The recipe, from Cucina del Sole: A Celebration of Southern Italian Cooking by Nancy Harmon Jenkins:

1 cup dried white beans, soaked for 6 hours or overnight
1 large bunch of escarole (about 1 pound)
1 or 2 garlic cloves, coarsely chopped
1 crisp green celery stalk, coarsely chopped
5 or 6 flat-leaf parsley sprigs, coarsely chopped
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, plus oil for serving
12 cherry or grape tomatoes, halved
1 dried red chili (optional)
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
toasted slices of bread, for serving

Drain the beans, put them in a saucepan, and add fresh water to cover by about 1 inch. Bring to a simmer over low heat, cover, and cook for 40 to 60 minutes, or until the beans are tender. Drain the beans, reserving the bean liquid.

Measure the bean liquid and add enough water to make 2 ½ cups.

Rinse and core the escarole. Chop the leaves into pieces about 1 inch long. Add them to the saucepan in which you cooked the beans, cover the pan and cook the escarole over gentle heat in the water clinging to its leaves until it is tender. Be careful not to let it scorch, adding a little boiling water to the pan if it starts to burn. When it is tender, set it aside with any liquid remaining in the pan.

Chop together the garlic, celery, and parsley to make about ½ cup finely minced aromatics. In a small skillet, cook the aromatics gently in the olive oil for about 10 minutes or until they give off fragrance but are not brown. Stir in the halved tomatoes and continue cooking until the tomatoes have shriveled somewhat and given off lots of juice.

The Recipe

Source: A Taste of Southern Italy by Marlena de Blasi

8 tiny artichokes, preferably the purple-lipped variety, or 4 small, very young artichokes, several inches of their stems still intact
1 1-pound fillet of baccala, skinless and boneless
1 cup whole milk
juice of 1 lemon
1 small head red lettuce, radicchio or red oak leaf, washed, spun dry, and coarsely shredded
4 ounces large green Sicilian or Greek olives, crushed lightly with a mallet, stones removed, the flesh coarsely chopped
1/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil
2 fat cloves garlic, peeled, crushed, and finely minced
1 small, dried red chile pepper, crushed, or 1/3 to ½ teaspoon dried chile flakes
1 ½ tablespoons good red wine vinegar
fine sea salt

Prepare the artichokes, trimming just a snip from their still-tender leaves and leaving them whole if they are tiny, slicing them in two, or even in fourths, if they are a bit larger, cutting out the choke should it have begun to develop beyond an innocent embryo.

Soften the baccala a bit with a mallet and soak for 24 hours in cold water (change the water three times, adding 1 cup of milk to the final water), rinse the baccala in cold water, cover again with cold water, and poach for 15 minutes. Drain and set aside.

In a large bowl, acidulate the artichokes with the juice of a lemon, add the shredded lettuce, the copped olives, and the poached baccala, cut into 1-inch pieces.

Make a simple warm vinaigrette by heating the olive oil, softening the garlic without coloring it for a minute or two, and scent the oil with the crushed chile. Remove from the heat, add the vinegar and a whisper of sea salt. Beat the dressing with a fork and pour it over the elements in the bowl, tossing them about and combining them well.

Present the salad with a young, cooled red wine that will do its best to stand up to both the artichokes and the baccala.

The Recipe

Source: A Taste of Southern Italy by Marlena de Blasi

1 small head white or green cauliflower
2 tablespoons fine sea salt
1 pound cima di rape [Hard-to-find Italian turnip greens] or dandelion greens, beet greens, or red chard
2 ounces anchovies, preserved under salt
2/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil
1 tablespoon fennel seeds
1 small, dried red chile pepper, crushed, or 1/3 to ½ teaspoon dried chile flakes
3 fat cloves garlic, peeled, crushed, and finely minced
3 ounces dried black olives, stones removed (optional)
12 ounces orecchiette
coarse sea salt for the pasta water
1 cup just-grated pecorino
1 cup just-made fine bread crumbs, sautéed in ¼ cup extra-virgin olive oil

Trim the cauliflower of its leaves and place it, whole, in a pot, covering it with cold water, adding 1 tablespoon of the fine sea salt and poaching it until tender. Drain the cauliflower and set it aside. Wash and trim the rape and place them in a pot, covering them with cold water, adding the remaining table of salt and poaching them for 3 minutes. Drain the rape very well, transferring them to absorbent paper towels. When the rape are cooled a bit, squeeze each piece, extracting as much water as you can before chopping them coarsely and placing them in a bowl. Add the poached cauliflower, breaking it up and blending it lightly with the rape.

