Featured recipe

Hoppin' John

Hoppin' John is eaten on New Year's Day across the South for luck, with collard greens for money and cornbread for gold, and its roots run back to the rice plantations of the South Carolina Lowcountry and the West African cooks who worked them. Black-eyed peas are simmered with smoked pork (here a ham hock and bacon), then cooked with rice so every grain takes on the smoky broth. Chef's tip: cook the rice in the bean liquor, not water; that is where all the flavour is.

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Torta de bolachaNo-bake biscuit and custard cake

Gaúcho birthday tables almost always carry a torta de bolacha, the fridge cake that grandmothers in Porto Alegre and the Serra Gaúcha towns put together the night before. Plain Maria biscuits are dipped in sweet milk and stacked with two stovetop creams, one pale vanilla custard and one chocolate, until the biscuits soften into something close to sponge. It is cool, soft and very sweet, and slices best after a night in the fridge; serve it with coffee or as the birthday cake itself, with candles on top. It contains egg yolks and wheat biscuits. Most failures come from soaking the biscuits too long: they should be dipped for a second, not left to swim, or the layers collapse into mush. Chef's tip: let both creams cool until just warm before layering, so they stay thick enough to hold the next row of biscuits.

40 min

Brazilian Desserts

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Picadas veracruzanasMasa cakes with salsa

Breakfast in the port of Veracruz and in Xalapa often starts with picadas at a market fonda or a café by the harbour: palm-sized rounds of fresh masa, cooked on the comal, then pinched all around while hot (picar means to pinch) to make little ridges that catch the salsa. Half are spooned with red salsa and half with green, then scattered with onion and crumbled cheese, and eaten with black coffee. Cooks there drizzle them with hot pork lard; this recipe uses a little oil instead. Chef's tip: wet your fingertips in cold water before pinching, so you can work the hot masa without burning yourself.

35 min

Mexican Breakfast & Brunch

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Torta de palmitoHeart of palm pie

Paulistano families bring this pie to Sunday lunch, to Easter and to every bring-a-plate party, and padarias sell it by the slice next to the coxinhas. A crumbly, buttery crust encloses a creamy filling of heart of palm with tomato, peas, green olives and parsley, set with a little cornflour so it slices cleanly but stays moist. It is good warm or cold, with a green salad or just on its own. Look for palm hearts from cultivated pupunha palms. The commonest problem is a soggy base from a filling that is too wet or too warm; cook it until thick and let it cool before it goes in. Chef's tip: bake the pie on a preheated tray on the bottom shelf, so the base gets a blast of heat and crisps before the filling can soak in.

85 min

Brazilian Baking

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Torta del Casar al hornoBaked sheep's cheese with garlic

Torta del Casar is made in Casar de Cáceres and the surrounding plains from raw merino sheep's milk, curdled not with animal rennet but with the dried flower of a wild thistle, so it suits many vegetarians. When ripe, the rind holds a centre so soft it is eaten with a spoon, and in Cáceres bars a whole torta comes warm from the oven with its lid cut off, surrounded by bread for dipping. It is a cheese for sharing at the start of a long dinner. Because it is made from unpasteurised milk, it is not for pregnant women, young children or anyone with a weakened immune system unless heated until steaming hot all through. Chef's tip: take the cheese out of the fridge an hour ahead so it warms evenly.

20 min

Spanish Snacks & Starters

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Picadinho cariocaDiced beef stew with rice

Diced small and simmered in a glossy tomato gravy, picadinho is the plate Rio de Janeiro orders at lunch counters and old bars in Centro, and the one cariocas cook at home when they want comfort. The tender cubes of beef come with white rice, a fried egg with a runny yolk, farofa and slices of banana, and every forkful mixes a bit of everything: savoury, sweet, crisp and soft. The everyday mistake is crowding the pan, so the beef boils grey instead of browning; fry it in batches. Cook the eggs until the whites are fully set; if you are serving pregnant women, young children or older people, cook the yolks firm too. Chef's tip: cut the beef into 1.5 cm cubes; any larger and it is a stew, any smaller and it dries out.

