My oldest loves Italian food above anything else I cook, so this is the corner of the menu I have tested the most, and these Italian recipes are the ones that actually earn a repeat. There is a thirty minute frutti di mare that looks like a restaurant order, a San Marzano marinara worth making in a double batch, sausage and peppers on hoagie rolls, oven roasted potatoes with parmesan, and a chocolate sponge cake with four ingredients in it. Some are weeknight fast and some want a slow Sunday. Pasta, soup, seafood, bread, salad and dessert are all in here, so whether you need an easy dinner for two or a whole Italian meal for a crowd, start anywhere and work down the list.
Our favorite Italian quote of the day:
tutto finisce a tarallucci e vino (it all ends with biscuits and wine)
1. Strawberry Caprese Stuffed Avocados
Caprese, rebuilt inside an avocado half. Diced strawberries stand in for tomato, mozzarella pearls and shredded basil go in with them, and a white balsamic vinaigrette pulls the whole thing together. The strawberry and avocado pairing sounds wrong until you eat it: the sweet-tart berry cuts straight through all that creaminess. Six halves come together in minutes with no cooking at all, and they look far more impressive than the effort behind them.
Get the full tutorial at DIY Joy.
2. Frutti di Mare
Spaghetti frutti di mare looks like a restaurant order and cooks in about thirty minutes. Clams and mussels go into garlic and red pepper flakes with a splash of white wine and a lid, the shrimp follow, then the squid for roughly thirty seconds so it stays tender instead of turning to rubber. A batch of arrabbiata sauce made ahead does the heavy lifting. Season it at the very end, because the shellfish give off a lot of salty water.
Get the full tutorial at Ciao Florentina.
3. Ragù alla Bolognese
A proper ragù alla Bolognese is a long, slow meat sauce, and the length is the entire point: the meat softens, the liquid reduces, and what is left clings to the pasta instead of pooling under it. This is the Sunday version rather than the Tuesday one. Make the full pot, eat it that night, and freeze the rest in portions, because it reheats better than almost anything else in this list.
Get the full tutorial at Philosokitchen.
4. Creamy Lemon Parmesan Chicken Piccata
Chicken piccata is one of the dishes people ask me for most, so I am picky about a version, and the parmesan in this one belongs there. It goes into the flour dredge as well as the sauce, so the coating browns deeper and the sauce thickens without much help. Half and half keeps it creamy, capers and lemon keep it from going heavy, and the whole thing is done in about thirty minutes.
Get the full tutorial at Cafe Delites.
5. Italian Pasta Salad
Cherry tomatoes, zucchini, olives, red onion and a lot of fresh basil and parsley, tossed in a red wine vinaigrette you shake up in a jar. The trick is dressing the pasta while it is still warm with half the vinaigrette, then adding the rest with the vegetables, so the pasta drinks some of it in instead of sitting dry. It gets better in the fridge, which is exactly what you want for a cookout.
Get the full tutorial at Life Made Sweeter.
6. Bomboloni – Italian Doughnuts
Bomboloni are the Italian doughnut: enriched dough, fried, rolled in granulated sugar, and traditionally filled with pastry cream. Two rises take most of the time, about two hours and then another hour and a half, and the dough triples both times, so do not panic at how much of it there is. Orange zest in the dough is the detail that makes them taste Italian rather than like any other doughnut. The recipe makes twenty.
Get the full tutorial at The Baking Fairy.
7. Italian Roasted Potatoes
These are the potatoes to make when dinner is already handled and the side is an afterthought. Halved baby potatoes crisp cut side down in an oven-safe skillet, then garlic, Italian seasoning and paprika go in, parmesan and parsley over the top, and the whole pan roasts fifteen minutes. Butter cubes dot the top at the end. Twenty minutes total, one pan, and they serve about three people who will each want more.
Get the full tutorial at Rasa Malaysia.
8. Italian Oven Roasted Vegetables
The order matters more than the ingredients here. Potatoes go into a 425 degree oven alone for ten minutes, then mushrooms, tomatoes, zucchini and ten or twelve whole garlic cloves join them for another twenty, so nothing turns to mush waiting on the potatoes. Oregano, thyme, a lot of olive oil, and grated parmesan at the table. Some charring is not a mistake, it is the best part of the tray.
Get the full tutorial at The Mediterranean Dish.
9. Italian Chicken Meal Prep Bowls
Chicken, broccoli, zucchini, plum tomatoes and red onion on one sheet pan at 450 degrees for fifteen to twenty minutes, then a minute or two under the broiler so the chicken actually browns. The seasoning is basil, marjoram, rosemary, thyme and paprika mixed dry and scattered over everything at once. Divide it over rice into four containers and it keeps three to five days. This is the one I would make on a Sunday.
