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In Italy perhaps better than anywhere else, you can practically set your watch by what's in season. The markets are overflowing and omnipresent, the celebration of food intrinsic to Italian daily life. All year long, sagre (Italian for "local festivals") color Italian cities and villages, each a party for a beloved regional food — pistachios in Bronte, cherries in Lari, focaccia — in Recco — at exactly the moment it hits its peak. A beautiful thing.
It's a good reminder to embrace a single, usually fresh ingredient as the backbone of a meal, whatever's in season or calling your name from the farmstand: favas in their stubborn jackets, bristly but beautiful artichokes, fragrant red peppers. Or, alternately, to emulate a dish that is so tried and true that it has its own sagra (or, at least, its own place in a feverishly protected and upheld canon), like cacio e pepe or amatriciana.
Pasta + fresh, seasonal ingredients? Sigh, happiness. | (Julia Gartland/Courtesy Food52)
Of course, we all want to be the sort of person who whips up a full carbonara or cooks lobster on a weeknight — and perhaps some of you out there are — but we mere mortals have to pick our battles. If you're going to splurge on screaming-around-the-corner-and-into-season-on-two-wheels fava beans and get dinner on the table, you know, tonight, fava beans can't be the only thing you're serving. Over pasta, they'll stretch further, for one thing, and also save a bit of work and money. (Even better, with a cheese-filled pasta, you don't even have to worry about protein or anything — you can just busy yourself with making the sauce or various add-ins as excellent as possible.)
Here are a few ideas — and some favorites — to get you started: Light lift, Italian-inspired fresh pasta dinners that take cues from that produce you'll want to stretch as far as you can.
1. The 5-ingredient Italian appetizer that's sweet, bitter, salty, creamy, & crunchy all in one bite: Cheese ravioli or tortellini + a handful of chicories (like radicchio or endive or escarole) oiled and charred briefly under a broiler or on a grill, cooled, and chopped into ribbons + grated pecorino + a drizzle of honey
(Emiko Davies/Courtesy Food52)
2. Warm, cheesy, baked gnocchi: An utterly comforting, 5-ingredient weeknight bake à la Jane Poretsky.
(Julia Gartland/Courtesy Food52)
3. Lobster fra diavolo: Lobster ravioli + tomato sauce kicked up with chile flakes
4. This 5-ingredient summer stew from Puglia gets better with time: Any kind of pasta at all, sliced red peppers and ripe tomatoes sautéed with garlic, and torn basil.
(Emiko Davies/Courtesy Food52)
5. Bagna cauda (Piedmontese warm garlic-anchovy dip): Gnocchi and smashed garlic and anchovies sizzled in olive oil.
(Courtesy Food52)
6. Eggplant parm: Cheese tortellini or ravioli + eggplant sautéed with chile flakes + tomato sauce + torn basil + toasted breadcrumbs
7. Fava party!!: Cheese or spinach ravioli + peeled and blanched fava beans + slivers of fresh mint + a squeeze of lemon juice
8. Al funghi: Cheese or mushroom ravioli + butter-and-thyme sautéed wild mushrooms + shower of pecorino
9. Creamy lemon tortellini with sugar snap peas and soppressata: From Merrill, a creamy, lemony meal inspired equally by Italian dinners in New York and weeknight meals for her family.
(Julia Gartland/Courtesy Food52)
10. Creamy saffron: Gnocchi + a pinch of saffron steeped in a little hot broth or water + butter + Parmesan + splash white wine
11. Artichoke: Cheese or artichoke ravioli or tortellini + artichoke hearts sautéed in garlicky olive oil + lots of lemon juice + toasted breadcrumbs
12. Pizza: Cheese (especially mozzarella!) tortellini or ravioli + tomato sauce + black olives
13. Cacio e pepe con ricotta: In Rome, Ali Slagle had cacio e pepe — pasta pecorino or Parmesan or both with lots of black pepper — with an additional dollop of ricotta over the top, and suggests you do the same.
(Julia Gartland/Courtesy Food52)