Cuisine · Italy

Italian cooking

Pasta, risotto, pizza, slow-braised meats. The grammar of Italian cooking: few ingredients, cooked with more respect than any of them asked for.

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🇮🇹ItalyEasy

Sweet Dishes

Semifreddo

Semifreddo is an Italian frozen dessert whose name literally means 'semi-cold'. It has a more delicate, creamy texture than regular gelato and is often served at Italian holiday tables.

25 min190 kcal8 serves

🌿Vegetarian⚡Quick🌾Gluten-free

🇮🇹ItalyEasy

Cereal and Pasta Dishes

Spaghetti Aglio e Olio

Spaghetti, olive oil, garlic, chili flakes, parsley. From pantry to table in 20 minutes. The pasta water is what turns the oil into a sauce — don't skip it.

20 min480 kcal4 serves

🌿Vegetarian⚡Quick🌶️Spicy

🇮🇹ItalyEasy

Cereal and Pasta Dishes

Spaghetti alle Vongole

A Neapolitan pasta of spaghetti tossed with fresh clams, garlic, olive oil, a splash of dry white wine, and parsley. Made in bianco, with no tomato and no cheese, the sauce is built only from the clam liquor emulsified with the pasta starch.

30 min470 kcal4 serves

⚡Quick🌶️Spicy

🇮🇹ItalyMedium

Cereal and Pasta Dishes

Spaghetti Bolognese

A slow-cooked meat ragù of ground beef, pancetta, tomatoes, and a splash of milk that simmers for hours until thick and deeply savory. The pasta is just a vehicle — the sauce is where all the patience pays off.

35 min900 kcal4 serves

⚡Quick💪High protein

🇮🇹ItalyEasy

Cereal and Pasta Dishes

Spaghetti Carbonara

Hot pasta tossed with crisp guanciale, raw egg yolks, and Pecorino Romano — the residual heat creates a silky, golden sauce without any cream. Timing is everything: too slow and you get scrambled eggs, too fast and it stays raw.

23 min850 kcal2 serves

⚡Quick💪High protein

🇮🇹ItalyMedium

Fish and Seafood Dishes

Stewed Fish

This recipe combines the tenderness of fish with the flavor of Mediterranean herbs and spices, as well as the sourness of tomatoes and olives. Light yet rich and flavorful.

23 min200 kcal2 serves

🥑Keto⚡Quick🌶️Spicy

Stracciatella alla Romana (Roman Egg Drop Soup)

🇮🇹ItalyEasy

Soups

Stracciatella alla Romana (Roman Egg Drop Soup)

Stracciatella alla romana is a Roman egg drop soup: hot chicken or meat broth into which a mixture of beaten eggs and grated Parmigiano-Reggiano is streamed, forming delicate little 'rags' of egg. It is the Italian version of egg drop soup, but unlike the Chinese one, which is often thickened with cornstarch, the Italian stays clear and brothy — the richness comes from the egg and cheese themselves. The name comes from straccetti or stracce, meaning 'little rags,' an apt description of how the beaten egg looks when it hits the simmering broth and breaks into tiny clouds. It is a first course (primo) of the Roman tradition and of central Italy more broadly, especially Marche and Abruzzo. Despite humble peasant origins, today stracciatella often opens holiday banquets at Easter and Christmas, and it is the classic comfort food many Italians remember their grandmother making at the first sign of a cold. The single technical key is heat: the broth must be at a gentle simmer, never a rolling boil, or the egg scrambles into clumps instead of forming silky rags. Stream the egg-and-cheese mixture slowly into the swirling broth, stirring in one direction. Authentic alla romana contains zero semolina — that is a northern variation that turns the delicate rags into porridge. Salt goes in at the very end because Parmigiano already brings its own. Four ingredients, ready in about 15 minutes, served immediately with olive oil, pepper, and parsley.

15 min150 kcal4 serves

⚡Quick🌾Gluten-free

🇮🇹ItalyAdvanced

Sweet Dishes

Tiramisu

Tiramisu, which translates from Italian as 'cheer me up', is one of the world's most famous Italian desserts — layers of espresso-soaked Savoiardi biscuits and creamy mascarpone.

90 min1180 kcal4 serves

🌿Vegetarian

🇮🇹ItalyMedium

Breakfast and Brunch

Vegetable Frittata

Eight eggs whisked with cream and Parmesan, poured over sautéed courgette, red pepper, onion, and cherry tomatoes, cooked on the stovetop for a few minutes and finished in the oven until just set. The Italian frittata is the blueprint for every crustless egg bake that followed it — simpler than a quiche (no pastry, no water bath), more structured than a scramble, and easier to serve because it holds its shape and slices cleanly. It is the correct answer to the question of what to do with vegetables that are a day away from being past their best.

30 min280 kcal4 serves

🌿Vegetarian🌾Gluten-free⚡Quick

Verdure alla Griglia (Italian Grilled Vegetables)

🇮🇹ItalyMedium

Vegetable and Mushroom Dishes

Verdure alla Griglia (Italian Grilled Vegetables)

Verdure alla griglia is a classic Italian dish of seasonal vegetables grilled until charred, then dressed with olive oil, garlic, herbs, and a little acid. It is a summer dish, a symbol of the Italian summer: families gather around the grill, and the vegetables are one of the season's great pleasures. It is served as an antipasto or a contorno alongside meat or fish. The classic grigliata vegetables are eggplant, zucchini, and sweet peppers (red and yellow are best), often with red onion, fennel, radicchio, or mushrooms. The principle is seasonality: use vegetables at the peak of summer, as fresh and ripe as possible. The grill brings out their natural sweetness — the sugars caramelize and a smoky, lightly charred flavor develops. Technical keys: slice the vegetables evenly, about ½ cm; dry them thoroughly, since water is the enemy of caramelization; salt only at the end, never before or during; use high heat and let the char marks form before turning; dress with EVOO, garlic, herbs, and a little acid, before grilling, after, or both; and let the vegetables rest so the flavors come together. Simplicity is the point — a few vegetables, good oil, garlic, and herbs. A celebration of the summer harvest that needs no complicated techniques, served warm or at room temperature.

40 min160 kcal4 serves

🌱Vegan🌾Gluten-free

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