Italian Recipes

142 Italian recipes. Page 3 of 6. Compare ingredients and cooking times. Chicken Parmesan, Panettone, Italian Semifreddo (No-Churn Frozen Mousse Dessert).

Western Medium

Chicken Parmesan

The crumb coating has to survive a second round of heat, since the crisp cutlet is covered with tomato sauce and mozzarella and returned to the oven. Resting the breaded cutlets for 5 minutes lets the crumbs bond to the meat and keeps them from sliding off under the sauce. Pounding the breast to 1.5 cm or less matters for a similar reason: an even cutlet browns on both sides before either one burns. Cut through it and you get crunch, juicy chicken, tangy sauce, and stretchy cheese in one bite.

Prep 20min Cook 25min 2 servings

Baking Hard

Panettone

Candied orange peel and raisins run through this tall Italian loaf, built on a dough rich with eggs and butter. The fruit goes in only after the butter has fully disappeared into the dough. Added sooner, it leaves the dough slack, and a slack dough will not climb the high cylindrical mould. With a 70-minute first rise and a second rise in the mould, this is a bake to start early in the day.

Prep 50min Cook 40min 8 servings

Desserts Medium

Italian Semifreddo (No-Churn Frozen Mousse Dessert)

The Italian name means half-cold, and that is how it eats: lighter than ice cream, colder than mousse. It is frozen in its mold without any churning and cut into slices, with chopped pistachios scattered through.

Prep 20min Cook 10min 4 servings

Pasta Medium

Cacio e Pepe (Pecorino Cheese and Black Pepper Pasta)

Rome's cacio e pepe gets its sauce from just Pecorino Romano, black pepper and starchy cooking water. This version adds 30g of Parmigiano to soften the saltiness slightly. Finely grated cheese goes into the pan off the heat, in several batches, to keep it from clumping.

⚡ 20-Minute Recipes

Prep 5min Cook 15min 2 servings

Salads Easy

Zucchini Noodle Salad

Raw zucchini shaved into long ribbons looks like pasta but bites crisp and juicy, since it never sees heat. Lemon juice and olive oil with finely minced garlic make a light, tart dressing, and Parmesan and basil add salt and fragrance on top. The watery, seedy core is left behind when shaving, and without it the strands stay firm longer. Zucchini releases water the moment it touches the dressing, and the ribbons are tossed only right before eating, once the dressing and toppings are ready. Lift the strands with tongs instead of pressing them, and move everything to the plate as soon as water begins to pool in the bowl.

⚡ 20-Minute Recipes 🥗 Lighter Meals

Prep 18min 0 2 servings

Western Medium

Chicken Piccata

Lemon juice and briny capers cut through a butter pan sauce, giving thin chicken cutlets a bright, sharp finish. The base of that sauce is the browned layer left in the skillet; white wine loosens it so none of that flavor is wasted. The lemon juice is added off the heat, because boiling dulls its fresh aroma. Cold butter swirled in at the very end emulsifies the sauce so it clings to the light flour coating instead of pooling. Mashed potatoes or pasta make good company for the extra sauce.

Prep 15min Cook 15min 2 servings

Baking Medium

Perilla Potato Focaccia

Mashed boiled potato and ground perilla seed are worked into the focaccia dough, and sliced garlic and rosemary stud the top. The first rise is judged by the dough nearly doubling and a fingertip dent springing back slowly, not by the clock alone. When the dough springs back and refuses to reach the corners of the pan, a 5-minute rest relaxes it enough to stretch without tearing.

Prep 30min Cook 30min 4 servings

Desserts Medium

Omija Panna Cotta (Italian Cream Set with Schisandra Berry Sauce)

Cream and milk are set softly with sheet gelatin, then topped with a red sauce of omija syrup and lemon juice and a few berries. The sauce goes on only after the panna cotta has fully set, which keeps it from bleeding into the cream and leaves a clean red layer.

Prep 20min Cook 10min 4 servings

Pasta Medium

Spaghetti Carbonara

Egg yolks, Parmesan, and starchy pasta water come together on hot spaghetti into a sauce that tastes creamy without any cream. Temperature decides everything: the egg mixture is poured on only after the pan has dropped below 85 to 90 degrees, since a hotter pan scrambles the yolks and a pan that cools too far lets the sauce break. The bacon renders slowly over medium-low heat for 8 to 10 minutes, and its fat coats the pasta first, with the burner already off. The sauce keeps tightening as it cools, so carbonara goes to the table the moment it is plated.

Prep 10min Cook 20min 2 servings

Western Medium

Chicken Saltimbocca (Prosciutto and Sage Italian Chicken Sauté)

Sage leaves and prosciutto pressed onto thin chicken cutlets turn crisp as they cook, the sage almost frying in the ham's fat. The Italian name roughly means it jumps into the mouth. Flour goes only on the bare side, giving it a light crust while the prosciutto side browns directly. A quick wine and stock reduction finished with cold butter turns glossy and softens the salty edge of the ham. Pounding the meat to about 1 cm keeps thin spots from drying out.

Prep 15min Cook 20min 2 servings

Baking Easy

Pizza Dough

This bread-flour dough makes two pizzas of about 30 cm each. Leave the rim alone when stretching: pressing the edge hard pushes out the gas that lets the crust puff in the oven. Dust with extra flour only when the dough is truly sticky.