65 min

Brazilian Meat

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Torta galesaDark fruit and walnut cake

Welsh settlers arrived in the Chubut valley in 1865 and their descendants still serve afternoon tea in Gaiman and Trelew, where the casas de té bring out pots of tea, scones, cream cakes and, always, a slice of torta galesa. It is a dense, almost black fruit cake made with brown sugar and black treacle, studded with raisins, candied peel and walnuts, and it was built to last through long Patagonian winters and journeys across the steppe. The crumb is moist and sticky, rich with spice and caramel. An oven that is too hot is the classic error: the outside chars before the middle is set, so it bakes low and slow under a sheet of paper. There's no alcohol in this version; many cooks brush it with rum after baking, so leave that out or use strong tea. Chef's tip: wrap the cooled cake tightly and wait two or three days before cutting; it turns moister and the flavours deepen.

140 min

Argentinian Baking

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Torta holandesaChilled biscuit and ganache tart

Despite the name, the 'Dutch tart' is a Brazilian invention, created in a confeitaria in Campinas, São Paulo state, in the 1990s and now sold in bakeries and churrascarias all over the country. A crunchy biscuit base holds a tall layer of light vanilla buttercream, sealed with dark chocolate ganache, and the sides are fenced with chocolate-dipped biscuits stood on their edges. Served cold, it is rich, creamy and crunchy at once, cut in thin slices with coffee. Some versions set the cream with gelatin; this one gets its body from butter and whipped cream only. Warm ganache poured straight on is the commonest mistake, since it melts the cream underneath into streaks. Chef's tip: let the ganache cool until it is just pourable and barely warm to a fingertip, about 30 °C, before pouring it over the chilled tart.

50 min

Brazilian Desserts

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Torta rogelLayered pastry dulce de leche cake

Birthdays in Buenos Aires are where the rogel shows off: eight or more wafer-thin, crackling discs of egg-yolk pastry, each spread with thick dulce de leche, stacked high and finished with a cloud of glossy Italian meringue browned with a blowtorch. Confiterías sell it by the slice, and it is a cake of contrasts, crisp and chewy, very sweet against the faintly salty pastry. It is laborious rather than difficult, and it slices best after a few hours' rest, when the dulce de leche has softened the layers just slightly. Use thick dulce de leche repostero (bakers' style); the runny kind for spreading on toast makes the tower slide. Rolling the discs too thick is the classic mistake: they should be so thin you can almost see the worktop through them, or the cake becomes heavy and hard to cut. Chef's tip: prick every disc all over with a fork before baking, or it puffs into a dome and won't stack flat.

150 min

Argentinian Baking

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Tortas ahogadasPork rolls in tomato sauce

Guadalajara's great hangover cure, the torta ahogada is sold from street stands and small fondas all over the city from mid-morning. A crusty roll is split, packed with pork carnitas, then 'drowned' in a thin, mild tomato sauce and splashed with a ferociously hot chile de árbol salsa; you can order it half-drowned or fully submerged, and eat it with a plastic bag over your hand or with a knife and fork. The local birote salado, a sourdough roll with a hard crust, rarely exists outside Jalisco, so use the crustiest small baguettes or sourdough rolls you can find. Pickled red onions and a few radishes are the classic side. Chef's tip: let the rolls go a day stale and toast the cut sides; a firm, dry crumb soaks up sauce without turning to mush.

50 min

Mexican Fast Food

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Tortas de aceite sevillanasCrisp olive-oil flatbreads with anise

Castilleja de la Cuesta, just west of Seville, has made these hand-pressed tortas for well over a century, and across Andalusia they are dunked into morning coffee or eaten as an afternoon snack. The dough is little more than flour, olive oil infused with anise and sesame, and a pinch of yeast, rolled until you can almost see through it and baked with a crust of sugar. Chef's tip: roll each torta directly on the baking paper you will bake it on; the dough is too thin to lift without tearing.

