Italian Recipe Chatter

When you think of Italian cuisine, it’s probably a hearty entrée that first pops into mind. Maybe it’s a steaming plate of vegetable lasagna or tender, delectable veal parmigiana. Of course there’s nothing wrong with that – these and other Italian main dish mainstays are popular for a reason: they taste great. Unfortunately, Italy’s storied dessert tradition is occasionally overlooked by the rest of the world.

Take the time to think about it and you’ll likely be able to list numerous Italian dessert favorites. There’s the Piedmontese set dessert with fruit accents known as panna cotta. Who could resist a tube-shaped shell of fried dough stuffed to overflowing with creamy ricotta, vanilla and other flavorings (cannoli)? Perhaps best of all, Italian biscotti recipes are the envy of the Western world. Who would have thought a twice-baked cookie could taste so divine?

My mother is a living museum of great Italian recipes. Although she’s well into her 80s and occasionally forgets the names of her many nieces and nephews, she has a mind like a steel trap when it comes to cooking. A conservative estimate would be that she has memorized hundreds of pasta recipes in minute detail, and it seems that every time I bring my family to her house we are treated to something new.

While I definitely inherited my mother’s passion for all things culinary, my memory is nowhere near as impeccable. A missed ingredient or two won’t always spoil the dish, but it can affect the outcome so dramatically as to prove shocking at times. With this in mind, I’ve started a vast collection of Italian cookbooks and loaded each one with bookmarks for my favorite recipes. That way I can refer back to them as often as necessary and treat my family to a consistently delicious dinner experience.