Parmesan

This is a B, L, or D: Breakfast, Lunch, or Dinner recipe.

Serve with tomato salad.

A pretty basic version to get you started.

Tagliata refers to Italian-style steaks that are cut thin and quickly cooked—all appealing to a 30-minute girl.

Stoup is what I call a meal that serves up thicker than a soup yet thinner than a stew. This hearty hunter’s chicken stoup is a family favorite of ours, especially on chilly nights.

This is a B-L-D meal: good for Breakfast, Lunch, or Dinner.

In this dish, the hot pasta is served atop a mound of lemon-flavored ricotta cheese. The heat from the pasta will warm the cheese and send the lemony scent straight to your nose.

This thick soup is a ribollita (stale bread soup) made with tons of tomatoes. Torello (literally, “The Bull”) from Florence makes his with tomatoes grown on his own land in Tuscany. At his restaurant, Il Latini, he taught me the manner—the only manner—in which one eats any type of ribollita: with chopped raw onions and a drizzle of EVOO on top. If you are not committed to this process or if you don’t do raw onions, skip this recipe. You’re not to eat it any other way. Torello will find out, and I’ll be in for it!

Serve with a green salad.

Serve with crusty bread.

I know it sounds odd, but my girl LOVED butternut squash! This dog might even go for it before a steak, especially if there were also pasta and cheese involved in the deal.

Thicker than soup, thinner than stew, this stoup combines sausage, ham, pepperoni, veggies, and arugula. It tastes like a giant Italian sub!