Classic Italian Recipes

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Spaghetti and Meatballs

Spaghetti with homemade meatballs is a classic Sunday supper; the words alone invoke long hours at a table full of friends and family. These made-from-scratch meatballs are bound with egg and laced with a bit of garlic, onion, parsley and Parmesan cheese for extra goodness. All you have to do is serve heaping plates of pasta with a simple green salad and crusty bread.

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Bolognese Sauce

Chock full of bacon, butter, cream, ground beef and chicken livers, this is pure comfort, Italian grandma style. This variation isn't cooked quite as long as the original, but the flavors will be just as deliciously complex. Italians call it ragù alla Bolognese, but in Bologna, the northern Italian town from which the dish hails, it's just ragu.

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Bagna Cauda with Crisp Vegetables

Even if you think you don't like anchovies, you'll probably fall for this classic Italian dipping sauce, which originated in the Piedmont region and literally means "hot sauce." The tiny fishes add just a bit of savory saltiness to the rich mix of clarified butter and good extra virgin olive oil. It's a perfect match for crisp, fresh summer vegetables like carrots, cucumbers, Belgian endive, fennel wedges and our favorite, peeled broccoli stems

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Pasta with Parsley-Walnut Pesto

To most Americans, the Genovese sauce pesto -- which stems from the word pestle, with which it is still traditionally ground -- means basil and pine nuts, but we're beginning to branch out. Here the sharp, fresh taste of parsley is a perfect match for buttery walnuts; try making it with arugula, too.

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Polenta Gratin with Tomato, Fontina and Rosemary

Northern Italian polenta is a cousin to Southern grits; the dish is basically boiled cornmeal. It's excellent on its own with butter, cheese and olive oil, but baked or fried it makes it a fine base for all manner of flavors. Here it's cooked with creamy cheese, cut into rounds once cooled, then baked layered with a rosemary-tomato sauce and gorgonzola cheese.

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Tomato and Onion Pork Chops with Cannellini Beans

Pork and creamy white beans are one of the classic couples of Italian cooking. In this surprisingly easy dish -- which gives a nod to the flavors of the north-central Italian region called Tuscany -- the duo is cooked with a chunky-vegetable tomato sauce and served with slivers of fresh basil and cheesy garlic bread.

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Green Cannelloni with Ricotta and Peppers

These hand-formed spinach cannelloni are delicately filled with cheese, herbs and diced red peppers. Store-bought pasta dough does the trick, or enrich your regular mix with a few handfuls of steamed spinach squeezed tightly to rid it of any excess water. Baking them in a creamy béchamel makes for a dish with subtle but superb flavors, but they're a great fit match for red sauce as well.

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Hearty Lasagna

This easy-to-assemble lasagna is one of the fastest ways to pull together a comforting Sunday supper so you get more time to linger at the table. Try using half ground beef and half Italian sausage, ground pork or veal, and serve this dish with a creamily-dressed green salad, roasted zucchini and buttery garlic bread.

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Rosemary Focaccia

Fresh focaccia, a specialty of Liguria in northwest Italy, is one of the easiest breads to make at home. You'll have to let it rise, but rather than forming it into loaves, all you need to do is stretch it out into a sheet pan. This variation is studded with rosemary and olives, but try adding caramelized onions and goat cheese, capers and feta, or even a bit of prosciutto.

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Bread and Tomato Salad

When summer produce is at its peak, this Italian supper is a showstopper. Along with fresh basil and the best olive oil you can find, the flavors of the tomatoes infuse the bread with the essence of summer. This recipe calls for sardines as an optional topper: The better quality tinned fish you buy, the better this dish.

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