45 min

Spanish Baking

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Tortas de almaPumpkin and almond pastries

In the province of Teruel, especially around Calamocha and the Jiloca valley, tortas de alma are made at the end of autumn when the pumpkins come in: crisp, flaky olive-oil pastry folded over "alma", a sweet filling of pumpkin cooked down with sugar, almond and cinnamon. They are eaten with coffee at the village festivals and given away by the dozen at All Saints and Christmas. Recipes vary from house to house; this one keeps to the simple, widely made version. A common mistake is a runny filling, which leaks and burns on the tray; cook it until it is thick enough to hold a clean line. Chef's tip: make the filling a day ahead and chill it; cold alma is far easier to spoon onto the pastry.

100 min

Spanish Baking

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Kibbeh safarjaliehKibbeh with quince in pomegranate sauce

Aleppo is known as the city of a hundred kibbehs, and kibbeh safarjalieh is its autumn showpiece, made when quinces turn golden in the markets. Stuffed kibbeh are simmered with chunks of quince and a little lamb in a sauce sharpened with pomegranate molasses and lemon and scented with dried mint. The fruit softens and blushes pink, and the sauce is sweet, sour and fragrant all at once. Serve with plain rice or bread. Common mistake: cutting the quince too early; it browns fast, so drop each piece into lemon water as you go. Chef's tip: leave the quince skin on — it holds the pieces together and helps colour the sauce.

110 min

Syrian Meat

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Limonada de cocoCoconut lime cooler

Cartagena's heat makes limonada de coco almost compulsory: beach kiosks and restaurants in the old walled city blend it to order, and it arrives as a pale, frosty slush, sharp with lime and rich with coconut. It is a drink to sip slowly with fried fish, coconut rice and patacones, or on its own on a hot afternoon. Coconut cream gives the body, sugar balances the lime, and a full load of ice gives the frozen texture. The common slip is blending lime pieces with their peel for too long, which turns it bitter within minutes; use juice plus a little zest instead. Shake the tin of coconut cream before measuring, since it separates. Serve it straight away, before it melts and separates. Chef's tip: freeze some of the coconut cream in an ice-cube tray beforehand and use it in place of half the ice for a thicker, creamier result.

10 min

Colombian Drinks

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TomaticánTomato, corn and egg stew

Mendoza's irrigated orchards and fincas drown in tomatoes in February, and tomaticán is the old Cuyo answer to the glut: a quick pan stew of onion, chopped ripe tomato and fresh sweetcorn, seasoned with oregano and a little ají, with beaten egg stirred through at the end until it sets in soft curds. It is a farmhouse lunch and a cheap supper, eaten with crusty bread to mop the juice, and some cooks add diced potato to stretch it. The flavour is bright and sweet-sour, the texture loose and juicy. People often add the egg to a pan full of liquid and end up with egg soup; cook the tomatoes down until the juices are jammy first. Bread for dipping is traditional, so pick a gluten-free loaf if you need it. Chef's tip: stir the egg in off the heat and let the pan's heat set it; you want soft, creamy ribbons, not a dry scramble.

30 min

Argentinian Vegetarian

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TomatokeftedesTomato and mint fritters

The volcanic soil of Santorini grows tiny, intensely sweet tomatoes on almost no water, and every taverna on the caldera serves them as tomatokeftedes: chopped tomato, onion, mint and oregano bound with just enough flour to hold, then fried until the outside is lacy and crisp and the inside is soft and juicy. They are eaten hot as a meze, often next to Santorini fava and a cold glass of water or lemonade. Common mistake: letting the batter sit, which draws out tomato juice and makes it runny; mix it right before frying. Chef's tip: squeeze the chopped tomatoes in a sieve first and keep the juice for a soup; drier tomatoes give crisper fritters.

