The island of Capri, located in the Tyrrhenian Sea and off the coast of Naples, Italy, is one of the most beautiful spots in the world. Home to mermaid legends and the famous Blue Grotto, Capri’s delicious local cuisine relies on the waters surrounding it and on the amazing local garden produce, especially lemons.

The local variety of lemons are long and at least double the size of common USA lemons, and have a thick and wrinkled skin.

Continue reading Polpettine al Limone (Lemon Scented Meatballs) at Our Italian Table.

I received an e-mail this week from a reader looking for a Steak alla Pizzaiola recipe. It turns out that Michele wrote a post 9 years ago accurately capturing my Aunt Mary’s version of this dish. It’s a dish I remember so well from my childhood! And it’s a dish anyone with a heritage involving Naples, Italy has encountered.

But 9 years ago is a long time and with piles of tomatoes from the garden around me and my herb garden going strong, I wondered, can we do more?

Continue reading Steak alla Pizzaiola 2019 at Our Italian Table.

Growing up we called it “pasta fasul”. This warm and comforting thick stew was frequently on the table when the weather turned cool in autumn and downright freezing in winter. Now that the fall weather has arrived in L.A., I made a batch with the last gasp of tomatoes I had from the summer (You have to love L.A., picking tomatoes in October).

It wasn’t until I moved out of the nest that I found out “pasta fasul” wasn’t the real Italian name for this stew.  “Pasta e fagioli” is how it’s written in cookbooks; a phrase that to this day is cumbersome to say for me.

Continue reading Pasta fasul – The comfort stew of my childhood at Our Italian Table.

I made this dish for this year’s New Year’s Day open house. It worked great as a dish for lots of people.

This beef preparation hails from the Campania region of Italy, where Naples is the capital city. As I read more about it, I found all types of variations. What was consistent was the use of onions and the fact that no one really knows were the name “genovese” came from.

Continue reading Brasato alla genovese (Genovese braised beef ) at Our Italian Table.

I hated eggplant as a kid. So did my sister, Michele. And my Mom’s attempts to get us to eat it were met with fierce resistance. Wartime-style subversive resistance.

Josie’s eggplant Parmigiana was made by breading and frying the eggplant first and then constructing the casserole dish with tomato sauce, mozzarella and Parmigiana cheese (sadly the “green can” stuff because that’s all that was available in the 60s in our town). But as I grew up, I learned that this was a delicious dish.

Continue reading Eggplant Parmigiana warfare at Our Italian Table.

“Vedure in Scapece” is a summer dish from Naples found in Italian delis all over America. It’s the go-to recipe in Italy for people who have loads of zucchini, eggplant, peppers and other vegetables in their summer garden. The funny thing is that it is usually translated as “marinated vegetables” but that’s not right. “Scapece” is an imported word from Spain where it’s spelled “escabeche,” probably from the time when Naples was a great trading port for the Mediterranean.

Continue reading Italian Pickled Vegetables (Verdure in Scapece) at Our Italian Table.

Along with pizza and spaghetti with tomato sauce, meatballs must be the most internationally recognized Italian food. The meatballs found in the US and then that spread around the world are derived from recipes of the millions of immigrants that came through Ellis Island to the US from Naples and Southern Italy in the 1920s.

But meatballs in “Italian-American” food have been corrupted. When those Italian immigrants came to the US and found the plentiful meats at low prices, they decided richness, wealth and status was an opposite to the practice of adding bread to meatballs to “stretch” them; to feed a large family on a little meat.

Continue reading Neapolitan Meatballs: Polpette alla Napoletana at Our Italian Table.

There are many versions of the traditional Italian Easter dessert, Pasteria,  featuring my favorite ingredient, creamy ricotta. This Neapolitan version uses arborio rice instead of the more traditional wheat berries – both signifying spring and rebirth.  This delicious creamy version is like a gourmet rice pudding – the blend of rice, ricotta and cinnamon melt in your mouth and elicits immediate ‘mmmmmmmmm’s’ from the table.   Other versions include a flaky crust and there is even a web site just for Pasteria – www.pasteria.it. 

Continue reading Pastiera: Neapolitan Easter Pie at Our Italian Table.