Cooking with Patty, my personal collection of Italian recipes

This is a classic dish that is really popular when the asparagus are in season.

Every summer I’m buried with tons of fresh zucchini from the garden, which I love, but after a while it gets difficult to find new recipes and making them the same way too often is just plain boring.

If you don’t mind turning on the oven in the summer this is a great dish to make. My mother makes this every summer. I think they are a great dish for most any occasion, tasty and healthy.

This is a very common dish of Veneto, my region. Borlotti, cranberry beans are called this way for their red stripes. They’re often used for soups for their rich taste creamy consistency. This dish can also be enriched with sausages and eaten together with polenta.

If you like Bell Peppers this is definitely for you. Peperonata is a very common summer dish in Italy. It can be served warm or at room temperature, alone or as a side dish.

The first time I tasted this dish was in a restaurant in Calabria and I practically ate the whole serving tray by myself. I asked the owner what the ingredients were and he told me potatoes, bell peppers and tomatoes, but if you tasted it you would have thought there was a secret ingredient. I [...]

This is a classic Sicilian dish.

Parmigiana di melanzane is a classic of the Neapolitan cuisine. Other Italian regions claim to have the paternity for this dish but they’re only responsible for creating new versions of original. It’s true there are numerous versions of the parmigiana di melanzane and different methods on how to prepare the eggplants and the sauce, not [...]

Melanzane al funghetto is a classic of Italian cuisine. They’re called al funghetto because they’re cooked like the mushrooms. They’re served as a side dish with meat, cheese or fish. I like to use this preparation also as a condiment for my pasta.

I’ve never been a fan of cooked carrots. Actually I still have nightmares about the plain boiled carrots I was obliged to eat in kindergarten. They were so terrible that I stopped eating carrots until I went to college. This recipe is in fact adapted from the dish my roommate used to prepare when we [...]

They take a little time but they are well worth the work!

This dish is so simple that I didn’t even want to publish it. I decided to do it only because it’s so good that I would feel guilty not sharing it with you.
The other day I bought green asparagus from a local farmer. The lady told me they were just picked. They were in fact firm and crunchy.
I was thinking about preparing a frittata or a risotto when she asked me if I had ever tried to grill them, the answer was, no I’d never tried.

This is a super simple, but classic way to cook bell peppers, especially in the summer.

A simple recipe for mash potatoes that is much like the one you probably already make at home.

There’s no New Years Eve without lentils. In our family we eat them just after midnight. The belief is that eating lentils will bring you money throughout the rest of the year.

Bell peppers, zucchini and eggplants, summer vegetables always present on our table. This dish can be served as an antipasto or as a side dish for your barbecue.

My mom used to make me this dish when I was little and even then I would devour  it until there wasn’t any left. I’m an artichoke lover and when autumn arrives I start eating artichokes and continue until spring when we make Torta Pasqualina, which  is the center piece of my family’s Easter menu. To tell you the truth [...]

Piselli al prosciutto, a simple recipe that I make often.

They take a little time but they are well worth the work!

I brought these tomatoes to my auntie during my last visit in Piedmont and she prepared this monochromatic salad. I always like to arrange and balance colors in my dishes so I was little but disappointed when I saw this one, but not when I tasted it.

If you can find this cabbage you’ll have to try this recipe. It’s so easy to prepare and so tasty too. This is a winter cabbage in Italy and we so make this often every winter.

Here’s a simple way to give spinach a new twist.

I’m not that crazy about eggplants. The only way I like to eat them is in parmigiana di melanzane, fried or in caponata. That was until I tasted my auntie’s recipe during my last visit in Piedmont. I never would have imagined I’d like eggplants like this. She added a simple ingredient that is unrecognizable when you [...]

Ripe tomatoes filled with creamy goat cheese, diced tomatoes and flavored with fresh herbs like chives, basil, arugula or spiced up with Calabrian red hot chili pepper. The combinations are endless but it’s important to find the right  cheese. In Italian this particular goat cheese is called, “caprino” and you can find it in most [...]

A plentiful summer vegetable which can be on the table in minutes.

Zucchini in carpione are zucchini marinated in vinegar and wine,  it’s a tasty appetizer from the Piedmont region. My auntie taught me how to make this dish during my last visit there. There are different versions of this recipe with slight differences. It’s usually prepared early in the morning and ready to be served in [...]

Zucchini is a delicious and versatile vegetable to have in the garden, but if you ever plant them you will quickly discover that the plants produce an enormous amount of fruit. My relationship with them always starts out pleasantly with zucchini flowers and the first small delicate zucchini. It’s a wonderful time of year with [...]