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Food /
Italian Recipes

In Cucina: Italy Segreta’s Best Recipes

From breakfast to dessert, here are 23 recipes to get you into the cucina

If you’re reading this, you likely know that we take our food very, very seriously at Italy Segreta. It’s not uncommon to find us dissecting recipes and arguing about the optimal variety of tomato, or what the best way to cook broccoli is. And of course, when it comes to the infinite and minute variations on classic Italian dishes, the atmosphere at the office can get downright heated. 

 

In order to settle it once and for all, we’ll be taking the time to workshop and taste-test beloved recipes from Italy’s different cities and regions, in the aim of agreeing on the one, ultimate, reigning recipe. The result is our IN CUCINA vertical: a collection of our highly opinionated editorial board’s favorite Italian recipes and preparations. Here are eight of our favorites–plus an extra fifteen we love–approved by both the Italian and international contingents.

A breakfast tray with pancakes, syrup, jam, coffee on a rumpled white-sheeted hotel bed; visible hotel logos in soft light. A breakfast tray with pancakes, syrup, and berries sits on a white bed; Hotel d’Inghilterra Roma logo appears on the right.

MARITOZZO

By IS TEAM & Ralph Schelling

Our recipe for the sumptuous Roman breakfast pastry of a brioche bun overflowing with a mound of whipped cream. (Plus where to find the best ones in Rome!)

 

BUCATINI ALL’AMATRICIANA

By IS TEAM

The only one of Rome’s main pastas that involves tomatoes, amatriciana is light and zesty, and the dish has caused quite a stir both in our office and on our Instagram over which pasta shape is best. We’re team bucatini, but make a batch for yourself and decide!

 

ZABAIONE

By IS TEAM

The simplest, easiest, guaranteed-to-impress dessert of just three simple ingredients: egg yolks, sugar, and a fortified wine like Marsala or Vinsanto. Whip it up (literally, the name comes from the Venetian word “zabajon”, or “whipped”) and add it to coffee, fruit, or other desserts whenever you need a quick treat.

 

COSTOLETTA ALLA MILANESE

By IS TEAM & Margo Schächter

“Don’t call it ‘schnitzel’ nor even ‘cutlet’, for in Milan, the ‘costoletta’ (or ‘cutuleta’) is nowhere close to either of these: the meat is strictly veal, on the bone, two fingers high, breaded in egg and breadcrumbs, and fried in clarified butter.”

 

RIGATONI ALLA GRICIA

By IS TEAM

Made with just pecorino and guanciale, gricia is the unsung hero of Italian pasta dishes, the perfect accompaniment to al dente rigatoni, the invisible fourth arm of the “Holy Trinity” of Roman pasta, and, indeed, the predecessor of them all.

 

 

CIBRÈO CAFFÈ’S PATÈ DI FEGATO

By Giulio Picchi

Some serve it hot, but the flavor really comes out when you serve it at room temperature, like we do at Cibrèo, spread on a slice of sourdough bread with raisins.

FRITTATA DI PASTA

By IS TEAM

After you’ve eagerly cooked your way through our In Cucina vertical, there’s a good chance you’re going to have some leftover pasta. Luckily, we have one last recipe for how to give your pasta leftovers a tasty new life.

 

 

SPAGHETTI ALLA NERANO

By IS TEAM

“It may just be spaghetti, zucchini, cheese, and basil, yet the result is, as Tucci put it, ‘life changing’.”

Sophia Loren

Elegant restaurant interior with blue walls, vintage mirrors, posters, white-tableclothed tables, and a bar visible through an open doorway. Elegant restaurant with blue walls, gold mirrors, red chairs, white tablecloths; posters and logos visible. Stylish adjoining room.