Rinse the anchovies and remove their heads and bones. Dry them on paper towels and crush lightly with a fork.

In a sauté pan over a medium flame, warm the olive oil, scenting it with the fennel, crushed chile, and garlic, taking care not to color the garlic. Add the anchovies and the olives, if you wish to use them, stirring and blending the components. Add this hot mixture to the bowl with the rape and the cauliflower, smashing the whole against the sides of the bowl, permitting the vegetables to inhale the hot, spicy bath.

Cook the orecchiette in abundant, sea-salted water until al dente, draining the pasta but leaving it somewhat wet. Reserve ½ cup or so of its cooking liquids. Transfer the pasta to a large, shallow, warmed bowl. Add a few tablespoons of the cooking liquids and the pecorino to the sauce, thinning it only slightly. Add a few drops more of the cooking liquids only if the sauce is still extremely thick. Add the sauce to the pasta, tossing it and coating each little ear.

Dust the pasta with the browned bread crumbs and present the dish with a rough but honorable red wine.

The Recipe

Source: Cucina del Sole: A Celebration of Southern Italian Cooking by Nancy Harmon Jenkins

½ cup extra-virgin olive oil, plus 2 tablespoons, if necessary
1 ¼ to 1 ½ pounds refreshed salt cod or fresh fish
all-purpose flour for dredging fresh fish
2 medium onions, thinly sliced
1 pound ripe tomatoes, peeled, seeded, and chopped
1 tablespoon tomato concentrate, extract, or paste
3 sweet red peppers, roasted and peeled
½ small fresh hot green or red chili, roasted and peeled
2 tablespoons golden raisins, soaked in hot water to plump
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 tablespoons pine nuts
½ cup minced flat-leaf parsley

In a medium skillet, heat ½ cup of the olive oil over medium heat until it has reached frying temperature (360 F).

While the oil is heating, cut the fish into 1-inch pieces. Pat refreshed salt cod dry with paper towels. If you’re using fresh fish, pat it dry, then dredge it lightly in flour, spread on a plate. (Do the drying and dredging right before you’re ready to fry; otherwise the coating will get gummy.)

When the oil is hot, add the fish pieces to the pan a few at a time and fry briskly until golden on all sides, transferring the finished pieces to a rack spread with paper towels to drain.

When all the fish pieces are done, lower the heat to low. Discard the oil, wipe the pan out, and add 2 tablespoons of fresh olive oil. Add the sliced onions and cook gently over low heat, stirring occasionally, until the onions are very soft. Add the tomatoes, raise the heat slightly, and cook vigorously. As the tomatoes yield their liquid, stir in the tablespoon of concentrate. Continue to cook the tomatoes until they have disintegrated into a chunky sauce.

While the tomatoes are cooking, slice the peeled peppers into long 1/2-inch-thick strips. Chop the chili coarsely. Drain the soaking raisins.

Lower the heat under the tomato sauce again, then taste and add salt and pepper, keeping in mind that the salt cod my be very salty. Stir in the peppers, raisins, and pine nuts. Finally, fold in the pieces of fried fish. Cook the fish in the sauce over low heat for about 10 minutes to meld the flavors together, then serve immediately, garnished with the minced parsley.

The Recipe

Source: A Taste of Southern Italy by Marlena de Blasi

4 fat cloves garlic, peeled and crushed
zest of 1 large orange, removed in strips with a potato peeler
2/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil
4 ounces blanched almonds, coarsely chopped
1 small, dried red chile pepper, crushed, or 1/3 to ½ teaspoon dried chili flakes
1 cup good red wine
4 ounces sun-dried tomatoes, drained of their oil and thinly shredded
4 ounces dried black olives, stones removed
12 ounces bucatini or other dried string pasta
coarse sea salt for the water
1 handful of torn basil leaves

With a mezzalune or a very sharp knife, mince the garlic and the zest to a paste.

In a sauté pan over a medium flame, heat the olive oil and add the almonds, sautéing them a minute or two in the oil, taking care not to let them get too dark. Remove from the flame and add the garlic/orange paste and the crushed chile, stirring them about and permitting them to scent the oil and the almonds. Set the pan aside.

