Slow-cooked green beans in a tomato sauce

This is a signature dish of the late great Mario, the multitalented father of Tina who used to be one of our amazing instructors at our cooking classes in Italy. You may say that you like your green beans to be firm and crunchy, but after tasting this dish you may also appreciate their sweet, melt-in-the-mouth quality when slow cooked.

Torta salata di verdure – Italian vegetable quiche

Use what you have around! Italians love quiches and love using all sorts of leftovers in them. A classic is sautéd spinach with plenty of nutmeg.

Zuppa inglese

This dessert often gets translated as “trifle”. It is a layered dessert like trifle, but is as far as one can get from the jelly and sherry of British offerings.

Polpettine di patate
Tuscan potato croquettes

The flavours of the nutmeg, garlic and parsley really stand out in this simple peasant side dish/appetizer.

Fennel gratin

A simple yet delicious way to prepare this nutritious and aromatic vegetable.

Cardoons in a tomato sauce

Cardoon grows everywhere and is from the same family as the artichoke and as well as being nutritious (plenty of potassium, calcium and iron) is incredibly tasty.

Cecina – Baked chickpea pancake

There are versions of this all the way up to the French Riviera. In Livorno (Leghorn) it is served as an energy-packed sandwich.

Creamy celery in tomato sauce

This is an original and tasty dish, ideal for using up leftover celery (those heads are always a little large to use up in one go…) It tends to come out creamier using spelt flour to coat, but wheat flour is fine too.