Get the full tutorial at Eazy Peazy Mealz.
10. Befanini
Befanini are the little shortbread cookies served in Italy on Epiphany, the day of La Befana, and they are cut into shapes and covered in colored sprinkles for exactly the reason you would guess: children. Lemon zest and a couple of tablespoons of rum go into the dough, which then rests in the refrigerator for forty five minutes. Watch them at fifteen minutes and pull them pale. They are not meant to brown, and the batch makes fifty.
Get the full tutorial at 196 Flavors.
11. Tomato & Basil Bruschetta
Five or six ripe tomatoes, thinly sliced basil, minced garlic, balsamic and a little olive oil, and then the part people skip: let the bowl sit for an hour before it goes anywhere near the bread. That hour is what turns chopped salad into bruschetta. Cut the baguette diagonally into half inch slices, brush with butter or oil, toast until crisp, and spoon it on right before serving so nothing goes soggy.
Get the full tutorial at Vege Cravings.
12. Italian Sausage Rigatoni
Half a pound of Italian sausage feeds six here because the tomato does the rest. Brown the sausage with garlic and onion, deglaze with a quarter cup of beef broth or red wine and scrape up everything stuck to the pan, then add diced tomatoes and a whole can of tomato paste and let it simmer ten minutes. Finish the pasta in the skillet with a splash of its own water. Thirty minutes, one pan.
Get the full tutorial at Urban Bliss Life.
13. Tortellini Soup With Italian Sausage and Spinach
Crushed tomatoes and broth simmer with browned Italian sausage for twenty to thirty minutes, which is where the flavor comes from, and only then does the tortellini go in for five. Spinach wilts off the heat with the lid on. Add the pasta any earlier and it swells and goes soft in the pot. Make the buttered parmesan crostini too, because a soup this quick deserves something to dunk.
Get the full tutorial at Yellow Bliss Road.
14. Italian Crescent Casserole
Crescent roll dough laid in a pie plate like the spokes of a wheel, tips hanging over the rim, filled with ground beef and pasta sauce and Italian cheese, then the tips folded back over the middle. It bakes at 325 for fifteen to twenty minutes and lands on the table in half an hour. This is a weeknight, feed-the-kids dinner and it does not pretend otherwise. One skillet and one pie plate.
Get the full tutorial at Eat Wheat.
15. Mussels in Spicy Red Arrabbiata Sauce
Two pounds of mussels, a jar of arrabbiata, a quarter cup of cream and ten minutes. That is genuinely the whole thing. The only real rule with mussels is the one before you cook: rinse them, pull the beards, and throw out any that stay open when you handle them. Cover the pan and let them open on their own, about five minutes, then stir in the cream and parsley. Serve it as an appetizer or spoon it over pasta.
Get the full tutorial at Kitchen Swagger.
16. Italian Skillet Chicken With Tomatoes and Mushrooms
Chicken cutlets, floured and browned three minutes a side, then set aside while mushrooms, grape tomatoes, garlic and oregano cook down in the same pan. White wine, lemon juice and broth go in, the chicken goes back, and seven or eight minutes later it is done. Two teaspoons of flour with the vegetables thickens the sauce without a slurry. Ready in thirty minutes, and a handful of spinach at the end is worth it.
Get the full tutorial at The Mediterranean Dish.
17. Easy Beefaroni
Homemade beefaroni is elbow macaroni, ground beef, a big can of tomato sauce and two tablespoons of chili powder, which is the ingredient that makes it taste like the one out of the can you remember. Thirty minutes, one pot, six servings, and it costs very little. Go lighter on the chili powder for younger eaters and put the rest on the table. Leftovers reheat better than they have any right to.
Get the full tutorial at Cupcakes And Kale Chips.
18. Slow Cooker Italian Beef
A chuck roast, a half cup of white vinegar, seven chopped pepperoncini, banana pepper rings and four tablespoons of butter, on low for eight hours. No broth, no browning, nothing else to do. The vinegar and the peppers are what make it Italian beef instead of pot roast, and the shredded meat goes back into its own juices before it goes anywhere near a bun. Serve it on rolls, over a baked potato, or on its own.
Get the full tutorial at The Chunky Chef.
19. Best Italian Marinara Sauce
Two cans of San Marzano tomatoes crushed by hand, eight cloves of garlic, a bay leaf and four whole basil sprigs, simmered partially covered for about an hour until it thickens. Crushing the tomatoes with your hands instead of a blender is what gives it that rustic, uneven texture. Finish with raw olive oil and torn basil off the heat. It keeps a week in jars, and it is worth doubling while the pot is already out.
Get the full tutorial at Ciao Florentina.