40 min

Greek Snacks & Starters

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Puchero santafereñoBoiled chicken, beef and pork dinner

Old Santa Fe de Bogotá kept puchero for big family lunches and holidays: a broad pot of beef, pork and chicken boiled with cassava, corn, potatoes, cabbage and, unusually, ripe plantain cooked in its skin, which turns soft and sweet against the savoury meat. It comes to the table in two acts. First the clear, golden broth in cups or small bowls; then a platter of the meats and vegetables, with a pan of warm hogao (tomato and spring onion sauce) spooned over everything, plus rice and avocado on the side. People confuse it with cocido or sancocho, but the plantain and the hogao make it its own thing. Most disappointing pucheros come from boiling hard: the broth goes cloudy and the cassava breaks up, so keep it at a lazy simmer. Chef's tip: add the vegetables in order of how long they take, and lift each batch out onto a warm tray as it becomes tender, so nothing turns to mush while the beef finishes.

165 min

Colombian Soups

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LechonaRoast pork with rice and peas

Christmas, birthdays and town fiestas across Tolima and Bogotá call for lechona: a whole pig, boned, stuffed with its own meat, yellow peas and, in the Bogotá style, rice, then roasted for hours in a wood or brick oven until the skin turns to a glassy crackling. Purists in Ibagué leave the rice out. Few home kitchens fit a pig, so this oven version builds the same thing in a deep roasting tin: cubes of pork shoulder seasoned with spring onion, garlic and cumin, mixed with peas and part-cooked rice, under a blanket of skin-on pork belly. The filling soaks up the dripping pork fat; the top crackles. Serve with insulsos (plain sweet corn tamales) or arepas and lime. Start a day ahead to marinate the meat and dry the skin, plus overnight soaking for the peas. Most failed crackling comes from wet skin, so dry it uncovered in the fridge and salt it well. Chef's tip: score the belly skin closely with a very sharp blade but don't cut into the meat, or the juices bubble up and soften the crust.

330 min

Colombian Meat

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Cocido boyacenseSteamed meats and tubers feast

Sunday markets in Villa de Leyva, Paipa and Sogamoso still have families sitting down to cocido boyacense, a pot in which chicken, pork ribs and beef steam slowly on a bed of cabbage leaves above the tubers of the high Andes: potatoes, cubios, ibias and chuguas, with cobs of corn and broad beans still in their pods. There is very little water; the meat juices drip down and flavour everything. It is tipped onto one big platter in the middle of the table, and the concentrated broth left in the pot is drunk from cups alongside. Expect clean, earthy flavours rather than spice: cumin, garlic and spring onion, and a bowl of ají or hogao for anyone who wants heat. The classic slip is too much liquid, which turns it into a boiled stew; keep the water to a few centimetres and the lid tight. Chef's tip: if you can't find ibias or cubios, use oca from a Latin or Andean grocer or a mix of small new potatoes and parsnip, which bring a similar sweet, earthy note.

125 min

Colombian Meat

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Cuchuco de trigoCracked wheat and pork rib soup

Up on the cold Boyacá plateau, around Tunja and Duitama, cuchuco de trigo is the soup that roadside restaurants ladle out at midday to farm workers and truck drivers. It is made with pork ribs (espinazo or costilla de cerdo), simmered until the meat slips off the bone, then thickened with cracked wheat, broad beans, peas, cabbage and two kinds of potato. The result is closer to a porridge-soup than a broth: nutty from the wheat, porky, a little smoky from the cumin and achiote, with the small yellow potatoes melting into the liquid. Serve it in deep bowls with avocado slices, a spoon of ají and a piece of arepa. The usual mistake is adding the wheat too early and walking away: it settles and catches on the bottom of the pot, so it needs stirring from the base every few minutes. Chef's tip: rinse the cracked wheat until the water runs nearly clear; washing off the loose flour keeps the soup creamy rather than gluey. For a meat-free pot, leave out the ribs, use vegetable stock and double the broad beans.