Prep 15min Cook 12min 2 servings

Desserts Easy

Panna Cotta

With 400ml of cream to only 120ml of milk, this panna cotta still trembles when nudged with a spoon after it sets, and melts almost as soon as it is in your mouth. The stove work takes a few minutes; the rest is at least four hours of waiting in the fridge. Thinly sliced strawberries go on top.

Prep 15min Cook 10min 4 servings

Pasta Medium

Beef Brisket Perilla Cream Fettuccine

Thin-sliced beef brisket, chadol in Korean, browns at the edges in its own fat in a dry, very hot pan, and that fat is poured off so the sauce tastes mainly of cream and milk. Perilla leaves, a fragrant herb common in Korean cooking, are folded in only once the burner is off, and their herbal note lightens the cream and the fatty beef.

Prep 15min Cook 18min 2 servings

Western Medium

Creamy Tuscan Chicken

Sun-dried tomatoes bring concentrated sweetness and spinach a soft bitterness, giving a heavy cream and Parmesan sauce some color and contrast. The chicken breasts, evened out to 1.5 cm, are seared for a brown crust first and then finished in the sauce. The browned bits left from that sear, scraped up with chicken stock, become the base of the sauce. More Parmesan makes it thicker, and a few drops of lemon juice at the end lighten the cream.

Prep 15min Cook 25min 4 servings

Baking Medium

Rosemary Focaccia

The dough stays sticky, too wet to knead neatly, and goes into the pan that way. Fingertip dimples catch pools of olive oil that all but fry the top in the oven, so the surface studded with rosemary, garlic and flaky salt turns crisp, and the inside is full of big, uneven holes.

Prep 20min Cook 25min 4 servings

Desserts Easy

Vanilla Panna Cotta

Set with powdered gelatin, this vanilla panna cotta holds its shape when turned out onto a plate while the center still shivers. The sugar is kept modest, so vanilla and dairy come through clean. To unmold, only the base of each cup goes briefly into warm water rather than warming the whole thing.

Prep 15min Cook 10min 4 servings

Pasta Medium

Cheongyang Chili Carbonara Spaghetti

Cheongyang chili, a sharp Korean green pepper, cuts through a classic cream-free carbonara of egg yolks, Parmigiano, and Pecorino, leaving a cleaner, brighter finish. Sliced chili and garlic fry for just 30 seconds in the rendered pancetta fat, long enough for the heat to spread through the oil but short of scorching the garlic. That oil then emulsifies with the cheese and egg base, and the starch and salt in the pasta water help the sauce coat each strand evenly. Grating the cheese finely ahead of time keeps the sauce smooth. The usual failure is a pan that is still too hot: the yolks scramble instead of turning silky, so the heat is cut and the pan rests a few seconds before the eggs are added.

Prep 10min Cook 18min 2 servings

Western Medium

Eggplant Parmesan

Breaded, pan-browned eggplant slices layered with tomato sauce, mozzarella, and Parmesan bake into a casserole that should still cut into clean layers. Salting the slices first draws out water and some bitterness, and without it the eggplant goes soft under the sauce. Restraint with the sauce matters just as much, because a pool of it around the dish softens the crust. A five-minute rest after baking lets the layers settle before slicing.

Prep 25min Cook 35min 4 servings

Baking Medium

Rosemary Garlic Grissini

Minced garlic and chopped rosemary are kneaded straight into these thin twisted Italian breadsticks, and parmesan is scattered over the tops. Set aside a little of the olive oil before mixing the dough, since that portion is brushed on after shaping.

Prep 30min Cook 18min 4 servings

Desserts Easy

Mugwort Tiramisu (Korean Herbal Twist on Italian Classic)

Mugwort powder folded into mascarpone tints the cream pale green and gives it an earthy, slightly medicinal herbal note under the espresso. This version skips eggs entirely and lightens the mascarpone with whipped cream instead, so there is no yolk-and-sugar whisking step.

Prep 25min 0 4 servings

Pasta Easy

Chicken Alfredo

Chicken breast browned deeply in butter, 4-5 minutes a side, carries its roasted flavor into the Parmesan cream sauce that goes on the fettuccine. Two things sour or split that sauce: garlic left to brown, and cheese added over strong heat, so the burner goes low before the Parmesan goes in. Pasta moves into the sauce straight from the water, while its surface starch still helps the sauce cling; reserved pasta water loosens it if it turns stiff. Plenty of black pepper cuts the richness.

Prep 15min Cook 20min 2 servings

Western Easy

Frittata

With eight eggs the frittata is thick: the edges set on the stovetop, and the oven finishes the center without scorching the base. Shake excess water off the spinach, or it thins the eggs, and beat them gently: lots of air bubbles leave a coarse texture when sliced. The center is ready when a light press springs back. Leftover wedges work cold as a sandwich filling.

Prep 15min Cook 20min 4 servings

Baking Hard

Sfogliatella (Neapolitan Layered Shell Pastry with Ricotta)

A stiff flour-and-water dough, rolled very thin, brushed with butter and wound into a tight log, gives this Neapolitan pastry its layers. Slices of the log are pushed open into shells and filled with ricotta, sugar, cinnamon and orange zest. In the oven the butter separates the layers so the outside shatters like glass. Cut the chilled log with one straight-down stroke so the layers on the cut face are not crushed.

Prep 45min Cook 25min 4 servings

Desserts Medium

Tiramisu

Both the whipped yolks and the beaten whites go into the mascarpone, giving a cream that is rich yet airy and firm enough to carry layers of espresso-soaked savoiardi. After a night in the fridge the biscuits turn soft and cake-like, and the layers slice cleanly.

Prep 30min 0 8 servings