Starter

Portobello mushrooms are one of the most versatile, hearty, and prized ingredients in Italian cooking. When I see large, meaty portobellos at the grocery store, I immediately think of all the ways my mother prepared them, and one of my favorites was grilled and stuffed with sausage, Gorgonzola, and fresh herbs. Serve the mushrooms as a side dish or as a meal in itself. Either way, you’ll be surprised at how quickly they disappear.

Tomatoes are a staple ingredient in Italian cooking, and this dish is inspired by the beautiful image of vast fields of sweet vine-ripened tomatoes that are a common sight in southern Italy. The bright, concentrated flavors of the tomatoes in this dish make them a great simple accompaniment to grilled fish or meats. Actually, they are so delicious you’ll want to serve them on their own as an antipasto; just pop them right into your mouth. Each tomato holds its shape as it cooks and becomes sweet and tender, with a golden crust and gooey cheese in the center. My mouth waters just thinking about it!

You always need a simple, elegant green salad in your repertoire. What I love are the buttery and cheesy crostini, so you get your healthy, leafy vegetable with a little indulgence.

It’s amazing how simple wooden skewers can transform a dinner standby into cocktail party fare! These look beautiful as part of a buffet spread but work equally well as a passed hors d’oeuvre since there’s no need for a plate. Best of all, they can be made well ahead of time; just wait to add the vinaigrette until right before serving. Elegant and simple.

This salad is a new twist on the classic combo of melon and prosciutto. Grilled asparagus keeps a slight crunch and also has a smoky char to it that pairs with the creaminess and subtle flavor of mozzarella and the fruitiness of melon. To top it off: crumbled prosciutto. I’ve always loved the salty tang of prosciutto, but since I started baking thin slices of it to make brittle, crispy chips, my love has become a full-blown obsession; they just seem to make everything taste better.

A classic example of the type of salads you’ll find in Italy, this is easy to throw together and more impressive than the usual mixed green salad. Depending on the region, the type of cheese may differ. I love to nibble on chunks of Pecorino as I make it.

Chimichurri is the A1 sauce of Argentina, and no self-respecting steak there would be served without a dose of this herby green sauce. But chimichurri also has a lot in common with an Italian salsa verde, which gave me the idea to pair it with the more delicate combo of chicken and shrimp. I add oregano for a deep earthiness, and crunchy bites of pancetta put it over the top; you’ll want to serve this sauce over everything from broiled fish fillets to sliced tomatoes or even crostini.

Piadini look a lot like pizzas, but because the crust is made without yeast and does not need to rise, they are much quicker and easier to make. Piadini are also cooked on the grill rather than baked in the oven, which gives them a nice, smoky flavor and crunchy crust. While you can top a piadina with anything you like, including tomato sauce and mozzarella, this sauceless combination is very typical of northern Italy, where piadini are especially popular.

I like to serve this hearty soup at Thanksgiving. It has a smooth, silky texture and a beautiful color with a slight peppery flavor from the sage. Serve it with the cheesy Fontina crostini for an elegant meal.

The sight of a platter of jumbo shrimp at a party always makes guests happy, but the usual shrimp cocktail is served ice-cold and, in my opinion, is pretty flavorless. I think shrimp taste so much better served warm—especially with this simple and colorful dipping sauce to dunk them into. The ingredients are an interesting combination, and their unique flavors, along with the color of the turmeric, yield a creamy, tangy, and slightly sweet sauce.

Delicate and beautiful zucchini blossoms make their appearance at farmer’s markets in mid- to late summer. In Italy, the blossoms are stuffed with just about anything and prepared in a number of ways, from sautéed to baked, or just served fresh in a salad. My favorite is and always has been stuffed and fried—and served with a side of marinara sauce.

When I go to a restaurant and want something light, I immediately look to the carpaccios and crudos, which often feature marinated raw fish. Smoked salmon can deliver the same light, clean flavors but without the worry of serving raw beef or fish at home. I like to arrange the salmon and apples on a platter and let guests pile them onto slices of bread themselves; the color of the salmon is simply stunning next to the green apples, which also contribute crunch and freshness.

When it comes to cocktail food, I like one-biters and I like things that are dainty and beautiful. These pretty little tarts fit that bill and more. They taste as fantastic as they look. I prefer to use black-olive tapenade because of its richness, but you can certainly try green-olive, which is tangier.

Rome is famous for its artichokes, and in the Jewish district you can buy amazing fried whole artichokes on street corners. Back home, I use frozen artichokes for ease and I love combining them with beans in a creamy dip for bruschetta, a favorite snack throughout Italy. The crispy, salty prosciutto highlights the subtle flavor of the artichokes and adds crunch.

This is rustic and simple, and deeply satisfying. Pureed beans can get a bit crusty when exposed to air, so if you make these ahead of time, drizzle a bit of a nice fruity olive oil over each crostini to keep it fresh and make it glisten. If you want a lighter version, you can certainly serve this on cucumber rounds, but I love the way the smoky flavor of the eggplant and the grilled bread work together.

Olives stuffed with cheese and fried are a classic bar snack commonly found in Naples and in Sicily. I like to mix the Gorgonzola with a bit of ricotta to tame its strong flavor. Unlike most fried foods, these can be made ahead of time and they will still be delicious a good while later. Pile them on a platter for a party and watch them disappear.

The sweetest, best kind of dates are Medjools. They’re large, so they are easy to fill, meaty, and chewy. Stuffed with goat cheese and wrapped in prosciutto, they provide a perfect sweet-salty mouthful in every bite. Serve these with a crisp white wine as the ideal before-dinner tidbit.

The flour-enriched water in which pasta has cooked is never going to be an essential component of fine cooking, and it seldom appears in recipes. Yet from its origins as a cost-free, effortless substitute for stock, olive oil, butter, cream, or other occasionally scarce or even precious ingredients, pasta-cooking water has become a convenient and zero-calorie addition to simple sauces. When you compare a lightly creamy sauce like the one in this recipe to the highly flavorful and ever-popular Alfredo sauce of butter, cream, eggs, and cheese, the latter seems relatively heavy. Substituting water for much of the butter and all of the cream and eggs produces a sauce with a perfect balance of weight and flavor. The water lends a moist quality, not unlike that produced by tomatoes, as opposed to the slickness contributed by straight fat. This is best as a starter, not a main course, but it’s still pretty rich. I would stick with a light fish preparation to follow, even a big salad.

In this dish, the pasta takes on a fruity acidity from the reduced wine—smoothed by the last-minute addition of butter—and a beautiful mahogany glaze that’s like nothing you’ve ever seen. The kind of wine you use is of some importance, although it need not be expensive. Try a decent Chianti Classico, a light wine from the Côtesdu-Rhône, or a good-quality (red) Zinfandel. This is a true starter, not a main course; follow it with something gutsy, like grilled meat or fish, or something grand like Crisp Roasted Rack of Lamb (page 187).

Chestnuts and dried mushrooms have a wonderful affinity for each other. Their unusual flavors and textures seem distantly related; they are both meaty and complex, chewy but neither tough nor crunchy. With shallots and plenty of black pepper for bite, the combination makes a great pasta sauce. And though chestnuts are a pain in the neck (the fingers, actually) to peel, the good news is that their complex, fragrant flavor is so powerfully distinctive that just a few can have an enormous impact on a dish. So although it may take thirty seconds to a minute to process a single chestnut, if you need only a dozen or so for a dish, the work amounts to about ten minutes. And in a creation like this one, the time is well worth the effort.