me from Australia via Brazil. To explain: a Brazilian friend, and the best cook I know, Helio Fenerich made it for me, and I had to keep (rudely) askin…

View recipe

Linguine With Garlic Oil and Pancetta

Three ingredients: one great supper. I admit it's slightly an eccentric way of cooking the pancetta but, on those days when you've been flat out and are exhausted, it does buy you a little slumping-on…

View recipe

Baci Di Ricotta

I don't deny that having to stand stoveside frying 30 teaspoons of ricotta at the end of dinner is a slight drawback, but these are so good, I really do think it's worth it. Besides, there's no gettin…

View recipe

Naan Pizza

I beg you to keep the wherewithal for this fantastic instant snack-cum-supper in your storecupboard. It's a lifesaver! I've given my topping of preference; feel free to play about and make your own. A…

View recipe

Meatzza

I can't tell you how often I get asked to make this at home. This is something of a culinary pun: it looks like a pizza, but its base is made out of meatball mixture, moreover a meatball mixture you d…

View recipe

Breakfast Bruschetta

This is quick to make, absurdly easy in fact. The strange thing is that it is as easy to eat, even first thing. I can wolf this stuff down.

View recipe

Nutella Pancakes

Let joy be unconfined. This is one of the most irresistible puddings I think I have ever made, and I did it by no more than some fruitful scimmaging about my cupboards. I long for it almost constantly…

View recipe

Cappuccino Pavlova

I am inordinately proud of this, and am not ashamed to say so. I have long been a pava-holic but this is my first venture into a fruit-free (though far from fruitless) version. The instant espresso po…

View recipe

Italian Christmas Pudding Cake

This recipe is my own but at the same time a conflation of a couple of Italian Christmas must-haves: the glorious, fruit-studded panettone and crema di mascarpone, which is best described as tiramisu…

View recipe

Mozzarella In Carrozza

This is Italian food before Tuscan rustic chic. The 'in carrozza' bit means 'in a carriage' and doesn't really explain what this golden-crusted fried mozzarella sandwich is about, just gives an indica…

View recipe

Minestrone in Minutes

This is child's play to make, and I use the term advisedly, since it is the invention of my then ten-year-old son Bruno (Brunostrone, we call it) and we make versions of it constantly. Use any beans o…

View recipe

Pappardelle With Lamb Ragu

‘Ragout’ is French, ‘ragù’ Italian, and this meat sauce is certainly inspired by the Sicilian combination of sweet lamb, dried wild mint and crushed chilli flakes, though I’ve added an Anglo note with…

View recipe

Pasta With Onions and Anchovies

I know that people feel very strongly about anchovies, pro or anti. I'm fiercely pro, and if you are, too, you will love this. For those who are hesistantly rather than resoundingly anti, I say to you…

View recipe

Sicilian Pasta With Tomatoes, Garlic and Almonds

I like to use fusilli lunghi, which are like long golden ringlets (or, less poetically, telephone cords) but, if you can't find them, simply substitute regulation-size fusilli (or indeed any pasta of…

View recipe

Slow-Cooker Lamb and Pasta

Admittedly, making a meat sauce and then cooking pasta in it is very un-Italian, but it is dee-lish. Plus, it goes down a treat with children and teenagers and thus makes a great family supper. I love…

View recipe

Linguine With Chilli, Crab and Watercress

You know, I'd eaten this a couple of times and made it myself (throwing in handfuls of peppery watercress as I did so) a few more before I realised it was, give or take, the River Cafe's recipe — by w…

View recipe

Chicken With Tarragon Salsa Verde

Tarragon, the gorgeously named “dragoncello”, is actually little used in Italy, despite the country’s immoderate passion for all things anise. You find tarragon used only here and there, mainly in Tus…

View recipe

Turkey Breast Stuffed With Italian Sausage and Marsala-Steeped Cranberries

I know it might sound a bit of a faff, but take it from me that stuffing a whole double breast joint is very much easier than stuffing and rolling a single breast joint, as is more commonly found in s…

View recipe

Eggs in Purgatory

You don't actually need to have a hangover to enjoy this for breakfast (or anytime), but there is something about this easy and quick dish of eggs cooked in a fiery tomato sauce that just hits the spo…

View recipe

Monkfish Wrapped in Rosemary, Lemon and Parma Ham

I am fully expecting a phone call from the 1980s asking for its menu back, but in my defence this is simple, superfast (to prepare) and sensational (to eat, which is what counts) and I am not suggesti…

View recipe

Mozzarella With Crazy Gremolata

There are no bad ways of eating good mozzarella. I am perfectly happy just with a spatter of salt and a green glug of olive oil, but this is something special. Gremolata — or gremolada — is the tradit…

View recipe

Liquorice Pudding

Liquorice is one of the signature tastes of Italy. As this is an ingredient that divides people viscerally, I've made it just for 2, or possibly 1 very greedy liquorice eater... I use the tiny liquori…

View recipe

Chocolate Salame

I’ve encountered quite a few versions of chocolate salame in Italy — coming to the conclusion that it’s really an Italian version of our chocolate refrigerator cake — and although I am not normally a…

View recipe

Meringue Gelato Cake With Chocolate Sauce

I found this recipe for one of the world's easiest but most delicious desserts in a rather fabulous book, by chef and "culinary philosopher" Gioacchino Scognamiglio, called Il Chichibio: ovvero poesia…

View recipe

Tiramisini

Some say, challenging more generally accepted ideas about the provenance, that tiramisu was invented in a casa chiusa (a house of ill repute) to give the working girls a pick-me-up, as the name (tira-…

