Italian food is all about taking top quality ingredients and cooking them simply. There’s so much more to it than just pizza and pasta, though we’ve included some tasty little numbers, too. Discover more Italian recipes from easy starters and soups, new mains and divine desserts. Eat like an Italian at home, by following our inspired ideas.
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Kale and cannellini bean soup
The Italians are certainly not averse to opening a tin, and this hearty soup couldn’t be easier and more warming. With a simple base of canned tomatoes, use the best Italian brand you can find. Some may be cheaper, but they will be much more watery. Add Savoy cabbage, kale and canned cannellini beans, then serve with garlicky ciabatta and a poached egg. A perfect lunch in around 20 minutes.
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Bruschetta with tomatoes
Bruschetta is usually served as a starter to keep everyone going while the main course is being cooked. The base is simply toasted rustic bread, rubbed with garlic and drizzled with oil while still warm. Then the toasts are topped with chopped tomatoes. The key is super-ripe tomatoes which are at room temperature. Then you can add olives and buffalo mozzarella, perhaps some fresh basil and more oil.
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Mushroom arancini
Arancini are little deep-fried balls of leftover risotto, dipped in egg and breadcrumbs. They are often served in bars with an aperitif, or as a starter. Usually served with a tomato dip, they are extremely moreish but do need to be cooked just before serving. Our recipe is for mushroom arancini which comes with a roasted cherry tomato sauce. We’ve included the risotto recipe for you, just in case.
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Italian ham and cheese pie
These slices of pie with melting cheese and ham in the centre are often served in bars in Italy for breakfast. But they’d be just as good eaten for lunch with a green salad. They are very easy to make, using bought puff pastry, but do use good-quality ham, not paper-thin slices which will be too watery. You can serve it hot or at room temperature.
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Gnocchi with tomato and basil
Gnocchi are little pillows of potato and flour, which are lightly poached then served in sauce. They are simple to make at home. In Italy, you would usually have a small portion as a starter, but there’s no stopping you from making more for a main course. The sauce is up to you – we love a creamy sauce with blue cheese. Our recipe uses a tomato sauce, where the gnocchi are then topped with mozzarella, then grilled, to melt the cheese.
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Pea and ricotta risotto
Once you’ve mastered the art of making a great risotto, you can adapt the recipe to add your own twists and ideas. Our recipe uses frozen peas, with ricotta and Parmesan. The trick is to stand over it, stirring all the time, to release the starch from the rice, which will give that lovely creaminess. We’ve added goats’ cheese and asparagus, but use whatever is in season. Mushrooms, prawns, butternut squash make a great risotto, too.
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Panzanella
Panzanella is one of the most rustic, simple and tasty salads there is. Made all over Italy, it is essentially stale bread, to which other ingredients are added. The local, coarse white bread was used traditionally, so you do need a dense loaf, which is left to soak up the olive oil and other flavours, usually tomatoes, red onions, roasted peppers and other fresh vegetables.
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Pizza Margherita
We can’t talk about Italian food without mentioning the classic pizza, Margherita, named after Queen Margherita, when she visited Naples in 1889. She was offered three toppings, and this was her favourite, hence the name – just tomatoes, mozzarella and basil, the colours of the Italian flag. Our recipe is cooked in a large frying pan, which is quite normal in Italy, as the oven doesn’t get hot enough and the pan ensures you have a crisp base.
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Italian vegetable pie
This vegetable pie is made from leftover bread dough, filled with potatoes, cheese, spinach or cabbage and vegetables. It’s a traditional pie which workers and schoolchildren would take for lunch or as a hearty snack. Our recipe contains the classic fillings, with courgettes, Parmesan and artichokes, all bound together with egg before baking. It can be served hot or cold.
