Recipes
Salsicce Fatte A Mano Con Lenticchie
Umbrian Lentil and Home-made Sausage Stew
This dish is truly wonderful when using the fresh sausages made by the local Norcian master butchers, who are known as norcini. As they may be difficult to find, I suggest making the sausages from scratch instead - it's not too complicated, and it is well worth it. You can get hold of Castelluccio lentils, the Italian Puy lentils, in a good delicatessen.
Sausage, Lentils and Fungi
One of the most popular Italian dishes in autumn and winter is cotechino with lentils. Cotechino is a cooking sausage made of pure pork, including the gelatinous parts such as ear and cheek. The long cooking time makes it succulent and delicious. The combination of lentils (Castelluccio are the best) and fungi makes this dish very appetising.
Scottiglia di Cinghiale
Tuscan Wild Boar Stew
In Tuscany towards the autumn, you will invariably find this dish on the menu in local trattorie, eaten simply with bread as a main course. Scottiglia is a very comforting wild boar stew. In fact, Tuscans love it so much that in season they freeze parts of the animal so that they can make this stew later in the year-and Italians do not tend to freeze meat very much. Depending on the age of the boar, it can take some time to tenderise the meat, but a scottiglia is always cooked slowly to avoid toughening the meat. This type of stew can be made with other, more tender parts of the animal, but reduce the cooking time accordingly.
Sorbetto di Campari e Frutto della Passione
Campari and Passion Fruit Sorbet
Campari is probably the best-known Italian aperitif the world over. With its intense red colour and its sophisticated bitter taste, produced by the infusion of various herbs, it can be used in cocktails as well as drunk by itself. Combined with the intense flavour of passion fruit, the result is deeply exotic. (I admit passion fruit doesn't grow in Italy, but I've made this one exception!) I created this sorbet many years ago, and it has become a much appreciated, refreshing finale to a meal.
Spaghetti alla Carbonara
Spaghetti Carbonara (with Eggs and Bacon)
I include a recipe for this well-known dish because most people I know get it completely wrong, either adding milk or cream or letting the eggs become scrambled. This recipe is the real thing. It was brought to Lazio from Umbria by coal men (carbonari), who came to sell charcoal to the Romans. Since then it has been adopted by the Romans and is famous worldwide.
Spaghettini con Frutti di Mare
Seafood Spaghetti
Seafood pastas are basics of Italian gastronomy, but vary enormously from region to region: the spaghetti vongole from Naples, the Venetian black spaghetti with cuttlefish, pasta with mussels and limpets from Positano and spaghetti and sea urchins from Puglia. The most important thing to remember is that the seafood must be the very freshest possible. It is the liquid the clams or mussels produce in cooking that contributes enormously to the flavour.
Spinaci Olio e Limone
Spinach with Oil and Lemon
This is one of the best ways of using an oil and lemon dressing. The oil gives a certain softness, and the sharpness of the lemon brings out the flavour of the vegetable.
Tagliatelle al Ragu Bolognese
Tagliatelle with Bolognese Sauce
This is by far the best-known Bolognese recipe which, to be genuine, has to be made with fresh tagliatelle and not spaghetti.
Tagliatelle con Tartufi
Tagliatelle with White Truffles
One of the most popular and sought-after dishes in Alba is freshly made tagliatelle with white truffle, a combination of simple pasta with the sophisticated, rich taste of the truffle. Truffles are found from October through to the end of January in the district of Piedmont. They are highly prized - and highly priced.
Tagliolini con Burro al Tartufo
Pasta with Truffle Butter
I was brought up with truffles, not because my family was rich but because my father was a friend of a trifolau, someone who searches with their dogs for the precious fungus (I now have my own, the very special Sandrino, in Asti). When, rarely, we had a truffle, my mother would make a fresh egg tagliolini, the thinnest type of flat tagliatelle. This recipe approximates the taste of the dish, without reflecting its hefty price tag!