20. 20 Minute Tortellini Pasta Carbonara
Carbonara made with fresh tortellini instead of dry pasta, and it is on the table in twenty minutes. The step that decides whether it works is tempering: whisk a couple of tablespoons of hot pasta water into the beaten eggs and parmesan before any of it touches the pan, and turn the heat off first. Do that and you get a silky sauce. Skip it and you get scrambled eggs on pasta, which I have seen happen.
Get the full tutorial at The Chunky Chef.
21. Chiacchiere Fried Italian Pastries
Chiacchiere are the thin, blistered Carnevale pastries, and the dough goes through a pasta machine down to the thinnest setting, which is both the trick and the fun of it. Sparkling sweet white wine in the dough is what gives them their bubbles. Fry them in oil around 170 to 180 degrees Celsius and bury them in powdered sugar. The batch runs four to five dozen, so this is a project for a crowd.
Get the full tutorial at The Baking Fairy.
22. Brodetto Di Pesce
Fifteen minutes for a seafood stew, which sounds impossible until you see the method. Garlic and red pepper flakes in oil, white wine reduced, tomatoes in, then the clams and mussels steam under a lid for five minutes and the shrimp, scallops and firm white fish go in for five more. Anything that has not opened gets thrown out. Crusty bread is not optional, it is the second half of the dish.
Get the full tutorial at Culinary Ginger.
23. Rustic Italian Pizza Dough
Cold water, not warm, and only a teaspoon and a half of yeast for five cups of flour. The dough mixes eight to ten minutes, splits into six rounds, and rises two hours at room temperature. Heat the stone at your oven’s maximum for a full hour before the first pie goes in, because that heat is the whole difference between rustic and doughy. Seven minutes a pizza after that, and the dough freezes well.
Get the full tutorial at Ciao Florentina.
24. Chocolate Italian Sponge Cake
Four ingredients: eggs, sugar, cake flour and cocoa. No butter, no oil, no leavening beyond the air you beat into the eggs, which takes about fifteen minutes on medium high and cannot be rushed. Do not open the oven for the first twenty minutes, and leave the cake inside with the door propped for ten after it bakes so it cools slowly. Rush either step and it sinks in the middle.
Get the full tutorial at As Easy As Apple Pie.
25. Italian Sausage and Peppers
Brown the sausages whole first, take them out, cook the peppers and onions in what is left in the pan, and only then slice the sausage into inch and a half pieces and return it. Slicing first dries them out. Diced tomatoes, tomato paste, oregano, basil and a pinch of red pepper flakes finish it in about half an hour. Hoagie rolls if you want a sandwich, rice or polenta if you want a plate.
Get the full tutorial at Spicy Southern Kitchen.
26. Creamy Mushroom Soup with Italian Sausage
Twenty four ounces of mushrooms, browned in three separate batches, is what makes this taste of mushroom rather than of cream. Crowd the pan and they steam instead. The sausage browns first with onion, sage and thyme and comes out while the mushrooms go in, then everything returns to the pot with flour, white wine and broth before the cream. Forty minutes, four bowls, and it wants good bread beside it.
Get the full tutorial at Pinch Me I'm Eating.
27. Italian Seafood Pasta with Mussels & Calamari
The note that makes this one worth reading is about restraint: it goes light on the sauce the way it is actually done in Italy, so you taste the pasta and the seafood rather than a bowl of tomato. The mussels steam under a lid for about five minutes and the calamari folds in for three or four after them. Add it any earlier and it turns to rubber, which is the one way to ruin this.
Get the full tutorial at Cook Smarts.
28. Italian Braised Chicken
Chicken thighs browned skin side down, then braised fifteen to twenty minutes in pureed whole peeled tomatoes with ten fresh basil leaves and a teaspoon of brown sugar. That sugar is not there to sweeten it, it is there to take the edge off the canned tomato, and it is a trick worth remembering. One pot, forty minutes, and thighs stay forgiving even if you get distracted. Parsley over the top and serve.
Get the full tutorial at Rasa Malaysia.
29. Shrimp and Corn Risotto with Bacon
Risotto is not difficult, it is just attentive: warm broth added a ladle at a time, stirred, each addition almost absorbed before the next goes in. Here the shrimp cook for a minute or two a side in bacon drippings and come out before the rice starts, so they are not rubbery by the end. Sweet corn and asiago do the rest. It serves two, which makes it a good dinner to cook for yourself.
Get the full tutorial at From A Chef's Kitchen.
30. Pane Bianco
A filled loaf that looks like a braid and is not one. You roll the dough into a long log around sun-dried tomatoes, garlic, basil and cheese, cut it lengthwise nearly through, keep the cut sides facing up, curl it into an S and tuck the ends into a figure eight. The shape is easier than the photos suggest and it is the reason people ask about this bread. One loaf, and it does not last.
Get the full tutorial at Red Star Yeast.
