Recipes

Anna Francese Gass · NYT Cooking

While not as well known as pesto alla Genovese, lemon pesto is a delicious variation that adds a jolt of brightness. Used in Italy as both a pasta sauce or spread for crostini, its preparation is similar to classic pesto by combining basil with cheese, nuts and extra-virgin olive oil, but the addition of the lemon zest and juice gives it a unique flavor and color. This simple weeknight pasta sauce comes together quickly in the food processor and can be made ahead, as it keeps in the refrigerator for up to one week. You can also drizzle the pesto over a Caprese salad or grilled zucchini, or smear it over crusty, toasted bread as a topping, as they do in Italy.

Anna Francese Gass · NYT Cooking

Pastina al pomodoro is a classic Italian dish of small pasta that is cooked in the style of risotto until creamy and comforting. Orzo is the traditional pasta of choice for this dish, as its shape resembles a grain of rice, but pastina (small pasta) can be made with several different shapes of pasta. The pasta is cooked using the risottata method: It gets toasted with aromatics in olive oil, stirred to coat in tomato sauce and then simmered until tender, gradually moistened with hot water as you would with a risotto. This process releases the starch from the pasta, giving the sauce an incredibly creamy texture and mellowing the acidity in the tomato sauce. Sauce and pasta cook simultaneously in this one-pot pastina, creating a perfect weeknight meal with little effort.

Anna Francese Gass · NYT Cooking

Reminiscent of an Italian lemon cheesecake, lemon-ricotta pancakes are a brunch menu favorite. This recipe spares you the task of standing at the stove flipping pancakes, instead employing a sheet pan and the oven, which makes this recipe ideal for effortless entertaining. Whipping the egg whites helps keep the pancakes light and fluffy, so the ricotta can add flavor without extra weight. A splash of almond extract and lemon zest are the perfect pair for brightness and a fantastic oomph of flavor. The large-format pancake feeds a crowd and tastes just as good hot, at room temperature or served as leftovers the next day. While it bakes, make the (optional) lemon whipped cream, a simple confection that turns this easy dish into a show-stopper.

Anna Francese Gass · NYT Cooking

In Italian, pizzaiolo refers to a person who makes pizza. When a dish is alla pizzaiola, it incorporates the flavors of a typical tomato sauce found on pizza. For this simple preparation, arborio rice is simmered in a tomato sauce and cooked until just al dente. The mixture is then topped with cheese and baked until the cheese is soft and gooey. The result — a riff on pizza in rice form — is hearty comfort food that’s an easy enough lift for a weeknight.

Anna Francese Gass · NYT Cooking

A hearty vegetarian pasta sauce fortified with vegetables rather than meat, “sugo finto” translates from Italian to “fake sauce” — but this dish is full of real flavor. Popular throughout Tuscany and southern Italy, it is a highlight of cucina povera (an Italian term — and art — referring to frugal cuisine), allowing vegetables to stand in as a nutritious substitute for pricier meat. The base of the dish begins with a traditional soffritto (sautéed onion, carrot and celery). In this version, the addition of mushrooms simulates a meaty texture. Red wine deglazes the pan and adds richness. Chopping the vegetables that form the foundation of the sauce is a meditative task, but you can toss them in a food processor to shred, if preferred, to save time. To elevate this dish for a weekend, add the optional pangrattato topping for a crunchy, nuttier bite. A sprinkle of cheese can also be added before serving.

Anna Francese Gass · NYT Cooking

This cauliflower Milanese dish is a meat-free riff on veal Milanese, which originated in Milan, where it is still quite popular. The original Milanese-style breaded cutlets were initially prepared with veal, battered with bread crumbs and fried until golden brown. Over time — due to cost, availability and sustainability — chicken became the protein of choice. Today, chicken Milanese is prepared worldwide, with slight topping variations. Traditionally, it is served with a light, lemon-dressed salad. This version substitutes cauliflower for the protein and swaps pan-frying for a simpler sheet-pan bake. Cauliflower, now the star of the dish, softens as it bakes, and the bread crumb coating crisps, providing a crunchy exterior. Top it with a light, lemony arugula salad for a fantastic weeknight meal.

Anna Francese Gass · NYT Cooking

This breezy weeknight meal loads fresh shrimp with fistfuls of garlicky, seasoned bread crumbs, which crisp and brown on top and plump up and soften underneath as they roast, soaking up the buttery wine sauce at the bottom of the sheet pan. It’s inspired by the Italian American classic clams oreganata, clams stuffed with bread crumbs and dried oregano, but instead swaps out the bivalves for shrimp. Slip the sheet pan in the oven to melt the butter, then stir in white wine before adding the shrimp and bread crumbs, creating a quick, tasty pan sauce that reduces as it cooks. A final spritz of lemon as soon as the pan comes out of the oven adds a nice zippy finish. Serve as an appetizer (plate required!), or alongside a plate of pasta or vegetables.

