Celery ragù, a Romagna recipe for vegetable ragù

My husband comes into the kitchen exclaiming, "What a wonderful smell of old-fashioned ragù." And he's right, because celery ragù, or vegetable ragù, is a forgotten recipe from Romagna that is well worth rediscovering. The recipe belongs to the peasant repertoire of sughi finti (fake sauces), where the adjective indicated the absence of an ingredient you…

ByMonica19 September 20250Comments

COURSES OCCASIONS Preserves RECIPES Sauces and Pâté

Homemade tomato passata and the season of preserves

I clutch a bottle of homemade tomato puree and travel through time. Memories flow like the hands of a clock gone mad until the mechanism uncovers the right one. I remember summers in the countryside and the giant cauldrons where bottles of tomato passata cooked. Not everyone knows that Emilia-Romagna is a northern Italian region where preparing…

ByMonica22 August 20240Comments

Bologna Food COURSES Main Course OCCASIONS RECIPES

Bolognese eggplant cutlets (baked or fried)

I think I have already written this, but I want to reiterate: I love the month of August and, above all, Bolognese eggplant cutlets even though, since it is a recipe from Italian peasant cuisine, I am sure that, with few or many variations, there are sister recipes in many regions. I was before plunging into…

ByMonica6 August 20240Comments

Cheese Christmas COURSES Gluten-free INGREDIENTS OCCASIONS RECIPES Soups Sunday Lunch

Homemade Parmigiano stock recipe (with rind)

In Italian kitchens, the stock is a staple recipe with several uses. All the broths share the same main ingredients and preparation method: water, vegetables (almost always the base is one stick of celery with the leaves, one skinless white onion, and one whole carrot), and salt. Then, there is the ingredient that gives a specific taste. Again,…

ByMonica20 November 20230Comments

COURSES First Course OCCASIONS Sunday Lunch

Creamy zucchini and basil lasagna

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

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 surrounding it. Tortelli di erbetta features delicate fresh pasta rectangles 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 dining…

ByMonica23 June 20230Comments

COURSES Gluten-free INGREDIENTS RECIPES Sauces and Pâté

Red cabbage ragù and pasta seasoning recipes

I remember. I am a few years old and sitting in the kitchen chair, the one in the corner near the French window. Grandma is cooking while I play. I have many memories of that distant, happy time, and they are all beautiful. The legacy of the years spent in the kitchen with her and…

ByMonica6 March 20230Comments

Bologna Food COURSES OCCASIONS RECIPES Soups

Bean broth with passatelli. Peasant broth recipe

Bean broth is one dish of Italian cucina povera that belongs to my family history and the area where I was born and raised. It was the broth of peasants. Today it is a forgotten recipe that deserves new attention. The pot of bean broth is vegetarian, gluten and lactose-free, and cheap. Terroir, between poetry and pragmatism There…

ByMonica8 February 20230Comments

Aperitivo Bologna Food COURSES Main Course OCCASIONS RECIPES

Tricks and home recipe for fried polenta

Polenta warmed so many winter evenings of my childhood. Warm and soft or firm and sliced and topped with melted cheese. And, of course, fried polenta was always welcomed with joy. The polenta Grandma Sara often cooked polenta. In addition to the best-known one made with cornmeal, yellow or white, she also made it using chickpea or semolina…

ByMonica21 January 20230Comments

A fresh herb pesto recipe for buckwheat tagliolini

COURSES First Course RECIPES

Buckwheat tagliolini seasoned with fresh herb pesto

An herb pesto, fresh and with no cooking, to dress buckwheat noodles that I made by rolling out the pasta in the Emilian way, that is, rolling pin and wooden cutting board. My first pasta dough with buckwheat flour A disaster. I can't tell you the disappointment after waiting for a weekend with no plans to finally…

ByMonica18 July 20220Comments