31. Osso Buco
Osso buco is the Milanese braise of cross-cut shanks, cooked long and slow until the meat gives way at the touch of a spoon and the marrow in the center softens. It is a special occasion dinner and it cooks mostly unattended, which is a combination worth knowing about. Start it early, keep the heat low, and serve it with something that will take the sauce: risotto, polenta or mashed potatoes.
Get the full tutorial at Philosokitchen.
32. Italian Green Salad
Nine ounces of lettuce, four teaspoons of olive oil, three tablespoons of white balsamic, garlic powder, salt and pepper. That is the whole salad, and the ratio is the point, because most homemade dressings run far too oily. Note it calls for plain olive oil rather than extra virgin, which keeps it from tasting bitter. Dress it at the table and eat it within the hour, because leftovers go limp fast.
Get the full tutorial at Cooking With Mamma C.
33. Orzo With Italian Sausage and Peppers
Cooking the orzo in broth and water instead of plain water is the small decision that makes this taste like more work than it was. Save the cooking liquid, because orzo tightens as it sits and a splash loosens the whole bowl back up. Jarred roasted red peppers, chopped tomatoes, parsley and parmesan finish it. Under thirty minutes, four servings, and it is genuinely one kids will eat.
Get the full tutorial at Taste And Tell.
34. Focaccia Di Genova
The Genovese original, and the step that separates it from every other flatbread is the emulsion: olive oil, lukewarm water and salt whisked together and poured over the dough after you poke holes in it with your fingers. That liquid sits in the dimples and keeps the crumb soft while the top crisps. Fleur de sel and fresh herbs over the top, twenty minutes at 400 degrees, and it is best the day you make it.
Get the full tutorial at 196 Flavors.
35. Easy Stromboli
A can of refrigerated thin crust pizza dough, sauce, pepperoni, cooked Italian sausage and two cups of mozzarella, rolled like a jelly roll with the seam underneath. Cut diagonal slits across the top so steam escapes and the whole thing does not split open in the oven. Fifteen to twenty minutes at 400 degrees, extra sauce for dipping, and it feeds six to eight for almost nothing.
Get the full tutorial at Southern Bite.
36. Stuffed Italian Flank Steak
Flank steak butterflied and pounded thin, spread with garlic, parsley, sage and basil in olive oil, layered with prosciutto and provolone, then rolled tight and tied at one inch intervals so it slices into pinwheels. Sear them three minutes on one side and two on the other before they finish at 350. Leave a one inch border at the top edge or the filling squeezes out as you roll.
Get the full tutorial at The Chunky Chef.
37. Porchetta
Pork belly wrapped around a tenderloin and tied, with a paste of toasted fennel seed, garlic, rosemary, sage, thyme, lemon zest and red pepper spread inside and out. Toasting the fennel for a minute in a dry pan before crushing it is a small step that changes the whole roast. Two and a quarter hours, eight servings, and the leftovers make the best sandwiches you will eat all month.
Get the full tutorial at Caroline's Cooking.
38. Italian Style Chicken Mozzarella Skillet
Basil pesto stirred into a from-scratch tomato sauce is what lifts this above every other skillet chicken, and it takes about three tablespoons. Brown the cutlets, build the sauce in the same pan, deglaze with half a cup of water, put the chicken back, blanket it in mozzarella and run it under the broiler. Thirty minutes, over linguine. Taste the sauce before the cheese goes on, because that is the last chance to fix it.
Get the full tutorial at Kylee Cooks.
39. Eggplant and Italian Sausage Gratin
Roasting the eggplant first at 400 for about thirty five minutes is what keeps this from going watery, and brushing the slices quickly with oil is deliberate: eggplant soaks up every drop it can get. Sausage, fire-roasted tomatoes and basil simmer into a meat sauce while it roasts, parmesan cream goes over the top with fresh mozzarella, and the whole thing can be assembled a day ahead and baked when people arrive.
Get the full tutorial at The Cafe Sucre Farine.
40. Italian Wedding Soup
Italian wedding soup gets its name from the marriage of greens and meat in the broth, not from anybody’s wedding, which is a fact worth having at the table. Tiny meatballs, small pasta and greens in a clear broth make it one of the few soups that is genuinely light and still feels like dinner. Keep the meatballs small, roll them before the broth goes on, and do not let them boil hard.
Get the full tutorial at Good In The Simple.
41. Easy Italian Stuffed Peppers
Peppers halved lengthwise rather than stood upright, which means they cook evenly and nobody has to saw at a wobbling tower on their plate. Raw sweet Italian sausage mixes straight into cooked rice and bakes inside the peppers, and a tomato sauce sharpened with balsamic and a little cayenne goes underneath them in the dish. Forty five minutes covered, ten more uncovered. Asiago and chives at the end.
Get the full tutorial at Savory Tooth.
