Our Favorite Recipes
We welcome the authentic Italian recipes. When possible, tell us about the regional connections, or how the recipe came to you.
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Spinaci in Tegame - Spinach in a Frying Pan | Muffuletta Sandwich
Tiramisu | Pizza Rustica | Spaghetti alla Carbonara
Spinaci in Tegame - Spinach in a Frying Pan from Shirley Sinclaire
Here’s a simple way to give spinach a new twist.
Serves 6. Preparation time: 25 minutes
1 lb. frozen spinach
2 garlic cloves
3 Tbsp. extra virgin olive oil
salt to taste
(add a little butter if you like a richer taste)
Bring the spinach to a boil to thaw it and simmer for a few minutes, remove from heat drain and let cool.
Once cool squeeze out the excess water and then chop the spinach thinly.
In a skillet heat the olive oil and garlic cloves. Once hot, add the spinach and cook at a medium heat for about 5 minutes mixing frequently.
Add the salt and combine well. Serve with lemon if you like. Serve hot as a side dish.
Signor Salvadore’s Muffuletta Sandwich from Shirley Sinclaire
To make this, you need two very important ingredients — the bread, and the olive salad. In a pinch any good Italian bread will do, but for an authentic muffuletta you need a muffuletta loaf. It’s round, usually sesame-seeded and about 10 inches in diameter. Then the olive salad. The Holy Grail of sandwich fillings. The olive salad recipe is the Number One single most-requested recipe. The recipe for the olive salad is the exact way it was given to me. It makes over a gallon. It stores very well in the refrigerator for many months and makes great gifts along with the recipe for the sandwich.
Olive Salad
1 gallon large pimento stuffed green olives, slightly crushed and well drained
1 quart jar pickled cauliflower, drained and sliced
2 small jars capers, drained
1 whole stalk celery, sliced diagonally
4 large carrots, peeled and thinly sliced diagonally
1 small jar celery seeds
1 small jar oregano
1 large head fresh garlic, peeled and minced
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 jar pepperoncini, drained (small salad peppers) left whole
1 pound large Greek black olives
1 jar cocktail onions, drained
Combine all ingredients in a large bowl or pot and mix well.
Place in a large jar and cover with 1/2 olive oil and 1/2 Crisco oil. Store tightly covered in refrigerator.
Allow to marinate for at least 24 hours before using.
Sandwich
1 round loaf Italian bread
1/4 pound mortadella, thinly sliced
1/4 pound ham, thinly sliced
1/4 pound hard Genoa salami, thinly sliced
1/4 pound Mozzarella cheese, sliced
1/4 pound Provolone cheese, sliced
1 cup olive salad with oil
Split a muffuletta loaf or a loaf of Italian bread horizontally. Spread each half with equal parts of olive salad and oil.
Place meats and cheeses evenly on bottom half and cover with top half of bread. Cut in quarters. Enjoy!
Serves four timid dieters, two hearty Italians or one incredible maiale.
Tiramisu from Shirley Sinclaire
When I was in Sicily, a friend showed me how to make this variation. Liquor is not used at all and we loved it.
This is a light alternative for those who find the versions with liquor too strong-tasting.
4 eggs, separated
4 heaping tablespoons sugar (about a half cup Sugar)
500 gr. Mascarpone Cheese at room temperature
1/4 - 1/2 cup latte (milk)
1 and 1/4 cups espresso coffee, cooled
24 Savoiardi cookies (use ladyfingers if you can’t get Savoiardi)
Dark chocolate, shaved (or use cocoa powder)
Beat the 4 egg whites until medium peaks, set aside. Beat the 4 egg yolks with the sugar until light.
Add the mascarpone cheese about ΒΌ at a time add the milk a little at a time, just to make a soft pudding like texture.
Mix these gently into the egg white mixture.
Quickly dip ladyfingers one at a time just until the outside of the cookie is barely damp in the cooled coffee. Arrange cookies side by side in a dish large enough to hold 12 cookies flat (you can fill in on the sides if needed).
After the first 12 are layered, spread 1/2 of the cheese mixture on the ladyfingers and repeat these layers once more topping the
dish with the shaved chocolate. Refrigerate several hours before serving.
Note: Do not over saturate the cookies with the coffee mixture, or you will end up with a mushy Tiramisu.
Just barely cover the outside of the ladyfinger and it does not need to be completely covered in coffee.
Pizza Rustica from Patricia Garofalo
Pastry for two 9" pies
2 lbs. Ricotta cheese
1 lb. Mozzarella cheese, diced
4 oz. Parmesan or Romano cheese, grated
4 eggs
1/3 cup minced parsley
1/2 cup diced pepperoni
1/2 lb. cooked Italian sausage
salt, freshly ground pepper
Cover both pie pans with bottom crust. Mix cheeses, eggs, parsley, meats, salt and pepper together thoroughly.
