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Tuna tortelli with tasty olives sauce

I kept a memory related to food for almost every vacation I did. In some cases, it is connected to the purchase, in others to the preparation, or, finally, to the tasting. Recently, I asked my husband to share three-holiday food memories, excluding Sunday and Christmas lunches. Then I, too, answered the same question. We found…

ByMonica3 August 20230Comments

COURSES First Course OCCASIONS Sunday Lunch

Green lasagna with pesto and zucchini recipe

I remember the taste of that green lasagna from when I was a child, and Grandma created this dish from just a few eggs of pasta dough and zucchini from the garden that she cooked slowly with lots of basil until they were almost mushy. It was a summer, vegetarian version of baked lasagna that we…

ByMonica28 June 20230Comments

COURSES First Course RECIPES

Tortelli di erbetta recipe from Parma to celebrate St. John

This is a traditional recipe from the city of Parma and the small towns that surround it. Tortelli d’erbetta features delicate rectangles of fresh pasta, filled with ricotta and sweet chard. On the evening of June 23, the eve of the feast of St. John the Baptist in Italy, people in and around Parma celebrate by…

ByMonica23 June 20230Comments

Stuffed tortelli with salame rosa, cheese, and sage pears

Bologna Food COURSES First Course OCCASIONS RECIPES Sunday Lunch

Stuffed cappelletti with salame rosa, cheese and sage pears

About stuffed cappelletti and failures in the kitchen. I am a home cook, and my teachers have been the grandmothers, aunts and azdore who frequented my home kitchen. Often the teaching was unintentional. In most cases, I learned through what I saw and the molecules of scented particles I breathed in. The kitchen and I I cooked, for…

ByMonica10 May 20230Comments

COURSES First Course RECIPES

Butter and sage spoja lorda (stuffed pasta squares)

Spoja lorda (sfoglia lorda), which literally means dirty pasta sheet, is a fresh stuffed pasta typical of Romagna. The recipe is traditionally served in broth. From hence its second name: minestra imbottita (stuffed minestra). It is born as a dish to use leftover filling from other preparations. Here is the reason for the adjective dirty (lorda):…

ByMonica28 April 20230Comments

COURSES First Course OCCASIONS RECIPES Sunday Lunch

Baked pasta roses from the repertoire of Nonna Sara

Baked pasta roses, or rosette al forno, are filled with ham, cheese, and béchamel, then topped with Parmigiano Reggiano cheese. It is a typical dish from Modena. In this recipe, I find many flavors of the Via Emilia: fresh egg pasta, rolled out on a cutting board with a rolling pin, thin and rough; a salume,…

ByMonica13 April 20230Comments

COURSES First Course OCCASIONS RECIPES Sunday Lunch

Stuffed pasta triangles to celebrate the Italian cuisine

Say pasta, in this case, stuffed pasta triangles, and the thought runs to the home kitchen, which, over time, has made the most significant contribution to the birth of a great national heritage. The Italian cuisine we appreciate today has taken shape over the centuries. It depends on shared gastronomical recipes and many different regional and…

ByMonica27 March 20230Comments

Bologna Food COURSES First Course OCCASIONS RECIPES Sunday Lunch

Spinach Balanzoni: a typical pasta from Bologna

"I would like to ask you if you have any information about the history of the Balanzoni recipe, which is now a popular dish in Bolognese restaurants, but, as the Bolognese I am, I don't remember ever having eaten as a child" (signed email). To tell you about the history of Balanzoni, green pasta dough filled with…

ByMonica27 January 20230Comments

COURSES First Course RECIPES

Pumpkin gnocchi (eggless) with radicchio and taggiasche

In the past, more so than today, there was a funny saying in Italian families. People used to say: "you are a pumpkin" or even "you are a zuccone (a big pumpkin)". The expression had two meanings. It could indicate both hardness of understanding and stubbornness. When I was a little girl, faced with my stubborn resistance to do/not…

ByMonica10 January 20230Comments

Christmas COURSES INGREDIENTS OCCASIONS RECIPES Seafood Soups

Fish cappelletti of Adua. Romagna stuffed pasta

Some flavors evoke positive thoughts related to people who loved us. Cappelletti di Magro makes me think of Adua. She and her home tailoring lab are among the fond memories of my childhood and adult life. Cappelletti of Romagna Cappelletti is a stuffed pasta typical of Romagna. The name literally means "little-hats". You can find cappelletti filled with meat…

ByMonica13 December 20220Comments