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Florentine pancakes
This traditional Tuscan dish comprises savoury pancakes stuffed with cooked spinach, ricotta and Parmesan. They are covered in a rich tomato sauce, then béchamel (thick white sauce) before being topped with grated Parmesan and baked in the oven. Our pancakes in the recipe are made with buckwheat flour, which is gluten free, but you could substitute plain flour instead. Just serve with a green salad.
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Chicken Parmesan
Chicken Parmesan is one of those great Italian-American dishes. Breaded chicken breasts are topped with a tomato sauce, mozzarella and Parmesan cheese, then baked until the cheeses have melted and browned. Our recipe is a clever and speedier twist on this, where the chicken and tomato sauce are topped with breadcrumbs and the cheeses with courgette spaghetti instead of wheat spaghetti. It loses nothing in the taste and takes just 25 minutes to make.
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Spaghetti with meatballs
Meatballs, in various guises, are made in every region of Italy. Usually made with minced beef or veal, they may contain Parmesan, garlic, herbs and even salami or mortadella. So you can play around with your favourite ingredients to make them your own. Or try our recipe with a twist – meatballs made with pork and spicy chorizo sausage, to give a kick of chilli, in a rich tomato sauce.
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Roast lamb with salsa verde
“Salsa verde” simply means green sauce. Made with flat leaf parsley, anchovies, capers, garlic, basil, vinegar and oil, it’s a punchy sauce which works perfectly with the rich flavours of roast lamb. It’s a versatile sauce too – try it with grilled mackerel, salmon, chicken or a steak.
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Spinach and ricotta cannelloni
Such a popular dish in the 70s, cannelloni seems to have fallen out of fashion. It’s such a tasty, hearty dish, which is begging for a re-visit. There’s no pasta to make – simply buy the tubes, which are stuffed with spinach, ricotta and Parmesan, then bound together with egg. Baked in an easy tomato sauce which is just tomato passata, then baked in the oven with grated cheese on top. Just serve with a green salad on the side.
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Italian roast chicken with rosemary potatoes
This is such an easy dish to prepare, yet impressive enough for entertaining. Chicken breasts are stuffed with mozzarella and basil, then the chicken is wrapped in Parma ham before roasting. Once cut into, the melting cheese oozes on to the plate. It’s served with little cubes of potato which are roasted in oil, garlic and rosemary.
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Focaccia with rosemary
Focaccia is like a thick pizza, with a bread-like texture. It’s pretty hard to buy a focaccia as good as homemade, so it’s worth having a go. You can speed up the process by kneading the dough in your mixer. Our recipe uses a mix of strong bread flour and 00 Italian flour, which you can replace with plain flour. With its little pockets of olive oil and sprigs of rosemary, it is a perfect accompaniment to cheese and antipasto.
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Lasagne
Without a doubt, the best lasagne is homemade. There’s no need to make your own pasta sheets – just buy a good dried Italian brand. The secret is cooking the rich meat sauce for at least two hours for maximum flavour. All you have to do then is prepare a béchamel (white sauce) and layer up to bake. This is definitely a recipe to master.
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Osso buco
This is a classic dish from Milan, shanks of veal with the bone (“osso”) in with its marrow, slowly cooked with vegetables, white wine and stock, then topped with a mixture of chopped garlic, lemon and parsley. It’s served with a creamy saffron risotto, a perfect cold weather dish. Our recipe uses high-welfare veal, but you can use beef shin. You would need to cook it for an extra hour or so, until tender.
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Roast peppers with burrata
Red peppers are roasted with ‘nduja, a spicy pork paste from Calabria in the south of Italy. It’s worth searching out, and is fabulous added to a pasta sauce. The fiery ‘nduja contrasts with the sweetness of the roasted peppers. Then you just add burrata, also from the south of Italy. Imagine the best buffalo mozzarella with cream in the centre … totally irresistible. Just serve with ciabatta to mop up the juices.
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Spinach and ricotta gnudi
Gnudi means “naked” in Tuscan dialect, which aptly describes these delicate little dumplings, which are simply served with melted butter and Parmesan. The cooked spinach and ricotta mixture is then bound together with egg yolks. They are quite fragile, so take your time in the preparation. They are so worth the effort, and make a tasty starter.