View recipe

Chocolate Olive Oil Cake

Although I first came up with this recipe because I had someone coming for supper who — genuinely — couldn't eat wheat or dairy, it is so meltingly good, I now make it all the time for those whose lif…

View recipe

Nutella Cake

Not only is this one of the easiest cakes to make, it happens — joyously — to be one of the most delicious. My household is totally addicted! Please don't feel obliged to rush out and buy a bottle of…

View recipe

Anglo-Italian Trifle

I don't think I could write a book that didn't include a recipe for trifle somewhere — and this, I tell you, is the trifle to end all trifles. The shiny black of the berries, the soft whiteness of the…

View recipe

Irish Cream Tiramisu

I've long been tinkering about with a bottle of Bailey's, seeing how it could best be called upon in the kitchen, and I think, with this, I've found it. An Italian friend of mine, who makes a killer t…

View recipe

Once you try this recipe you’ll never make tiramisu any other way. It is the best ever! People talk about it for years and years. Thank you.

Italian Roast Chicken With Peppers and Olives

A roast chicken always feels celebratory; indeed, a roast chicken always is celebratory. The vibrantly coloured and intensely flavoured vegetables that are cooked alongside here seem only to underline…

View recipe

Italian Sausages With Lentils

My mother used English sausages mostly, and those flat, sludgy lentils (Puy lentils weren't so easily available then) but this is at its best made with highly flavoured Italian sausages (I love the on…

View recipe

Lemon Polenta Cake

This cake is a sort of Anglo-Italian amalgam. The flat, plain disc is reminiscent of the confections that sit geometrically arranged in patisserie windows in Italy; the sharp, syrupy sogginess borrows…

View recipe

Fresh Tagliatelle

No one’s saying you have to make fresh pasta, but once you try, you’ll soon see that it’s not so difficult. I had a pasta machine for years before I was brave enough to use it; for some reason I thoug…

View recipe

Fig and Olive Chutney

I often give homemade chutneys to Italian friends when I visit, as I’m proud of our traditional recipes and know that an English chutney can pair magnificently with an Italian cheese. Italians themsel…

View recipe

Ligurian Pasta with Basil, Beans and Potatoes

My children, when little, wouldn't have cared if all I ever gave them was pasta with some bottled sauce poured over, and I don't deny that's sometimes indeed what they were given; but to please myself…

View recipe

Meatballs

The trick to these meatballs is to keep them small. Don’t actually use a teaspoon, but use about a teaspoon’s amount of mince to roll each ball. If there are children around, so much the better; they…

View recipe

Penne Alla Vodka

As with all dishes that find their way into a country's repertoire, even oddball ones like this, there are many versions of this recipe: some add chilli flakes, some cubes of bacon: I prefer it with n…

View recipe

Slattern's Spaghetti

My version of pasta alla puttanesca has had a slight name change. And yes, I realise that it’s not really necessary to translate the title, as this store cupboard standby of pasta with anchovies, oliv…

View recipe

Hearty Wholewheat Pasta With Brussels Sprouts, Cheese and Potato

It is not quite normal to feel as joyous as I do when saying the words “Brussels sprouts”, but this recipe does not merely use said much-denigrated ingredient, it also celebrates it. Sprouts are nutty…

View recipe

Linguine With Mushrooms, Lemon, Garlic and Thyme

This is one of my proudest creations and, I suppose, a good example of a recipe that isn't originally from Italy, but sits uncontroversially in her culinary canon. I don't think it would be too presum…

View recipe

So easy and so delicious! I can't wait to cook it again.

Pasta Salad Primavera

This recipe does involve a lot of fiddly preparation, but what it creates is addictive; every mouthful repays the effort a hundredfold. What's more, you can stash it in a Tupperware or similar and lea…

View recipe

Penne With Aubergine, Tomato, Chilli and Feta

This is in one sense wholly un-Italian, and yet the inspiration for it is the traditional pasta alla Norma, which combines aubergines with ricotta salata. This semi-dry salty cheese is hard to come by…

View recipe

Yellow Spaghetti

Although this recipe does not itself issue from Italy, the inspiration is entirely Italian. One of my favourite things to eat is a risotto Milanese, sometimes called "risotto giallo" — or yellow risot…

View recipe

Honey Semifreddo

A semifreddo is not quite an ice cream, as the name — semi-cold, in translation — suggests. There's no custard to make, and no churning required as it freezes, which makes life very much easier. What…

View recipe

No-Churn Salted Caramel Bourbon Ice Cream

If I don’t have a tub of this in my deep-freeze, I just don’t feel right about things. I have made many no-churn ice creams in my time, but this is the one I make (and eat) the most. And it’s so very,…

View recipe

Tried this recipe and wow it is amazing! So easy to make but the taste is fantastic! I can definitely see myself making this a lot in the future!

One-Step No-Churn Coffee Ice Cream

I'm almost embarrassed at how easy this is but, as you will find out, simple though it is to make, its flavour is deep, complex and utterly compelling. So, here's how it goes: you don't make a custard…

View recipe

I have been making this for years and can't recommend it highly enough! Not only easy to make, but guests are always knocked out by it, can't believe that I haven't bought it from a specialist shop and beg for the recipe.

Vin Santo Ice Cream With Cantuccini

One of the loveliest puddings, if it quite counts as that, to order in restaurants in Tuscany, is a glass of vin santo, that resinous, intense, amber-coloured holy wine, with a few almond-studded bisc…

View recipe

Yogurt Pot Cake

If there’s a family in Italy that doesn’t have a recipe for yogurt pot cake, then I’ve yet to meet them. And I love this plain cake with perhaps disproportionate intensity. There is something so quint…

View recipe