30 Italian Recipes That Will Never Go Out of Style
Italian cuisine — and Italian-American cuisine in particular — is the height of comfort food. From baked lasagna oozing with cheese to hearty pasta dishes loaded with alfredo sauce to meatballs cooked to a delicate golden brown, Italians know what they’re doing when it comes to food. Beyond some of the dishes that are better known in the United States, there’s also risotto, polenta, tramezzini and more. Below, we’ve included some of our most beloved Italian dishes to help bring the comfort of nonna’s cooking straight to your dinner table.
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Pasta With Fennel and Sausage
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Cheese and Spinach Manicotti
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Chicken Piccata With Rice
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Shrimp and Vegetable Tramezzini
If you have Italian relatives you want to impress, make them tramezzini. Despite being hard to find in the U.S., the little sandwiches are easy to make and oh-so-scrumptious. Here, they’re prepared with shrimp, thinly sliced carrots and zucchini delicately placed between two slices of bread slathered with Italian mayonnaise.
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Classic Meatballs
Meatballs are featured in different cuisines around the world, but the preparation technique and ingredients vary depending on where you look. In Italy, the iconic dish is typically made by mixing ground beef with breadcrumbs, minced onion, eggs and seasoning.
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Classic Lasagna
Some liberties have been taken with lasagna since its inception. You can make it taco-style with cheddar cheese and ground beef or Florentine-style with spinach and chicken. Sometimes, though, the classics are king. This no-frills recipe sticks to the tried-and-true ingredients like red sauce, ricotta and mozzarella.
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Arugula and Pancetta Pizza
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Traditional Bolognese Ragu
Whether you know it as meat sauce or ragu, making traditional bolognese can be a challenge. According to L’Accademia Italiana della Cucina in Italy, this recipe for traditional bolognese ragu is the right way to make the sauce. Wondering what pasta shape you should add to your bolognese? Don’t stray far from tagliatelle or other wide, long noodles—the only shape allowed, according to some purists.
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White Wine Clam Sauce Over Linguine
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Griddle-Seared Chicken With Caprese-Style Tomatoes
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Ravioli With Cream, Bay Leaf and Sage
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Homemade Calzones
Most pizza shops offer calzones, but if you want to make them at home, you can. Once you make the dough, fill your calzones with anything you want. Opt for the classic combo of mozzarella cheese with red sauce and pepperoni or follow along with this recipe, which includes ricotta cheese, a blend of dark greens and a whole lotta garlic.
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Panzanella With Grilled Shrimp
In the U.S., Italian cuisine is most often associated with pasta dishes, pizza and meatballs. But in reality, it’s much more than that. Delicious salads are also a staple of the Mediterranean country. Panzanella, a chopped salad that originated in Italy, is made by tossing day-old bread with tomatoes, cucumber and oil and vinegar.
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Spaghetti all’Amatriciana
Revered by some as one of the most famous pasta dishes in Rome, Spaghetti all’Amatriciana is set apart from the rest by guanciale (cured pork jowl). If the ingredient isn’t available near you, thinly sliced bacon will do the trick.
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Pasta With Tomatoes and Basil
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Muffuletta
Although the muffuletta sandwich is closely associated with New Orleans, it originated among Italian immigrants. With ingredients like mortadella, Italian salami and provolone cheese, a muffuletta sandwich is Italian in nature, no matter where it originated.
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Fennel and Garlic Taralli
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Butterfly Pasta
Farfalle — commonly called butterfly or bowtie pasta by kids — is best served in a red sauce seasoned with garlic and oregano. Pump up the dish with some protein by serving it with marinated chicken or cooked shrimp.
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Tuscan Chicken Pasta
Looking for a way to use up leftover chicken? Add it to pasta. This recipe will show you the glory of garlic. Slide the top off the head to expose the cloves and rub them with a little olive oil. Wrap the garlic in aluminum foil and bake for about an hour. When done, the cloves will squeeze right out and form a garlicky paste.
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Polenta
Once you get the technique down, it’s easy to customize Polenta. Amplify its creaminess by adding butter, stirring in freshly grated Parmesan, or adding sauteed garlic and mushrooms. Enjoy it as is or chill it and deep fry it once it hardens.