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Grilled sardines with salsa verde
This is a great dish if you’ve fired up the barbecue and have a fish grill, or you can cook them on a griddle pan. Sardines are an oily fish, so this sharp, herby sauce goes perfectly. Once cooked, which only takes a few minutes, the sardines are served with a good squeeze of lemon juice, the salsa verde and a salad of rocket and tomatoes.
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Tagliata
Tagliata comes from the Italian verb “to slice”, hence the name of this simple, yet delicious dish. Thick steaks, such as sirloin, are quickly seared and cooked, then dressed with a lemon, garlic and rosemary dressing. The sliced steak is then served on a bed of rocket leaves with shavings of Parmesan. It’s a restaurant-quality dish which is easy to prepare at home.
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Wild boar ragù
A ragù is a rich meat sauce, usually used to dress pasta, just like a bolognese sauce. But wild boar is popular in Italy for serving with pappardelle pasta, though you could happily substitute pork shoulder in this recipe. The meat is cooked long and slow in red wine, tomatoes, herbs, vegetables and spices. It also freezes really well, should you have any leftovers.
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Peach, prosciutto and mozzarella salad
When peaches are in season, and are ripe and luscious, this salad epitomises everything we love about Italian food in its simplicity. The sweetness of the peaches contrasts with the saltiness of the prosciutto and the creaminess of the buffalo mozzarella. It’s dressed with the best extra virgin olive oil and served with a scattering of mint leaves. When peaches are out of season, try Cantaloupe melon instead.
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Caramel gelato
You’ll find some of the best ice creams in the world in Italy. An Italian gelato is usually made with milk, not cream, so it’s light and refreshing. Once you have mastered the basic vanilla recipe, you can add your own favourites – chopped nuts, coffee, fruit or chocolate chips. Our recipe is a simple vanilla gelato with chopped caramel added. You could even add a pinch of sea salt to the caramel, too.
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Panettone
Panettone is the classic Italian Christmas cake, but it’s too good to eat just once a year. This dome-shaped cake with a light texture, buttery taste and studded with dried fruits, is easier to make than you would imagine. It’s essentially an enriched bread dough, so it takes a little time for the first and second risings. If you have any unlikely leftovers, it makes a fab bread and butter pudding and is great toasted and served hot with butter.
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Biscotti
Biscotti are little twice-baked biscuits, containing nuts or a mixture of nuts and dried fruit. Some recipes add fennel seeds, too. They are simple to make and usually served with coffee or sweet wine to dip them into. They keep very well – up to at least a month in an airtight container, so would make a lovely gift. Our recipe uses pistachios, but you could use almonds or hazelnuts, too.
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Panna cotta
Panna cotta, meaning “cooked cream”, has become a favourite dessert the world over. This creamy, vanilla dessert, should be just lightly set with gelatine so it has a soft texture, and is not too stiff. You can serve it with fresh berries, a fruit sauce, and we love a splash of dark rum added to the mixture before setting. It needs to set in the fridge overnight, so a great make-ahead dessert for a party.
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Tiramisù
Tiramisù, means “pick me up”, due to it containing a large amount of strong coffee and brandy. Such a crowd-pleaser, you can prepare it the day before you need it, which makes it taste even better. Mascarpone and thick cream are layered up with sponge fingers which have been soaked in coffee and brandy, then topped with grated dark chocolate. You can make individual servings or use one large dish.
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Panforte
Panforte is a flat, fruit and spice cake, a speciality of Siena in Tuscany. It contains dried fruits and nuts, and some versions, such as our recipe, contain chocolate. You just need a small slice to serve with coffee or a liqueur. The panforte in our recipe is coated with a chocolate syrup, but you could also just dust it with cocoa powder. A few teaspoons of ground cinnamon would also add extra flavour.
