Orecchiette, which means “little ears”, are a great pasta shape for vegetable pastas, as their rounded, earlobe shape catch the vegetables and the sauce. At the restaurant I work at now, we serve an orecchiette dish with sun-dried tomatoes and broccoli rabe, in a sauce of olive oil, garlic, and chile flakes. While browsing through [...]

Here is a simple, delicious pasta dish from Puglia, Italy. The noodles, Bucatini, are tossed with a sauce full of Southern Italian flavors: olive oil, garlic, chile pepper, sun-dried tomatoes, almonds, black olives, orange zest, and basil. There are so many great flavor combinations at work here. It may seem like a lot of ingredients [...]

Tagliatelle are the noodles of the Emilia-Romagna region of Northern Italy, and green tagliatelle are a brighter, more colorful version made by mixing pureed spinach (or spinach and watercress) into the eggs. I’ve been making a lot of tagliatelle, as my Imperia pasta maker came with a tagliatelle cutter, and I haven’t bought any other [...]

This is the second version of a pasta dish I made from a pork ragu. I had bought a half pork shoulder, braised it in white wine and chicken stock with fennel, red onion, carrots, and celery, shredded the meat, and continued to braise for a total of about four hours. I only paid about [...]

Pork ragu and other hearty meat sauces are one of the specialties of the Northern Italian region of Emilia-Romagna. They are paired with tagliatelle, the regional pasta, a fresh string noodle about 1/4 inch thick. Pork shoulder is an excellent cut for a braised ragu – it’s inexpensive, and the long, slow cooking brings out [...]

Peperonata is one of the classic Italian pasta sauces, with many different variations. This ziti dish adds an interesting combination, green olives and toasted almonds, to the basic peperonata recipe. The result is a sweet, zesty sauce with a wonderful crunch that is not usually expected in a pasta sauce. Other than its use as [...]