Light Lunch Northern Italy by Ruth Paget
Bargain shoppers can find many delicious yet inexpensive dishes for their weekly menus in Marlena de Blasi’s cookbook Regional Foods of Northern Italy. The 200 recipes in this book take readers beyond Venice to the Alps and wine growing regions: all delightful fare.
The following 5 dishes show off the elegant yet simple recipes of these lesser-known regions:
p. 29 – Salad of Arugula, Raw Porcini Mushrooms, and Pecorino Ceese (From the La Marche region south of Venice and Emilia-Romagna)
-arugula lettuce
-porcini mushrooms
-olive oil
-lemon zest
-mint leaves
-pecorino cheese
p. 32 – Pecorino Foccacia Flatbread (From the La Marche region south of Venice and Emilia-Romagna)
-Fennel-Chile oil for the topping
-For dough:
-yeast
-sugar
-water
-olive oil
-pecorino cheese
-flour
Flatbread dough just needs to be punched down once after rising, making it easier to make than a loaf of bread.
p. 56 – Tagliatelle Barberesco with Tomatoes and Mushrooms (From the Piedmont region, home of Italy’s most famous wine – Barolo)
-fresh pasta
-sweet butter
-shallots
-wild mushrooms
-tomato purée
-Barberesco wine
-bread crumbs
p. 58 – Hazelnut Sauce (From the Piedmont region)
-hazelnuts
-garlic
-olive oil
-cream
-Parmesan
-Dutch-process cocoa -cognac
p.88 – Whole Cheese-Stuffed Roasted Pumpkin (From the Friuli-Venezia Giulia region north of Venice)
-onions
-mushrooms
-mascarpone cheese
-Emmenthaler cheese
-Parmagiano cheese
-eggs
-white bread
-pumpkin
You alternate layers of mushrooms, bread, and cheese inside the pumpkin you roast for a great unexpected treat. To learn more about northern Italian cuisine, Marlena de Blasi’s Regional Foods of Northern Italy is a great introduction to these lesser-known recipes.
By Ruth Paget, author of Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France