125 min

Colombian Soups

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FritangaMixed fried pork and sausage platter

Weekend fritanga is Bogotá's answer to a mixed grill, eaten standing at counters in the Siete de Agosto and Restrepo neighbourhoods or brought home on a big tray to share. Everything is pork or fried: chicharrón of pork belly with a blistered, crunchy skin, juicy pork chorizos, slices of rice-filled morcilla (blood sausage), little papa criolla potatoes, sweet plantain and griddled arepas, all eaten with fingers or toothpicks and dipped in sharp, watery ají. A fritanga is about contrast, so don't drown it in sauces: the lime and ají cut the richness. The common error is frying the belly straight from raw; it needs to cook gently in water first, which renders the fat and tenderises the meat before the skin crisps in its own drippings. Chef's tip: buy morcilla and chorizo from a Latin butcher and check the labels if you need the platter gluten free, as some sausages contain wheat.

100 min

Colombian Meat

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Tamal tolimenseBanana-leaf pork and chicken tamal

Ibagué and the towns of Tolima make the most generous tamal in Colombia, and on Sunday mornings it is unwrapped at the table with hot chocolate, a slab of bread or arepa and a cup of black coffee. Inside the double banana-leaf wrapping sits a soft, achiote-tinted corn dough layered with rice, yellow peas, carrot, potato, a hard-boiled egg and chunks of pork rib, pork belly and chicken that cook through during the long steam. Expect a savoury, moist parcel that smells of the leaves; plus overnight soaking for the dried peas and marinating the meat. It is weekend project food, best made with friends on a production line. A frequent failure is a loose wrap: water gets in and the dough turns soggy, so fold tightly and tie firmly in a cross. Chef's tip: steam a test tamal first or check one after 3 hours; the meat inside must be cooked through, and if the dough still sticks to the leaf, give the batch 20 minutes more.

320 min

Colombian Meat

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Frittata di maccheroniPasta frittata

Neapolitans turn yesterday's spaghetti into frittata di maccheroni, a thick, golden pasta cake bound with egg and lots of grated cheese, with pockets of melting provola inside. It travels everywhere: cut into wedges for the beach at Mergellina, packed for the Easter Monday picnic (Pasquetta) or eaten cold from the fridge. The outside is crisp, the middle soft and cheesy. Most families add cubes of salami; this version leaves them out and uses smoked provola for a savoury depth. Chef's tip: use a plate the size of the pan to flip it, and slide it back in confidently in one move.

35 min

Italian Snacks & Starters

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Insalata capreseTomato and mozzarella salad

On the island of Capri this simple plate of red tomatoes, white buffalo mozzarella and green basil is the lunch of hot afternoons, served in beach clubs and piazza cafés. With so few ingredients, everything rests on quality: tomatoes ripe enough to smell sweet, mozzarella made that day so it weeps milk when cut, and fruity olive oil. It needs no vinegar; a pinch of salt and oregano is enough. Chef's tip: take the mozzarella out of the fridge 30 minutes ahead; cold mozzarella tastes of very little and feels rubbery.

10 min

Italian Salads

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Babà al rumRum-soaked yeast cakes

Naples took the babà from French and Polish pastry cooks in the nineteenth century and made it its own: small mushroom-shaped yeast cakes so light and airy that they drink up a warm, rum-laced syrup and still hold their shape. Neapolitans pick them up from the pastry counter after Sunday mass, and they are often served with whipped cream or custard. The traditional syrup contains rum; for an alcohol-free version, use the orange and vanilla syrup given in the ingredient notes, which is just as soaking and fragrant. Chef's tip: let the baked babà dry out for a few hours, or overnight; a slightly stale cake soaks up syrup evenly without collapsing.

