Italian dishes

I do like a good parmigiana. Frying the aubergine is a bit of a faff, but other than that, you just need to layer up the aubergine, tomato sauce and mozzarella, stick it the oven and you're good to go.

A good store cupboard fall-back is spaghetti alla puttanesca ("whore's spaghetti"). Saute anchovies and garlic, add some chilli, olives, capers, tomato and oregano, reduce a little, season and mix into spaghetti.
 
Being half Italian and growing up with a Nonna that loved to cook, I guess I was a bit spoiled in this regard! I think my favorites were her home made gnocchi and ravioli. She would also make all of her own sauces from scratch. I try to replicate them and whilst they're pretty good, they just don't seem the same as when she used to make them! I also do just love a simple bolognese or arribiatta with penne.
 
I occasionally make spaghetti with meat sauce or a veal or chicken parmesan, but I feel that many Southern Italian dishes start to taste too samey what with the pasta, cheese, tomato sauce mixture maybe using different shaped pasta, but tasting very similar. I prefer Northern Italian dishes which don't rely so heavily on tomatoes. I make a dish from a recipe by Lidia Bastianich which has pasta, garlic, Italian sweet or hot sausage, leeks, mushrooms, cabbage (I sometimes leave out the cabbage), chicken broth and fontina cheese. The cheese is added into the dish at the end and it melts into the chicken broth to create a lovely sauce. I also love to make Veal Marsala, PC or not. And pesto! I'll eat anything with pesto in it or on it (except liver). I make a dish my mother used to make from some magazine recipe which she called Italian Flank Steak. I'm not sure if it is authentically Italian, but it is very good. Flank steak dredged in garlicky seasoned flour, browned in vegetable oil, then chicken broth is added to deglaze the pan and then several cloves (yes cloves, the things one pokes into ham), lemon juice and minced garlic are added (I put in sliced mushrooms too), the pot is covered and the steak simmered for 90 minutes. The meat is meltingly tender and the sauce is wonderful. This is one of my husband's favorites and it is so easy to make.

And sometimes just some cooked spaghetti with melted butter with some fresh minced garlic stirred into it and some grated fresh Parmesano Reggiano is all it takes to make me happy.
 
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We all love to replicate Italian food,Ive just written a menu with a baked Gnocchi with parma ham and broad beans,but what you can't replicate is buying the ingredients in a little Italian village and then cooking and sitting in the shade with a good bottle of a wine ,its the idyllic image that Italian food creates to me ,one of my sons is off to Italy 2 weeks today and I've encouraged him to go and eat where the locals eat .....enjoy the big flavours,the origins of world wide tastes
 
I love lasagna and spaghetti. I am getting hungry now just thinking about it. I just made spaghetti the other day but haven't done a lasagna in a long time. I usually make one so big that it last me and my family two days. My kids get so excited whenevery I make it.
 
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