Articles Index

Gnocchi Fritti Recipe - Italian Fried Bread Recipe

Gnicchi Fritti are not dumplings, but rather fried dough, and are wonderful served with a selection of cold cuts and spreadable cheeses. Add a crisp bottle of dry Lambrusco and you have perfection!

Pettole

Pettole: Apulian dough balls, and also a Christmas treat.

Ligurian Chick Pea Farinata Recipe - Farinata Ligure

In much of Italy a farinata is a thick porridge made with vegetables, broth, and finely ground flour of one sort or another. Liguria's farinata is a bit different: It's made with chick pea flour and enough water to make a fairly liquid batter, and baked in the oven: What emerges is a very tasty chickpea flapjack (for want of a better term) that you slice up and serve. Expect it to go fast, and for people to demand more.

La Focaccia Col Formaggio Di Recco - Focaccia with Cheese Recipe

Focaccia di Recco is a delightfully -- nay, libidinously -- cheesy variation on the focacce you'll find in many parts of Liguria: It's made by extending a thin sheet of dough, dotting it with a creamy cheese, covering everything up and baking it. The result is wonderful, and in the days of carriages the people of Genova used to take day-trips to Recco to enjoy it.

Sicilian Arancini with Mushroom Filling Recipe - Arancini ai Funghi

Arancini di Riso are rice balls, stuffed with a filling -- mushroom in this case -- and fried: Sicilian street food at its finest, and good at parties too.

Sicilian Arancini with Meat Sauce Recipe - Arancini al Ragu

Arancini di riso are rice balls stuffed with a filling -- meat sauce in this case -- and fried. Sicilian street food at its finest, and they will be quite nice at parties too.

Sicilian Arancini Stuffed with Ham Recipe - Arancini al Prosciutto

Arancini are Sicilian rice balls, stuffed and fried -- superb street food and quite nice at parties too. These arancini have a ham filling.

Arancini Stuffed with Shrimp Recipe - Arancini ai Gamberetti

Sicilian arancini di riso - rice balls, stuffed, and fried until golden - this time stuffed with shrimp, breaded, and fried until golden. Tasty!

Bread Pizza with Black Olives Recipe - Pizza di Pane alle Olive Nere

True pizza is a disk of dough topped with ingredients and baked in a hot oven. Pizza di pane is similar; you take a focaccia of the kind that's about 8 inches long, 3-4 wide, and at the most a half inch high, split lengthwise, and top the two halves with tomato, cheese, and whatever else suits you -- in this case olives. It's a perfect snack, and wonderful with a beer too.

Polenta Fritters Lodigiana Style Recipe - Frittelle di Polenta alla Lodigiana

These polenta fritters are a specialty of the Lodigiana region in Lombardia, where families pass their specific versions of the recipe from generation to generation.

Olive Basket Antipasto Recipe - Cestini Con Le Olive - Olive Basket Antipasto

Olives are one of the finest nibbling foods there is, and I am always horrified by the number of pits on my plate if olives are among the offerings of an antipasto misto, or mixed antipasto. Here, you won't have that problem.

Stuffed Fried Neapolitan Peppers - Friarelli Ripieni e Fritti

Friarelli are medium sized, slender, thin-walled, mild south Italian peppers that are perfect for frying. In their absence use something similarly shaped; bell peppers would be too meaty and also too large. As I said, friarelli are mild; if you want you could use something hotter, but if you do it will mask the flavors of the filling.

Neapolitan Rice Croquettes - Palle di Riso

These Neapolitan rice croquettes, which are similar to some varieties of arancini di riso, are an important component of Frienno e Magnanno, the classic Neapolitan fritto misto. They're also excellent as an antipasto, and like their Sicilian cousins make fine snack food. This recipe will serve 6.

Polenta di Viandanse Recipe - Sweet Polenta - Italian Breakfast Recipe

Polenta di Viandese is traditionally served for breakfast or as a snack in the city of Mantova, with milk or wine depending upon the age of the diners.

Sicilian Fried Rice Balls - Arancini di Riso - Sicilian Rice Croquettes

Arancini di riso are Sicilian street food, fried rice croquettes with fillings (often ground meat). The idea sounds simple, but they're one of the finest snacks around, and are also an excellent party food.

Buricche for Purim (or any other time) - Burchitas fro Purim

Buricche are an Italian Jewish version of a Turkish pastry called Burchitas, and are traditionally enjoyed for Purim. To make them you will need puff pastry, though to avoid breaking the Kosher restrictions on combining diary and meat ingredients, you should -- assuming you are using 2 cups (200 g) of flour -- substitute for the butter with 6 ounces (150 g) of goose or veal grease.

Arancini di Riso with Ricotta, or Arancini di Riso con Ricotta

Arancini di riso are street food of the best kind, delightful golden balls of fried rice with a filling one munches as one strolls, and they are popular throughout Sicily; this particular variation, arancini di riso with ricotta, is from Trapani.

Polenta Squares with Gorgonzola - Crostoni al Gorgonzola

Fried polenta is a great treat, snacking food of the sort one can go to a friggitoria and buy a cone of -- the frier takes a sheet of yellow butcher's paper, rolls it into a cone, and fills it with squares of polenta. But fried polenta is also a nice accompaniment to other fried foods at table, and is a perfect base for toppings of various kinds, at which point the squares become crostini, and are excellent antipasti or party foods. Here they're topped with Gorgonzola.

Isernian Calzoni, or Calzoni Ripieni d'Isernia

A true calzone is a pizza folded over so the topping becomes a filling, and is usually baked. Calzoni Ripieni d'Isernia are smaller and are fried; they'll work nicely as antipasti or party food, and can also be served as a first course.

Fried Mozzarella Recipe - Mozzarella Fritta

The idea of frying a cheese that melts when it gets hot might strike some as strange, but if it's breaded the breading will form a golden crunchy crust, while what's inside will be deliciously creamy. As an added bonus, fried mozzarella is very easy to do. To serve 4:

Lentil Fritter Recipe - Frittelle di Lenticchie

Lentil fritters are street food, the sort of thing one might buy in a friggitoria where they fry things up to order for passers by. They'll also be a very tasty snack or party food, and will work nicely as antipasti or in a platter of mixed fried foods.

Provolone Cheese Ball Recipe - Polpettine di Provolone

Meatballs are a standby of Italian cuisine. These cheese balls made with Provolone cheese are a little more unusual, but will work nicely with a tossed salad in a light luncheon, and will also be a good antipasto or party food. The recipe will also work well with caciocavallo cheese.

Artusi's Roman Style Fried Meat Recipe - Fritto all Romana

Artusi doesn't say why these tasty, meaty fried tidbits are Roman, but they will be quite nice as an antipasto or to perk a failing appetite at mid-meal.

Puff and Pastry Bag Fritters Recipe - Bombe e Pasta Siringa

Bombe e Pasta Siringa: This recipe for puff pastries and pastry bag fritters is drawn from The Art of Eating Well (Random House, 1996), my translation of Pellegrino Artusi's La Scienza in Cucina e L'Arte di Mangiar Bene, the first truly successful Italian cookbook. Artusi notes that the batter works equally well for puffs and pastry bag fritters. It requires some effort to make, but isn't difficult.

Delfina-Style Stuffed Meat Recipe - Carne Farcita alla Delfina

This tasty fried meat recipe will work nicely as an antipasto, in a Piemontese fritto misto, and will also serve to perk up tired appetites.