Anna Francese Gass · NYT Cooking

This rich, spicy tomato sauce is traditionally studded with lobster, but this version becomes easier and less expensive with shrimp. The dish’s origins are murky, but its “fra diavolo” warning is not: The sauce packs a devilish amount of heat. But don’t be intimidated; this recipe adds just enough spice for a subtle tingle. Jarred Calabrian chiles add a nice kick, but crushed red pepper is a fine substitute, and you can increase or decrease the heat level as you like. This hearty pasta dish graces the menus of many Italian American restaurants, and this at-home version makes a festive weeknight meal.

Ann Barry · NYT Cooking

Ann Barry

Ann Barry · NYT Cooking

Ann Barry · NYT Cooking

Ann Barry · NYT Cooking

Ann Barry · NYT Cooking

Ann Barry · NYT Cooking

Ann Barry · NYT Cooking

Ann Barry · NYT Cooking

Ann Barry · NYT Cooking

Ann Barry · NYT Cooking

Angela Dimayuga · NYT Cooking

Bibingka is a cake made of rice flour, so it’s naturally gluten-free, chewy but tender throughout, with a soufflé-like fluffiness. It’s traditionally cooked in a clay pot over and under hot coals, a difficult setup to replicate; instead, I pour the batter into a cast-iron pan lined with banana leaves, which char as the cake bakes, infusing it with their scent. (You can cut the ribs off the leaves to make them more malleable.) Nearly halfway through baking, the cake is topped with salted duck egg, an ingredient available at Asian specialty groceries. If you can’t find it, the cake will be more forthrightly sweet, lacking that sly note of brine. As a final touch, if you have a kitchen torch available, char the edges of the banana leaves, so a little smokiness suffuses the delicate cake.

Angela Dimayuga · NYT Cooking

This is the soup that made me like vegetables when I was growing up. You always measure sinigang by sourness, which is so much a part of our cuisine — layers of acid coming from vinegar, fresh citrus, tamarind and unripe fruits. Here, sour is a power move, hitting you all the way at the back of your tongue. Whole serrano chiles bring a low-frequency spicy hum, adding not so much heat as depth. The daikon should be left in big, juicy chunks, so when you bite into them, you get an unexpected touch of coolness in the hot broth.

Angela Dimayuga · NYT Cooking

There’s a perception that Filipino food is rustic and uncomplicated, but when my lola taught me to make chicken relleno — chicken stuffed with embutido, a kind of meatloaf — I realized that she was using the same techniques I’d learned in professional kitchens cooking French food. She was very particular about ingredients. Even when her memory started fading, her first question when she saw me was always “Are you using chorizo de Bilbao?” (Yes, Lola.) Here, embutido is a centerpiece dish in its own right. I tried chopping the meat for texture, but whipping the ingredients in a food processor, the way my lola did it, integrates everything better.

Angela Dimayuga · NYT Cooking

Filipino cooking embraces salt — perhaps the legacy of life in a tropical climate, where, before refrigeration, food had to be preserved. The primary salt in pinkabet, a vegetable stew, is bagoong, a satisfyingly funky paste of fermented shrimp or fish. As with miso, there are many types of bagoong: dry or oily, toasted or raw, bright pink and briny or dark brown and faintly sweet. I like to use the pink variety because of the large formations of salt crystals. Paired with the toasted and caramelized tomato paste, the bagoong achieves a deep, concentrated umami flavor, enough to season all the vegetables.

Angela Dimayuga · NYT Cooking

Filipinos take snacking seriously, so much so that we devote an entire meal to it: merienda, which may take place midmorning or midafternoon, if not both. Empanadas are a great treat for this in-between time, but also keep well at room temperature — the grace of food built for a warm climate — so you can graze all day. (My family used to buy these by the tray for parties, but it’s nice to make your own and store them in the freezer for later.) In these, a ground-beef filling is tucked inside sturdy but flaky dough, with raisins added early in the cooking to plump with the beef juices. There are variations on empanadas all over Latin America; ours rely on the potency of onion and garlic, and exploit it to the hilt.

Angela Dimayuga · NYT Cooking

The Filipino rice porridge called lugaw started out as a simple equation of rice, water and salt, until the conquistadors arrived in the 16th century and demanded more sumptuous dishes. Add tripe and innards to lugaw, and it becomes goto; with chicken and saffron, it is arroz caldo. It’s looser and soupier than Chinese congee, cooked until you can’t see individual grains. I put in collard greens to make it a balanced meal and use wings because of the high bone-to-meat ratio and the jiggly skin. (Keeping the bones in will give the broth more flavor.) The soy sauce-cured yolks are probably best at the two-hour mark — they get firmer and saltier the longer they cure, so follow your taste.