Recipes from a passionate home cook

Tag: Italian

Recipe for the perfect spaghetti cacio e pepe with pecorino and parmesan cheese

The perfect cacio e pepe

The traditional Roman pasta recipe for cacio e pepe – ‘cheese and pepper’ in Italian – could not be more simple and only requires three ingredients: spaghetti, pecorino romano and black pepper, therefore it is often referred to as an adult mac and cheese. These are ingredients I usually always have in the house and I used to make this quick dish so often when I didn’t have time to pop to the supermarket and needed to quickly whip something up in the kitchen. While an ...

Recipe for pea and ricotta ravioli with fresh mint pesto

Pea and ricotta ravioli with mint pesto

Ah, very little feels more rewarding than a delicious plate of fresh homemade filled pasta after hours of hard work in the kitchen. Admittedly, no matter how often you practise, making fresh pasta (and filled pasta in particular) takes a lot of time and effort. It is however really not very difficult, and if you have enough time and patience, it can be a stress-free process (though I’ll be honest and tell you this is rarely the case for me). I already shared with you my recipe for ...

Recipe for penne pasta with spinach & pecorino pesto

Pasta with spinach and pecorino pesto

My biggest inspiration while creating my own recipes is the selection of left-over product in my fridge. As someone passionate about cooking and trying new things I buy many ingredients in small quantities to experiment and serve a very varied weekly menu. As a result, I always have some stuff left over by the end of the week. For exactly that reason, and because I hate any form of food waste, I tend to do my weekly grocery shopping for slightly fewer meals than I will need. It allows me to ...

Recipe for aubergine parmigiana, melanzane alla parmigiana

Aubergine parmigiana towers

I cannot think of a better Italian vegetable recipe than aubergine parmigiana, or melanzana alla parmigiana in Italian, but while the flavour is truly incredible, it isn’t always the most elegant dish to plate. Sure, as a main course this can be beautifully served in a huge oven dish in the centre of the table, but – unless your version holds together perfectly – on a plate as a smaller starter or a side dish it almost always looks a little underwhelming. So, I started thinking of a ...

Recipe for oven-baked tomato orzo pasta

Oven-baked tomato orzo pasta

Orzo pasta is so versatile that I went through a period of eating it multiple times a week. Simply boiled with a delicious sauce, as the base for a pasta salad or as a substitution for rice in a speedy risotto (also called an orzotto), but my recipe for oven-baked tomato orzo pasta is perhaps the fastest and easiest way to enjoy this fantastic and truly underestimated pasta shape! As a big fan of this ingredient, you can imagine how excited I was when I first found a recipe in The Green ...

Recipe for homemade spinach tortellini with butternut squash filling and sage

Homemade spinach tortellini with butternut squash filling and sage

Today I’m sharing with you a recipe of mine that I believe to be a true showstopper! I am a big fan of green spinach pasta, largely because of its beautiful and bright colour, for which I shared my recipe with you over here and I had the idea to use this for a tortellini dish. For this recipe, I wanted create a filling equally as bright but contrasting in colour to have a little ‘surprise element’ once you cut into these tortellini’s. I instantly thought of butternut ...