Here is a simple, Italian country bean soup with escarole. The beans are cooked, the escarole is wilted, and garlic, celery, and parsley are sauteed and added. Halved cherry tomatoes add color and a burst of summer flavor, and their acid brings out more flavor from the escarole and the beans. A good quality olive [...]

Here is an interesting, tasty salt cod salad from Southern Italy. Salted cod is paired with briny green olives and bitter Radicchio, and thin-sliced raw artichokes. A simple, warm vinaigrette of olive oil and red wine vinegar, infused with garlic and chile flakes, dresses the salad and adds a touch of heat and acid to [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

Here is a great contorno, or vegetable dish, from Mario Batali’s The Babbo Cookbook. Escarole, a delicious chicory, refreshing and not as bitter as radicchio and arugula, is quickly sautéed and paired with roasted shallots. The shallots add deep flavor to the dish – roasting greatly transforms them and brings out their sweetness, which balances [...]