Divide mixture between crusts. Bake at 425 degree oven 30-40 minutes or until tops are golden. Serve warm or cold.
This is especially good reheated.
Spaghetti alla Carbonara from Carol Zen
This is my aunt’s variation. It varies from the classic Roman preparation.
1 lb. Bacon
5-6 cloves of garlic, diced fine
1 stick of butter
oregano and/or other herbs to your taste
1 cup of wine
5 eggs
1 1/2 lbs spaghetti
pot of boiling water, sufficient to cook spaghetti
1 bunch of parsley, washed, chopped fine
Parmesan cheese
As with most of my recipes, sorry if amounts are imprecise. Again from la mia nonna, it has to smell right, it has to taste right.
Trust your own senses. Experiment.
Start with a lb. of bacon. (Use whatever kind you like. I prefer the lower salt. In Rome they use something called “Sprek”, or sometimes pancetta,
but it’s cured very differently there.) Bacon and parmesan can be salty so don’t add to much salt too soon.
I like thin sliced bacon for this. I take the poultry shears and clip the bacon into small bits.
Slowly cook the bacon, pouring off the accumulated grease as needed. You want it to end up crisp,and to do this,
you need to keep pouring off the grease. When I’ve got it as best I can in the pan, I pour off remaining grease, but keep the crumbly bits in the pan.
The bacon I set on a paper towel, cover with another paper towel, and microwave on medium for one minute.
Then IMMEDIATELY turn out to fresh paper towels. If you’ve ever cooked bacon in the microwave, you know the grease gets drawn out into the towels.
That is why you want to switch to a fresh one right away, otherwise the grease seems to set back into the bacon. Roll it tight in the clean towel... and set aside.
Into the pan that has the bacon crumbles put 1 stick of butter (anyone who’se counting cholesterol JUST STOP right now, or go read something ELSE!
This is the recipe, and substitutions don’t work the same way. Go for a long walk after dinner and work it off— that’s good for the whole body!)
Let the butter slowly melt in the pan, while you finely dice 5 or 6 LARGE cloves of garlic. Toss the diced garlic into the simmering butter,
and saute until the garlic is fragrant. DO NOT crisp the garlic. Take off the heat and sprinkle that with a good bit of oregano and/or other herbs of your choosing.
set aside.
If you haven’t started it already, put a pot of water on to boil, sufficient for say 1 1/2 lbs. of spaghetti. Add salt and oil to your taste
(the oil is so the pasta doesn’t stick to itself).
While the water is boiling, get a bottle of white wine, your choice and measure 1 cup for this recipe.
I tend to use a nice pinot grigio — or something that will be sipping wine for the rest of dinner.
Wash the parsley well, towel dry, and clip off the stalks. Dice the green leaves fine. Set it nearby.
Get a large bowl, into which you will ultimately blend everything. Crack the 5 large eggs into it. Beat well.
When water boils, put spaghetti in and cook to al dente (al dente means “to the tooth” — the only way to cook pasta!)
OK, as the pasta is getting close to done, CLEAR the counter by the sink. Arrange your ingredients there AND have your bowl with eggs near there.
The next part needs to happen quickly, and extra hands can help.
When the pasta is done, since I have a spaghetti pot with a built-in strainer, I take the whole thing to the sink. I lift the strainer out of the pot,
and kind of tip it on top of the pot. [This way, if it’s only me and things are going slowly, I might dip the spaghetti back into the water, to keep it
moistened, then of course shake out the extra water).
Take forkfuls of spaghetti and QUICKLY stir into the eggs. Someone needs to keep stirring the spaghetti constantly.
Someone else can be tossing forkfuls of spaghetti into the mix. I do a few good forkfuls, then add the wine in so as to help keep the eggs cool
enough that the spaghetti doesn’t start cooking the eggs (yeah, I know... the eggs ARE raw... use good, fresh eggs. This is why it’s made with cream in US restaurants.
This is why it’s important to know your ingredients. Pasteurized eggs could work too. I get fresh eggs from the local co-op. Never had a problem).
Add the wine into the spaghetti egg mix somewhere in the process (this helps the eggs from not getting cooked by the hot spaghetti).
Keep stirring in Spaghetti. At some point dump in the butter-garlic-herbs. After I do that, I take a forkful of spaghetti and wipe it around the pan
to get the rest of that sauce and add that into the bowl where stirring and mixing is still happening. Crumble the bacon bits into the spaghetti.
Stir in the parsley, and blend really well. Serve with parmesan cheese and crushed red pepper if you like a little more spice. Buon Appetito!
It’s great leftover! The sauce improves overnight in the fridge. It has never lasted past one day because someone always eats the leftovers.
