The Lipid Digest / Recipes from Campania / Recipes from Campania

Campanian kitchen · 22 recipes

Recipes from Campania

The food I grew up eating in Southern Italy — simple, honest, and Mediterranean to the bone.

These are family recipes from my original Italian cooking blog, started in 2008. No fancy techniques, no exotic ingredients. Pasta, legumes, olive oil, vegetables, and fish — the cucina povera of Campania that Ancel Keys studied in Pioppi and the Mediterranean diet research has since validated at the molecular level.

Each recipe has been rewritten here in two voices: the Campanian kitchen memory and the scientist’s eye. A brief science note — “A word from the lab” — appears in each one, not as a lecture but as an observation about what is actually happening in the pot.

Want the full science?

The Food as Medicine posts pair selected recipes with full peer-reviewed science. The recipe pages here contain the short version. The blog posts contain the argument.

Pasta · legumes
The heart of the Campanian table
Pasta e fagioli
White beans, garlic, olive oil. The dish that taught Campania what density means.
15 min
Pasta e ceci — quick version
Chickpeas and pasta in fifteen minutes. The pantry version.
15 min
Pasta e patate
The dish that teaches you everything about starch, patience, and the word pippiare.
30 min
Pasta · vegetables
The cucina povera tradition of making vegetables the protagonist
Pasta con cavolfiore
Cauliflower cooked until it almost dissolves. In bianco or in rosso.
30 min
Pasta con funghi e pomodorini
Mushrooms and cherry tomatoes — discovered by looking in the fridge.
15 min
Pasta · tomato
The canon — every shape of pasta finds its sauce here
Spaghetti aglio e olio
The midnight classic. Garlic, oil, chili, parsley. Nothing else.
10 min
Ziti al pomodoro
Sunday pasta from Naples. Break the ziti by hand.
30 min
Spaghetti al pomodoro fresco
What August tastes like. Fresh tomatoes barely cooked.
20 min
Bucatini all'arrabbiata con pecorino
The pasta that whistles. Pecorino Romano — not Parmesan.
15 min
Pasta con ricotta e pomodoro
All the flavors of lasagna in twenty minutes.
20 min
Pasta con carne e cipolle
Ground beef, onions, wine. What the refrigerator provides.
20 min
Pasta · fish
The Campanian coastline on a plate
Pasta al salmone
The pink sauce. Salmon, tomato, a little cream.
15 min
Risotto
The technique that cannot be rushed
Risotto agli asparagi
The spring announcement. Twenty minutes of stirring.
20 min
Risotto agli spinaci
The spinach dissolves. The rice absorbs it. Everything turns green.
20 min
Risotto con patate
Rice and potatoes. The combination that surprises everyone.
30 min
Eggs
One ingredient that contains everything
Frittata di cipolle
When the refrigerator is empty, it is not really empty.
10 min
Rice
The less-known Southern Italian rice tradition
Riso al pomodoro
Boiled Arborio rice with tomato sauce. Unthinkable to some. Ordinary in Campania.
20 min
Soups
The January kitchen
Zuppa di kale e fagioli
Restorative in the specific way that January requires.
20 min
Sauces
The foundations
Il ragu di Peppe
Named after me. Made the way my mother made it. Minimum thirty minutes.
45 min+
Basics
The techniques that underlie everything else
Come si cuoce la pasta
My father's method. Read the package. Trust the number.
—
Come si condisce l'insalata
Olive oil, salt, lemon. The only dressing.
2 min
Pasta in bianco
Butter, Parmesan, pasta. The first dish. The right answer.
10 min
Originally published on easy-italian-recipes.blogspot.com (2008) · Migrated and rewritten for The Lipid Digest