Italian

If desired, grate a little extra Parmesan cheese for passing; a sprinkling over the soup will echo the flavor in the meatballs.

Good accompaniments to this Sicilian-style pasta are an arugula and fig salad, breadsticks, and gelato with amaretti.

Saturday night is typically pizza-making night for my family, and one of the standard features of these evenings is pizza with pesto and fresh tomatoes. I use a good store-bought pesto, and, although I once made the dough in my bread machine, I now purchase excellent dough at our local Bertucci's restaurant and keep plenty on hand in the freezer. The dinner is simple and delicious. A pizza stone is a worthwhile investment if you're partial to pizza with a crisp crust that doesn’t droop. For this recipe we used a large pizza stone (about 14 inches across). But don’t despair if you don't have one; we also achieved good results when we baked the pizza on a baking sheet.

Salsicce con l'Uva While this dish makes for excellent dinner fare, I personally prefer it served on a crusty roll for lunch along with a glass of Chianti Colli Aretini.... If you don't have good crusty bread on hand, make a few mashed potatoes while these sausages are roasting in the oven.

Romanesco cauliflower — with its cone-shaped florets — has a more subtle, nuanced flavor than traditional varieties. The size of Romanesco cauliflower can vary widely, so we call for weight in this recipe rather than number of heads.

Tuscan sweets tend to be simple and rustic, like this deliciously buttery, moist cake, similar in texture to marzipan. What to drink: Tuscany's famous Vin Santo, a dessert wine made from raisined grapes.

This pasta celebrates the month of September, when tomatoes are truly in full season and just exploding. It's our favorite take on pasta al pomodoro.

Parmesan isn't usually served with seafood pasta, but the cheese adds a nice richness to this linguine.

Using the fresh-tasting canned diced tomatoes eliminates the chopping step. Serve with: Arugula and radicchio salad.

Wonderful as a side dish with grilled sea bass, halibut, or marinated, skewered shrimp.

These cookies are a tradition during Lent (Quaresima) in Florence, Italy. They are easy, low in fat, and fun to make with children. If you are not a strict observer of Lent, you might use the egg yolks left over from this recipe to make schiacciata alla fiorentina, a festive flat bread popular with Florentines in the earlier season of Carnevale.

Salsa di Pomodoro d'Emilia Emilia would add a sprig of basil or rosemary or a glass of red wine along with the tomatoes, according to her mood. The sauce always turned out a bit differently, yet it was always delicious.

Sicilian caponata is a salad or side dish composed of several vegetables cooked separately and joined together by a sauce, often of tomato. Serve it as an antipasto or with grilled meat or fish. To keep artichokes from browning as trim them, run a paring knife through a lemon before each cut. The juice on the knife acidulates the surface of the artichoke.

The perfect picnic sandwich for summer.

Lombo di Maiale Ripieno di Mortadella con Patate Arrosto This dish was inspired by a truffled mortadella we tasted in Rome. Good-quality mortadella can be found at butcher shops, at Italian markets, and even in the deli section of many supermarkets. Active time: 1 hr Start to finish: 1 1/4 hr

Prosciutto is more familiar in this type of appetizer, but bresaola, beef fillet cured in a similar fashion, gives it a fresh interpretation. When paired with golden Spanish Manchego, the combination is deliciously bold in flavor.

Look for dried wild mushrooms at most supermarkets; they lend a wonderful richness to this dish, which is great with garlic bread. Begin with a colorful salad of escarole and roasted red bell peppers, and finish with a winter fruit salad of sliced bananas and kiwi, fresh pineapple chunks and red grapes.