180 min

Italian Desserts

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Friarielli con provolaBroccoli rabe with smoked provola

Friarielli are the Neapolitan name for the tender leafy tops of broccoli rabe, piled high on market stalls in Naples from late autumn to early spring. Sautéed with garlic and chilli in olive oil, they turn soft, dark green and pleasantly bitter, and in Naples they are a side dish, a pizza topping and, above all, the filling of a crusty panino. Here slices of smoked provola melt over the hot greens, so they work as a side or straight into a roll. Chef's tip: do not blanch them; Neapolitans cook friarielli raw in the pan with the lid on so they keep their bite and flavour.

25 min

Italian Sides

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Pastiera napoletanaWheat berry and ricotta tart

Every Neapolitan kitchen fills with the scent of orange blossom water in Holy Week, when families bake the pastiera on Maundy Thursday or Good Friday so it can rest until Easter Sunday. Inside a lattice-topped shortcrust case is a creamy, slightly grainy filling of ricotta, cooked wheat berries, eggs, candied citrus and cinnamon, and the flavour improves for two or three days. Traditional pastry is made with lard; this one uses butter. Chef's tip: bake it a day or two ahead and keep it covered at cool room temperature; a freshly baked pastiera tastes flat by comparison.

180 min

Italian Baking

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Gnocchi alla sorrentinaGnocchi baked with tomato and mozzarella

Sorrento families make gnocchi alla sorrentina for Sunday lunch: soft potato gnocchi folded into a basil-scented tomato sauce, layered with cubes of fior di latte mozzarella and baked in individual terracotta dishes until the cheese bubbles and stretches. It is comfort food, pillowy and creamy with a golden, slightly crisp top, and children love pulling the strings of cheese. This recipe takes you from the potatoes to the oven. Chef's tip: bake the potatoes in their skins rather than boiling them; drier potatoes need less flour and make lighter gnocchi.

90 min

Italian Pasta & Noodles

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Spaghetti alla NeranoSpaghetti with courgettes and provolone

Nerano is a tiny fishing bay on the Sorrento peninsula, and its seaside trattorias have served this pasta since the 1950s to summer visitors arriving by boat. Courgette rounds are fried slowly in olive oil until golden and soft, then tossed with spaghetti, basil and grated provolone del Monaco, a semi-hard cow's milk cheese from the hills above, until everything melts into a creamy, sweet and savoury sauce. It is a dish for July and August, when courgettes are cheap and full of flavour. Chef's tip: fry the courgettes ahead and let them sit for an hour if you can; they soften further and give the sauce a deeper flavour.

30 min

Italian Pasta & Noodles

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Puntarelle alla romanaChicory shoots with garlic dressing

From November to February, Rome's markets at Campo de' Fiori and Testaccio sell puntarelle: the pale, hollow shoots from the heart of a Catalogna chicory, sold already split into curls by the stallholders. Soaked in iced water, they turn crunchy and curl up, and they are dressed with crushed garlic, oil and something sharp. The Roman dressing is pounded with anchovy; this vegetarian version uses capers and lemon for the same salty, tangy punch. Serve it as a side next to cacio e pepe or a plate of artichokes. Chef's tip: slice the shoots as thinly as you can, lengthways; thin strips curl tighter in the ice water and hold the dressing better.

25 min

Italian Salads

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Pallotte cace e oveCheese and egg tomato balls

Abruzzo's shepherds and farm families invented pallotte cace e ove as "meatballs" with no meat: stale bread, eggs and plenty of sharp local cheese, shaped into balls, fried golden and then simmered in tomato sauce until soft and fluffy inside. They turn up at village festivals (sagre) in the mountains around L'Aquila and Chieti, and at home as a Friday or Sunday second course with crusty bread to mop the sauce. Chef's tip: wet your hands before shaping; the mixture is soft and the balls stay round and smooth without extra breadcrumbs.

