Cooking with Patty, my personal collection of Italian recipes

This is a refreshing and easy to make recipe, it can be served as a salad or as the main coarse.

I had this salad on a sunny Easter day. It’s so fresh and tasty I can not do without it anymore.

This colorful salad is perfect in the summer or it could brighten a late summer day. First time I had this salad was while visiting my aunt and uncle in Piemonte. My aunt just went into the garden, pulled out these vegetables and we made the salad in no time at all.

This is a tasty and colorful salad that I like to make. You’ll notice that I haven’t given exact measures for the salad because a good mixed salad should be in part your own invention. One ingredient will never change though, extra virgin olive oil, it’s indispensable in all Italian salads.

Panzanella is a hearty bread salad from Tuscany that utilizes dry Tuscan bread, tomatoes, fresh basil and extra virgin olive oil. Tuscan bread is also called “pane sciocco”, an unsalted bread that is often added in Tuscan recipes to complement the dish. Panzanella is a dish that stand on its own, a refreshing dish to serve on a hot summer day.

This is potato and green bean salad enriched with Swiss cheese and black olives. It’s perfect when you need something to be prepared in advance, which makes it a great choice for picnics.

This is one of many ways to make a potato salad in Italy. I first ate this one in Calabria in the south of Italy.

This is a variation of a salad with oranges. There are many ways to make this Sicilian salad, this one in particular I find very good.

A summer salad that will brighten up your day with its vivid colors. Mozzarella pearls, fresh ripe tomatoes, black olives and capers make up one of the most common salads in Italy. This particular recipe is extremely tasty thanks to a drizzle of balsamic vinegar.

Quick and easy salad that is wonderful in the summer when the ingredients are fresh. I learned to prepare this salad in Tropea, a little village in Calabria located in the south of Italy. This area is really famous for its red onions which are known world wide.

In the North of Italy this is a classic during the summer.

This is a super quick, easy and flavorful salad. It can be prepared ahead of time, refrigerated for a couple of hours and then served.

This is a salad that I often serve as an appetizer but it could be easily a light alternative for your main course. The Parmesan basket certainly gives a special touch to your appetizer presentation and it’s also good to nibble while tasting the salad.