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 [...]

I cooked a lot of Italian dishes this week from some of the cookbooks I bought recently, and as I was already doing the string beans from Mario Batali’s Babbo Cookbook, I decided to also do the string beans from one of Biba Caggiano’s books, and compare the flavors. The two recipes are very similar; [...]

Here is a simple recipe for string beans that gives them a deep, distinct Italian flavor. The dish starts with a soffrito of red onion, garlic, chile flakes, and anchovy paste, which blend together to form a complex, balanced flavor base; zesty, pungent, spicy, and salty. The beans are added and sauteed for 15 minutes, [...]

Here is a delicious risotto featuring a classic Italian combination – eggplant and mint. It’s a very easy risotto – just saute the eggplant and set it aside while you proceed with the risotto, then fold it in with the mint right before adding the butter and cheese. The risotto also gets a boost form [...]