What is your favourite Italian dish and why?

Answer 1

Risotto Crema di Scampi
Eating this dish reminds me of Rome. The first time I ate this was in the summer of 1993 when a friend took me to a restaurant with an amazing roof garden overlooking the city. It was a memorable meal - a beautiful summer's evening spent with good friends. This dish brings back that memory. When it is just right the sauce is creamy but you must add a bit of fresh tomato, which lightens the sauce and gives it a lovely pink colour. The scampi must be the freshest possible of course, because that makes all the difference to eating this dish.
Pizza Primavera
To make this pizza you put plain pizza dough into the oven to cook. Nothing else - no tomato sauce on top - nothing. When it is cooked, take it out and put buffalo mozzarella and cherry tomatoes on top. You must use cherry tomatoes because you need their sweetness. Both the tomatoes and the mozarella are cold and uncooked. When the cheese comes into contact with the hot pizza bread it will melt slightly. That is what is special about this pizza - the contrast between the hot and the cold. The pizza is called 'Primavera' - which means spring - because of that contrast.
Bocatini alla Matriciana
This is a family dish that was first cooked for me by my parents when I was a kid. The pasta used in it is long and spaghetti-like but it is tubed and also a bit wider. This is a typical Roman dish made with simple and traditional ingredients - bacon and tomato. However, equally important is adding just the right amount of chilli to spice it up a little. You do not want to eat this dish when you're wearing a white shirt and about to go out later on in the evening - you're going to get tomato sauce everywhere. You have to be really careful when you're eating because its difficult to twist your fork properly because the pasta is bigger than spaghetti. It can get very messy.

Answer 2

Risotto Crema di Scampi
Eating this dish reminds me of Rome. The first time I ate this was in the summer of 1993 when a friend took me to a restaurant with an amazing roof garden overlooking the city. It was a memorable meal - a beautiful summer's evening spent with good friends. This dish brings back that memory. When it is just right the sauce is creamy but you must add a bit of fresh tomato, which lightens the sauce and gives it a lovely pink colour. The scampi must be the freshest possible of course, because that makes all the difference to eating this dish.

Answer 3

I actually have several favorite Italian dishes! The one I order most frequently, or make at home, however is Spaghetti Bolognes with meatballs. I know, typical meatsauce with meatballs, but I've found that the flavorings in this dish are rich, satisfying, and filling. When I make it at home, I love to smell the sauce simmering on the stove. My meatballs contain parmesan cheese, soft bread crumbs, and I put a cube of mozarella in the middle of them before baking them in the oven. When they are nearly cooked thru, I put them in the sauce to finish. Perhaps its the smells, the tastes and the textures of this very simply dish, I don't know. My family and friends love it too!

Answer 4

i have to say the sphagetti Bolognese.
this is because it is such a simple dish to make and tastes great. i cook from vertually scratch, ie no bolognese sauce and this gives me a chance to experiment within the recipe.
for example
use baked beans, gets a veg mix plus tomato suace (this was a student invention, but im sure other students do it)
worchester sauce is a perfect addition
play around with the cheese sprinkled on top
change the meat
change the sauce
add pepper

there are so many variations it never becomes a boring dish
and its still simple

Answer 5

Pasta marinara. I'd been back packing in Europe, and it was the first decent sit-down meal I'd had in two and a half weeks, in an Italian restaurant, in, of all places, Poland.

Closely followed in the voting, by Sophia Loren. She's always been my other favourite Italian 'dish'.

Answer 6

Ciao!

I'm Anglo-Italian, I eat only Italian food, and I shop at Sainsbury's every week (the Tollgate branch in Colchester). I'd like to say a big "grazie!" to you for stocking such a great range of pasta (made in Italy!) and olive oil - your competitors are simply unwilling to provide for the shopping requirements of an Italian diet.

Now, my favourite dish. Difficult. I have several ... including risotto alla milanese (with pancetta, parmigiano reggiano and saffron), tagliatelle con il ragu' bolognese, risotto alla senese (with salame, pecorino and Chianti), and of course pizza!! (made with your foil-packed bases, Napolina tomatoes, garlic, olives and mozzarella) ... but my absolute favourite has to be the classic dish of Rome, bucatini all'amatricana (and you can't get bucatini in any other supermarket). Like many Italian recipes, this is such a great dish, because not only does it taste fantastic, it's also really quick and easy to make. This is how I do it: it makes four servings and freezes well:

finely chop two smallish onions and fry gently in olive oil until they begin to turn golden;
in a separate pan, fry a double pack of pancetta on a medium high heat until well cooked;
add the pancetta to the onions;
add a glass of Italian white wine and evaporate;
add two tins of Napolina plum tomatoes;
add a generous grinding of black pepper;
simmer gently for 30-45 minutes;
meanwhile, get a large covered saucepan of water up to the boil ...
put your bucatini in, add a generous pinch of salt and boil for exactly six and a half minutes (not a moment longer, despite what it says on the pack - years of experience have taught me that all your suggested cooking times for dried pasta are way over the al dente mark, sorry!) ...
drain the pasta, return to the pan, add some olive oil (I love your organic oil from Lauropoli in Calabria!) and the sugo all'amatriciana - stir well on the warm ring (turned off) for a minute, add grated pecorino romano (again, you are the only supermarket who sells this) ... serve with an Italian red wine, my favourite is "Brindisi" from Puglia ... Buon Appetito!
When I cook amatriciana sauce on a calm Saturday night, it makes the whole street smell like Rome!

A small request, if I may? I would love it if you would stock 'NDUJA - it's a traditional Calabrian condiment made from sun-dried chilli peppers and pork fat, and really essential for the regional cookery of Calabria - I can't get it anywhere.

Keep doing what you're doing ... the Italian community in Britain appreciates what you do for us, thank you.

Answer 7

I have too many favorite italain recipes. Lasagna is one of my favorites I make. I'm extra proud of that one b/c i'm not italian, but married into an italian family, and none are too pleased my lasagna is better! My favorite my husband makes is his home made pesto sauce. He first made it like 8 years ago, before it was on all the menus like it is now. And his is still the best i've ever had.

Answer 8

My favourite is lasagne, home made.
Include spinach in one of the layers and it's a lovely one dish meal.
Also if it's cooked in a one person dish, there's even less washing up.

Answer 9

I love Italian food and I could live on it with no problems at all.
My favourite at the moment is Tuscan chicken a delicious low fat combination of succulent chicken, mushrooms, peppers, onions and herbs. Served on a bed of smooth mashed potatoes seasoned with basil and rosemary.

Answer 10

I love all Italian food but mushroom rissotto is up there at the top closley followed by fresh ravioli sfuffed with spinach and ricotta, yum.