Easy Italian Recipes for Authentic Italian Food. Quick and Delicious! (2024)

Picture courtesy of JonSullivan

Quick and easy Italianrecipes for you to try. Authentic Italian food is delicious! Just likemama used to make! Find recipes for pasta, breads, meat, fish, salads,desserts, poultry etc.

Italian food recipes are usually verysimple and straight forward. The key to their success is found in thefreshness of the ingredients. Food in Italy is simply out of thisworld. The locals are passionate about their food and I have sat at arestaurant where nothing was ordered until they knew where theingredients had been grown, how it was going to be cooked, and what wasgoing to be added before it was going to be brought to their plates.

When we were in Italy this summer ournew Italian friends were asking my 3 children what they were studying.My eldest said that although he was working as a planner he hoped tostudy project management. My daughter told them that she was soon offto medical school. They smiled politely and nodded in approval. Francaand Alessandro then turned to my youngest of 16. "I want to be a pastrychef," he replied.

Suddenly great euphoria erupted and he was slappedon the back and shouts of joy reverberated around the table to thelarge group present. "A chef! Mama mia! Do you hear that everybody?Devon is going to be a chef!" To us, that epitomized the level of howItalians not only love their food, but to them, chefs have a higherstatus in their culture than doctors or engineers. And why not?

I remember the first time I visitedItaly I couldn't believe how wonderful a tomato could taste. And therock melons just burst with flavor during the height of summer. In thesummer I live on melons and prosciutto for breakfast! Italian cookingis full of simple, uncomplicated and easy Italian recipes like these.So why does their food taste so wonderful?

I have come to the conclusion it isbecause they are farming varieties of vegetables and fruit that haveexisted for centuries. Very few Italians farm intensively and on alarge commercial scale. Therefore, they are not into geneticallymodified food. To an Italian this would be considered sacrilegious.They still buy their food almost daily, and frequent the local farmers'markets. Most of the food sold is organic, or grown naturally as natureintended. Many of the seeds that they use today are considered byothers to be heirloom varieties that are sold at high prices throughthe Internet and seed suppliers.

If ever there was a country that was anadvert for what food tasted like in the days of our grandparents beforeman decided to mess with nature, it's Italy! Enjoy these delicious andeasy Italian recipes and if you haven't made a trip to Italy yet, it isone of those countries you have to visit before you die!

Finally, if you want to see another oneof my websites, that deals just with Italy. Visit us at TheTravel Italy Grapevine. This is where you will findmore easy Italianrecipes, as well as being able to submityour own,and learn some travel tips of places in Italy that you didn't knowabout.

If you are thinking about buying someItalian cookbooks and finding some easy Italian recipes of your own,but are not sure where to start, have a look at someof the bestsellers, and those that we can personally recommend throughour ItalianCookbooks page.

EASY ITALIAN RECIPES FOR STARTERS - MushroomBoccocini Salad

4 large flat mushrooms

2 oven-dried tomatoes

8 small balls of boccocini

lettuce for garnish

Balsamic Dressing:

1/2 cup aged Balsamic vinegar

1 cup brown sugar

2 shallots, chopped

2 tablespoons white vinegar

salt and pepper to taste

Method:

Lightly pan fry mushrooms in a littleolive oil until tender. Remove from pan and allow to cool. When coolplace one mushroom per plate. Top with one half of tomato and 2boccocini. Place lettuce attractively on the side. Mix balsamicdressing ingredients together. Drizzle with the finished balsamicdressing and add additional olive oil to finish.

EASYITALIAN RECIPES FOR LAMB - Lamb Abruzzi Style (4)

1.5 kg leg of lamb

4 tbsp olive oil

1 clove of garlic, chopped

salt

1 sprig rosemary, chopped

2 peppercorns, crushed

4 tbsp white wine

1 lemon

2 eggs

1 tsp grated Parmesan cheese

Cut the meat into cubes. Heat the oliveoil and the finely chopped garlic in a pan and add the meat. Seasonwith salt and brown meat. Add the chopped rosemary leaves, and crushedpeppercorns. Braise the meat for 10 minutes.

Pour in the white wine and boil for 10minutes to reduce. Squeeze the lemon and pour the juice into a bowl.Add the eggs and Parmesan cheese and season with salt. Beat the lemonjuice, eggs and cheese thoroughly with a fork.

Pour the mixture carefully over themeat. Shake the pan and stir with a wooden spoon until the eggs areset.

Serve the meat garnished with rosemaryand cherry tomatoes.

EASY ITALIAN RECIPES FOR POULTRY - Chicken alla Cacciatora

(Pollo alla cacciatora)

Chop one large onion andkeep it for more than half an hour incoldwater, then dry it and brown it aside.

Cut up a chicken,sprinkle thepieces with flour, salt and pepper and saute, in the fat which remainsin the frying pan.

When the chicken is brownadd one pint fresh orcanned tomatoes and half a dozen sweet green peppers and put back theonion.

When the gravy is thickenough add hot water to prevent theburning of the vegetables.

Cover the pan tightly andsimmer until thechicken is very tender. This is an excellent way to cook toughchickens.

Fowls which have beenboiled may be cooked in this way, but ofcourseyoung and tender chickens will have the finer flavor.

EASY ITALIAN RECIPES FOR PASTA - Homemade Ravioli

Put on the bread board abouttwo pounds of flour in a heap; make ahollow in the middle and put in it a piece of butter, three egg-yolks,salt and three or four tablespoonfuls of lukewarm water. Make a pasteand knead it well, then let it stand for an hour, wrapped or coveredwith a linen cloth. Then spread the paste to a thin sheet, as thin as aten-cent piece.

Chop and grind pieces of roast or boiled beef: add toit anequal part of marrow from the bones of beef, finely chopped basil,finely chopped onion, threeyolks, some crumbs of bread soaked in milk or broth and some gratedcheese (Parmesan or Swiss). Rub through a sieve and make little ballsasbig as a hazel-nut, which are to be placed at equal distances (a littlemore than an inch) in a line over the sheet of paste.

Beat a whole egg and pass it over the paste with a brush allaround thelittle balls. Cover these with another sheet of paste, press down theintervals between each ball, and then separate each section from theother with a knife. Moisten the edges of each section with the fingerdipped in cold water, to make them stick together, and press them downwith the fingers or the prongs of a fork. Then put to boil in waterseasoned with salt or, better still, in broth. The ravioli are then tobe served hot seasoned with cheese and butter or with brown stock ortomato sauce.

Makinghomemade ravioli is not difficult with our easy Italian recipes, just alittle time consuming with this one, but worth it in the end.

EASYITALIAN RECIPES - Spaghetti del Capitano (4)

1 clove garlic

7 tbsp olive oil

80g anchovy fillets in oil

1/2 cup black olives

200g cherry tomatoes

1/3 cup capers

200 g spaghetti

salt

olive oil

small chili

Peel the garlic and chopfinely. Heatthe olive oil and saute the garlic for 2 minutes. Do not burn. Add theanchovies and infuse for 4-5 minutes. Pit the olives and chop coarsley.Wash and dry the tomatoes and cut into quarters. Add the capers,chopped olives, and tomatoes to the anchovies in the pan. Simmer for 5minutes.

Boil the spaghetti insalted wateruntil "al dente" and remove from water, and drain. Add to the sauce.Infuse for 5 minutes stirring the sauce constantly.

Season with a dash ofolive oil andsmall pieces of chili. Serve immediately.

We hope you have enjoyed our easyItalian recipes. Come back often to see new recipes that are added on aregular basis. And don't forget that you can add your own ItalianRecipes below.