Gorgonzola

I have a big pet peeve with most egg salads: too many are loaded with mayo, which ruins their texture and makes them bland. My version still has a little mayo, but I add mild Gorgonzola and lemon zest, which not only brings a classic Italian flavor and freshness to the sandwich but also keeps the salad moist. Crispy pancetta makes this recipe brunch-worthy, and while you can certainly substitute bacon, it’s a lot less Italian that way.

Portobello mushrooms are one of the most versatile, hearty, and prized ingredients in Italian cooking. When I see large, meaty portobellos at the grocery store, I immediately think of all the ways my mother prepared them, and one of my favorites was grilled and stuffed with sausage, Gorgonzola, and fresh herbs. Serve the mushrooms as a side dish or as a meal in itself. Either way, you’ll be surprised at how quickly they disappear.

Tomatoes are a staple ingredient in Italian cooking, and this dish is inspired by the beautiful image of vast fields of sweet vine-ripened tomatoes that are a common sight in southern Italy. The bright, concentrated flavors of the tomatoes in this dish make them a great simple accompaniment to grilled fish or meats. Actually, they are so delicious you’ll want to serve them on their own as an antipasto; just pop them right into your mouth. Each tomato holds its shape as it cooks and becomes sweet and tender, with a golden crust and gooey cheese in the center. My mouth waters just thinking about it!

This is a dish typically found in the Lombardy region of Italy, or in the Veneto. The extra-creamy consistency of this risotto belies its bold flavors: each super-rich bite is woodsy and earthy all in one. Because it’s so rich, a small portion makes a big impact. I serve it with a simple side salad and a full-bodied red wine, such as a Barbera.

Olives stuffed with cheese and fried are a classic bar snack commonly found in Naples and in Sicily. I like to mix the Gorgonzola with a bit of ricotta to tame its strong flavor. Unlike most fried foods, these can be made ahead of time and they will still be delicious a good while later. Pile them on a platter for a party and watch them disappear.

There are pasta sauces you can make in the time it takes the pasta-cooking water to come to a boil, and there are those that are really fast—those that can be made in the eight to ten minutes it takes to actually cook the pasta. This is one of the latter, one that boasts just a couple of main ingredients and a supporting cast of two staples.

As far a cry from iceberg lettuce and bottled dressing as you can imagine, this is a magical combination of powerful flavors made without cooking or any major challenges. Simple as this salad is, without top-quality ingredients it won’t amount to much. So use sherry or good balsamic vinegar to make the dressing, use pears that are tender and very juicy, not crunchy, mushy, or dry, and use real Italian Gorgonzola. It should be creamy; if you can taste it before buying, so much the better. This rich salad can serve as the centerpiece of a light lunch, accompanied by little more than bread. It makes an equally great starter for a grand dinner—followed by roasted meat or fish, for example—or a simple one, served with soup.

Green beans are delicious, but they can get boring. But letting a little gorgonzola melt into the beans gives them a marvelous complexity. This is great as an appetizer or a side dish with grilled meats.

This appetizer torta is made with chilled polenta, not soft polenta like a pasticciata. It’s as rich as any dessert cake but much simpler and faster. Make it in any size you want, but even this small cake will be enough to serve six uninhibited eaters.

Early February, icy-cold day. I find great spinach in the shops but little to go with it. I grab a bag of those factory-made vacuum-packed gnocchi that always make me feel as if I have just eaten a duvet. With cream, blue cheese, and spinach, they have a rib-sticking quality that would keep out arctic cold, let alone a bit of urban chill. Sometimes I just need food like this.

Pasta sends me to sleep. Actually, it always has. It’s just that for years I failed to make the connection between my postprandial tiredness and what had been on my plate. I now take my dough of flour, eggs, and water in much smaller quantities, using it as the supporting actor rather than the lead. The result is a fresher, less heavy plate, yet somehow just as comforting. In many cases the pasta is padded out with vegetables: spinach, mushrooms, tomatoes, eggplants, peas, cavolo nero, or broccoli. Members of the broccoli family work rather well with pasta, the folds and hollows of the cooked dough neatly holding onto crumbs of green vegetable. In what follows, we get a lot of pleasure for very little work: a plateful of soothing carbs with a creamy, cheesy sauce and masses of lightly cooked green vegetables. In short, a cheap, quick weekday supper.

You haven’t had a baked ziti like this before. Our version of this traditional favorite enhances the flavor with a creamy co-mingling of tangy Gorgonzola, nutty fontina, mozzarella, and sharp Parmesan cheese. Since this is such a rich and filling dish, it’s great to serve when entertaining both vegetarians and meat lovers. Who doesn’t love cheesy baked pasta? If you can’t find Gorgonzola or fontina at your local market, you can substitute! Use regular ol’ blue cheese for the Gorgonzola and replace the fontina with shredded Italian cheese mix. These prepared cheese mixes usually include a variety of tasty Italian cheeses that complement this dish perfectly.

People think fresh figs are elegant—and this preparation definitely is. To be honest, figs are not my favorite fruit, but when I make them this way I really love ’em. They are a quick and easy (Q&E) piccolino. Cut ’em, stuff ’em, and roast ’em until everything melts and gets all toasty—it’s SOOOOO easy!

My kids, Ella, Lulu, and Harry, love making pizza at home and getting their hands in the dough. You don’t need a special oven to make great pizza at home, although I recommend purchasing a pizza stone from your local kitchen store to ensure a crispy and crunchy crust. While you are at it, pick up a pizza paddle too. They often are sold as a set and run only around $30, so they’re not a major investment. The pizza dough in Basics is extremely versatile and can be topped with basically anything you can come up with. Here I wanted to come up with a vegetarian pizza that was so packed with interesting flavors, no one would miss the meat. Radicchio and arugula provide a slightly bitter balance to the melted and wondrous cheeses.

Most of us have had the classic egg-and-bacon sandwich. When conceiving of our own, we were inspired by the French salad of frisée au lardons, in which the bacon lardons are rendered and warmed up, gorgonzola is used for the dressing, and the frisée is tossed into the mix, becoming warm and wilted. Here, we have essentially married the salad and the classic sandwich, and the resulting ’wich illustrates that, by just doing a little more, you can take a standard sandwich to a higher realm. If you are preparing this recipe for a large number of people, you can fry the eggs and set them aside on parchment paper on a tray, popping them in the oven to heat them just a bit when you’re ready to assemble the sandwiches. This sandwich would be great made with poached eggs, as well.

The beauty of a dish like this is that you get just enough meat to feel satisfied that you’ve had a substantial meal, but you’ve actually consumed a much greater proportion of healthy greens than of red meat. Plus, it can serve four people on the budget of one steak.

As an alternative to mashed potatoes, try making this mouthwatering polenta. Nearly any easily melted cheese will do, but I happen to love the taste of the king of Italian blue cheese, Gorgonzola. It’s available in either sweet (dolce) or more tangy (piccante) versions, and the choice is really up to you. If you have access to a good cheese counter, they’ll let you taste before you buy. And if Gorgonzola isn’t available but you still want to make this dish—and trust me, you really do—you can use any good blue cheese, such as Roquefort, Stilton, or Bleu d’Auvergne.

Artichokes take a little time to prepare, but it’s time well spent for a dish this extraordinary. The filling becomes hot, bubbly, and creamy, like an individual serving of warm artichoke dip for each diner. You can get most of the prep work out of the way well ahead of time, too; the artichokes can be boiled earlier in the morning and baked later or, if you prefer, the whole dish can be prepared a day in advance, as it reheats very well.