In a small saucepan, heat the wine and add the sun-dried tomatoes and the dried olives, bringing the mixture just to a simmer. Remove the pan from the flame, cover it, and permit the tomatoes and the olives to plump up a bit for 10 minutes. Remove the tomatoes and the olives with a slotted spoon and add them to the sauté pan with the almonds. Reduce the remaining wine over a lively flame to a tablespoon or so and add it to the sauté pan.

Cook the pasta in abundant boiling, sea-salted water to al dente, draining it but leaving it somewhat wet. Transfer the pasta to a large, shallow, warmed bowl, tossing it with the just rewarmed sauce, coating each strand. Strew the pasta with a few torn leaves of basil and present it with good red wine.

The Recipe

Source: A Ligurian Kitchen: Recipes And Tales from the Italian Riviera by Laura Giannatempo

3 small artichokes
3 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice
5 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
2 large onions, thinly sliced
2 cups homemade or low-sodium canned chicken broth
salt
freshly ground black pepper
1 tablespoon chopped parsley, plus more for garnish
2 ounces ham, cut into 1/4-inch dice
1 ½ pounds chicken livers, cut into 2 x 1/2-inch strips
¼ cup dry white wine

Clean the artichokes by cutting the tough stems and ½ inch to 1 inch off the top, and by removing the outer, tough leaves until you reach the tender, light green leaves near the center. Cut each artichoke in half lengthwise and remove the hairy white core inside of each. Place them immediately in a bowl of water with 2 tablespoons of the lemon juice or else they’ll turn very dark. Cut each half lengthwise into eight sections (cut them into four sections if the artichokes are very small). Leave the slices in the acidulated water until you’re ready to cook them.

Heat 4 tablespoons of the olive oil in a 12-inch skillet over medium-high heat. Add the onions and sauté, stirring frequently, for about 20 minutes adding 1 cup of the broth in 1-tablespoon increments. You want the onions browned but not burnt. Add the broth whenever the onions start sticking to the pan (each addition should make a sizzling noise.) If they start burning, turn down the heat.

Drain the artichokes and pat them dry with a paper towel. Add them to the onions with a generous pinch of salt, a few grinds of pepper, 1 cup of broth, and bring to a simmer. Reduce the heat to medium-low, add the parsley and ham, cover partially, and cook for about 15 minutes, or until the artichokes are tender.

Meanwhile, in a different skillet big enough to hold all the livers (12 to 14 inches wide), heat the remaining tablespoon of olive oil over medium-high heat. Season the chicken livers generously with salt and pepper. When the oil is hot, add the livers and cook them for about 5 minutes over medium-high, making sure to brown them on all sides. Transfer them to a dish near the stove.

When the artichokes are done cooking, turn off the heat and add the reserved livers. With the wine, deglaze the pan used to cook the livers over medium-high heat and reduce the liquid by half, about 2 minutes. Pour the wine sauce in with the livers and artichokes, add the remaining 1 tablespoon of lemon juice, and adjust seasoning with salt and pepper. Garnish with fresh parsley and serve immediately.

The Recipe

Source: From Biba’s Italian Kitchen by Biba Caggiano

For the spinach tagliatelle:

2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
3 extra-large eggs
2 tablespoons cooked, finely chopped fresh or frozen spinach, squeezed of all moisture

For the sauce:

2 tablespoons unsalted butter
2 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 cup minced yellow onion
1/3 cup minced carrot
1/3 cup minced celery
1/4 pound prosciutto, cut into a 1/8-inch slice and then cut into thin strips
3 cups canned imported Italian plum tomatoes, with their juices, put through a food mill to remove the seeds
1/4 cup heavy cream
salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
1/2 cup freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese

Prepare the spinach dough as instructed on pages 48-49, using the flour and the eggs in this recipe.

Roll out the dough and cut it into tagliatelle as instructed on page 50.

Prepare the sauce: Heat the butter and oil in a medium-size saucepan over medium heat. Add the onion, carrot, and celery and cook, stirring, until vegetables are lightly golden and soft, 5 to 6 minutes. Add the prosciutto and cook 1 to 2 minutes, stirring a few times. Add the tomatoes and the cream and season with salt and just a touch of pepper. Reduce the heat to medium low and simmer, uncovered, until sauce has a medium-thick consistency, 10 to 15 minutes.

Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Add 1 tablespoon of salt and the tagliatelle. Cook, uncovered, over high heat until the pasta is tender but still firm to the bite.

Drain the pasta and place it in a large, heated, serving bowl. Add the sauce and about 1/4 cup of the Parmigiano, and mix well. Serve at once with additional Parmigiano.