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pastciccio di tortellini

Pasticcio di tortellini: tortellini pie from Modena

Ever since I came back from Modena, I’ve been dreaming of this pie. Having grown up in England, I love big, traditional, English pies such as pork pies and the game pies you see in TV costume dramas weighing down many a seventeenth-century table. This is the closest thing I’ve found in Italian cuisine to …

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Finocchio

Finocchio gratinato: oven roasted fennel with parmigiano (recipe)

  One of the things that surprises most English-speaking tourists, when coming to Italy for the first time, is that in restaurants main dishes don’t come with vegetables. That’s not to say that Italians don’t eat vegetables with main dishes, but you have to order them separately. You find them on the menu in a …

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Melanzane ripiene della nonna Checchina: Puglian stuffed eggplants

This recipe is from Puglia.   To fully understand Italian cuisine, it’s important to note the major difference between it and, for example, French cuisine. French cuisine is the cuisine of the chef. Home cooks spend a lot of time trying to live up to the creations and recipes coming out of the important restaurants …

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Quick Guide to Italian Ingredients: Radicchio Tardivo di Treviso IGP

  Radicchio tardivo di Treviso is an extraordinary looking vegetable, rather like a red and white octopus. Once cut, it is a kaleidoscope of red and white leaves which are extraordinarily beautiful. Grown in the provinces of Treviso and Venice, this plant now has protected name status from the European Union. It differs from other …

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