Despite the name, this dish has nothing to do with Parma: it is as Neapolitan as Mount Vesuvius, but it does use Parmesan cheese. Few dishes better symbolise the cuisine of Naples. There are variations, including adding a few slices of cooked ham. Recipe and photo: Mario Matassa • SERVES 4 • PREPARATION 1 hour […]
This frittata uses whatever is to hand, but always the Neapolitan staple of dried pasta. It is a great way to use up yesterday’s pasta and is often taken on Sunday picnics. Recipe and photo: Mario Matassa SERVES 4 PREPARATION 5 minutes BAKING 15 minutes Ingredients • 125g mozzarella • 100g cooked ham • 2-4 […]
Creamy Tuscan Cannellini Bean Pasta with Tenderstem® broccoli Super-quick and easy to make, this vegan pasta dish is a great store cupboard supper, using mashed cannellini beans to create a creamy sauce to coat the delicious pasta. Topped with walnuts, chilli flakes and perfectly cooked Tenderstem® broccoli, this recipe is packed with the flavours of […]
Italy’s cheeses are famed throughout the world – and with good reason! Here are our top five… which is your favourite?! Photos by iStock/ Getty Images 1 Parmigiano-Reggiano, the undisputed king of Italian cheeses (above), comes from a designated area around Modena, Parma and Reggio Emilia, and is a grana, or hard cheese, with a nutty, […]
Meascia, a type of bread cake, was a staple of cucina povera – an inexpensive way to make dessert using whatever was in the store cupboard. Mario Matassa shows us how to make it I’ve used apples from the nearby Valtellina in this version of meascia, but it can also be made with pears and you […]
Mario Matassa brings us this trout dish, known in Italian as filetti di trota con pesto di olive e capperi – make it tonight! Lake fish, like trout, naturally features strongly in the cuisine around the lakes. It was once a staple but overfishing was such that, for a time, other sources of fresh fish […]
This gnocchi dish originates from the Como area, and uses a local taleggio cheese, which combines with the tomato and pancetta to make a flavourful sauce, says Mario Matassa There is a long tradition around the Italian lakes of making homemade gnocchi – this dish is an easy way to recreate the flavours of the […]
Bresaola is air-cured beef fillet, which works well in a salad because the olive oil moistens the cured beef. Mario Matassa shares his recipe here… Bresaola comes from the Valtellina and the Valchiavenna in Lombardy. This is an easy and delicious recipe to try, but be sure to serve your bresaola salad soon after it […]
Fresh fish from the waters and other produce from the mountains are the staples of traditional cooking on the Italian lakes, as Mario Matassa explains Understand the landscape of the Italian lakes and you understand the food. The waters of Lake Como cover 60 square miles to a depth of 1,300 feet, so freshwater […]
Mario Matassa shares his paradise cake recipe – a cake that miraculously improves with age and is better if made one or two days in advance… The name ‘paradise cake’ comes from the fact that the cake is as light as air (like paradise). It has a dry, fragile texture, so is usually filled with a […]