50 min

Italian Vegetarian

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Scrippelle 'mbussePecorino crêpes in broth

In Teramo, in northern Abruzzo, scrippelle 'mbusse ("wet crêpes") open the meal on cold winter evenings and at Christmas. Thin, eggy crêpes are sprinkled with grated pecorino and parmesan, rolled into tight cigars and drowned in boiling broth at the table, so they soften into silky, cheesy spirals. Families normally pour over a clear chicken or capon broth; this recipe uses a well-flavoured vegetable stock instead. Chef's tip: let the batter rest for half an hour before cooking, so the crêpes come out thin and supple enough to roll without cracking.

60 min

Italian Soups

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Spaghetti alla puttanesca

Few pastas come together so fast from a cupboard: tomatoes, black olives, capers, garlic and chilli simmered for ten minutes into a sauce that is briny, sharp and a little fiery. Naples claims the olive-and-caper version, often made with Gaeta olives, while in Rome cooks melt a few anchovy fillets into the oil first; this recipe follows the Neapolitan line and leaves the fish out, so it is fully vegan. Romans and Neapolitans alike treat it as a late-night or end-of-the-week plate, made when the fridge is bare. Chef's tip: rinse the capers well and add the olives only at the end, so the sauce stays bright and salty rather than bitter.

25 min

Italian Pasta & Noodles

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Maritozzi con la pannaCream-filled sweet buns

In Roman bars the maritozzo is breakfast: a glossy, oval brioche bun scented with orange zest, slit open and packed with so much lightly sweetened whipped cream that it bulges past the crust. Once a Lenten treat that young men gave to their future wives (the name comes from marito, husband), it is now eaten all year with a cappuccino, especially on Sunday mornings. The bun is feathery and light, the cream cold and barely sweet. Chef's tip: give the shaped buns their full second rise until they look puffy and wobble when you nudge the tray; underproved buns bake tight and dense.

180 min

Italian Baking

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Bocconotti abruzzesiChocolate almond tartlets

Bocconotti are the small, domed pastries that Abruzzo bakers pile up for Christmas, weddings and christenings, especially along the coast around Chieti and Lanciano. Crumbly lemon-scented shortcrust hides a dense, fudgy filling of toasted almonds, dark chocolate and cinnamon, and the tops are dusted thick with icing sugar. Many families stir a spoonful of sweet liqueur into the filling; it is optional here, with orange juice as the alcohol-free swap. They keep for days in a tin and taste even better on the second. Chef's tip: chill the dough before rolling; warm shortcrust tears in the small moulds and shrinks in the oven.

75 min

Italian Baking

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Fettuccine al burro (original Alfredo)Fettuccine with butter and Parmesan

Long before cream-heavy versions spread abroad, Roman cooks made fettuccine al burro with nothing but fresh egg ribbons, sweet butter and young Parmigiano, beaten together into a soft, pale sauce. A restaurateur on Via della Scrofa made it famous in the early twentieth century by tossing it at the table for visitors, and in Roman homes it is still the dish for a child home from school or anyone feeling under the weather. The result is mild, silky and nutty with cheese. Chef's tip: soften the butter to room temperature and grate the cheese like snow; cold butter and coarse cheese will not melt into a cream in the short tossing time.

20 min

Italian Pasta & Noodles

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Cavatelli molisani con broccoliCavatelli with broccoli

In the hill villages around Campobasso, cavatelli are still made by hand on Sunday mornings: a plain dough of durum wheat semolina and water, cut into little nuggets and dragged under two fingers so each one curls into a hollow shell. In winter they are cooked in the same pot as broccoli until the florets collapse into a green, garlicky sauce flecked with chilli; in summer the same pasta gets a simple tomato sauce. The pasta is chewy and rustic, the sauce soft and peppery. Chef's tip: keep the dough firm and a touch dry, so the cavatelli curl neatly instead of sticking to the board.

60 min

Italian Pasta & Noodles

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