By Maren, Lead Online Marketing at Princess Goes Hollywood
I’ve been travelling regularly to Italy for years. For work, because hardly any other country offers more beautiful backdrops for our photoshoots. Privately, because this country captures me anew every time – with that feeling of standing in history, strolling through narrow alleys that have been the same for centuries, and at the same time having the best plate of pasta of the year in front of you. La Dolce Vita is not a marketing term. It is an attitude. And nowhere is it understood better than in Italy.
By now, I know almost all parts of the country: Puglia and the Amalfi Coast, Sicily and Tuscany, Veneto and Calabria. What I've learned is this: the strongest memories are created at the sights, as well as while eating and strolling through old towns that you would ideally never want to leave.
Good food in Italy is not a question of budget or a restaurant guide. It is a question of simplicity. Few ingredients, best quality, no compromises. That's the secret – and it's no secret at all.
Here are the seven dishes you should know, have eaten, and ideally, have cooked yourself.
Burrata with Tomatoes – The Simplest Perfection
Anyone who eats a truly good burrata for the first time – creamy, fresh, with the light milky taste that combines with ripe tomatoes and good olive oil – understands why Italians cook so little and eat so well. This is not a recipe. This is a philosophy.
We ate the best one in Puglia. Freshly made, at room temperature, on a bed of rocket and tomatoes, with a hint of pesto next to it. No unnecessary thoughts in the world.
Recipe: Burrata with Tomatoes and Olive Oil
Ingredients for 2 people: 1–2 fresh burrata, 3–4 ripe tomatoes (Cuore di bue or San Marzano), best extra virgin olive oil, Fleur de Sel, black pepper, fresh basil, optional: aged balsamic vinegar.
Preparation: Slice tomatoes, arrange on a plate. Take burrata out of the fridge at least 30 minutes before serving. Place in the centre, gently cut open so the cream flows out. Drizzle generously with olive oil. Fleur de Sel, pepper, basil. Done.
The quality of the olive oil makes all the difference here. A good, cold-pressed olive oil from Puglia or Sicily is not a luxury – it is a necessity.
Granita al Pistacchio – Sicily's Coldest Bliss
When the Sicilian sun is really scorching and no gelato can help anymore, there's granita. Semi-frozen, intensely aromatic, with a texture somewhere between ice cream and snow. In Sicily, you eat it for breakfast – with a brioche that you dip into the granita. It sounds strange. It's the best.
Our recommendation: Pistachio instead of lemon. We ate the best one at the Duomo of Cefalù, right on the piazza, while the Norman tower glowed in the morning light and the city slowly woke up. An image that stays with you.
Recipe: Granita al Pistacchio con Panna
Ingredients for 4 people: 150g unsalted, shelled pistachios, 500ml water, 120g sugar, 200ml whipping cream, 1 tbsp icing sugar.
Preparation: Finely grind pistachios. Boil water with sugar until dissolved, remove from heat. Stir in pistachio flour, strain through a fine sieve, let cool. Pour into a shallow metal tin. Freeze for 4–5 hours, scraping with a fork every 30 minutes to form the characteristic ice crystals. Whip cream with icing sugar until stiff. Fill glasses with granita, top with panna, serve immediately with fresh brioche.
Arancini – Sicily's Best Invention
Arancini are Sicily's answer to the question: What do you do with leftover risotto? You shape it into small balls, fill it, bread it, and deep-fry it until golden. The result is so good that you'll soon have no leftover risotto because you'll cook risotto especially for arancini.
In Sicily, you find them in every display case: lined up like small golden trophies, round in Palermo, pointed in Catania. Our favourite version: spinach and ricotta instead of ragu – and the one we cook most often.
Recipe: Arancini con Spinaci e Ricotta
Ingredients for 8–10 pieces: For the rice: 300g risotto rice (Arborio), 1 litre vegetable broth, 50g Parmesan, 2 egg yolks, a pinch of saffron, salt. For the filling: 300g fresh spinach, 200g ricotta, 50g Parmesan, salt, pepper, nutmeg. For breading: 2 eggs, breadcrumbs, flour, oil for frying.
Preparation: Cook rice in saffron broth until done and dry, mix with Parmesan and egg yolks, let cool. Briefly sauté spinach in olive oil, squeeze and chop coarsely. Mix with ricotta, Parmesan, salt, pepper and nutmeg, let cool. Form rice into balls, make a hollow, fill with spinach-ricotta, close. Coat in flour, egg and breadcrumbs. Fry at 175 degrees until golden brown. Drain on paper towels. Serve warm – or lukewarm, if you can't wait.
Orecchiette with Tomato, Basil, and Stracciatella – in an Osteria in Otranto
Orecchiette are the pasta of Puglia. These small, hand-shaped ear shells made from durum wheat semolina are found on tables throughout the region. The best version we ever ate was served to us in a small osteria in the old town of Otranto. Rustic dishes, no frills, no tourist menu, and a plate of orecchiette with fresh tomatoes, wild basil, and stracciatella on top.
Stracciatella is the filling of burrata: that stringy, creamy mixture of mozzarella and cream. Poured over hot pasta, it melts into the sauce and combines into something so simple and so perfect that you briefly forget where you are.
Recipe: Orecchiette con Pomodoro, Basilico e Stracciatella
Ingredients for 2 people: 200g orecchiette (preferably fresh or handmade), 400g ripe cherry tomatoes, 2 cloves garlic, 4 tbsp olive oil, 150g stracciatella, fresh basil, salt, black pepper, optional: peperoncino.
Preparation: Sauté garlic in olive oil over medium heat, do not brown. Add tomatoes and simmer for 10–12 minutes until soft and forming a light sauce. Season with salt, pepper, and optional peperoncino. Cook pasta al dente, drain, add directly to the sauce and toss well. Arrange on plates, spoon stracciatella over it, tear basil over it. Serve immediately.
Spaghetti alle Vongole – The Sea on Your Plate
There's a dish you have to eat on the right coast once before you try to recreate it. Not because the recipe is difficult, but because you first need to understand what it should taste like. Spaghetti alle Vongole is sea, garlic, white wine, and fresh mussels. That's all there is to it.
My tip: We ate the best version at Boca Marina Ristorante Pizzeria in Marina di Modica, a small fishing village in southern Sicily. Unassuming from the outside, right on the beach, a small menu and slightly old-fashioned charm. Homemade spaghetti, vongole that were still in the sea that morning... delizioso.
Recipe: Spaghetti alle Vongole
Ingredients for 2 people: 200g spaghetti, 600g fresh vongole (clams), 2 cloves garlic, 1 small dried chili pepper, 150ml dry white wine, 3 tbsp olive oil, fresh parsley, salt.
Preparation: Soak vongole in cold salted water for at least 2 hours to release sand, then rinse. Cook pasta al dente in plenty of salted water. Briefly sauté garlic in olive oil, add chili. Add vongole, pour in white wine, cover and steam for 3–4 minutes until all mussels are open. Remove any closed mussels. Add pasta directly to the pan, toss everything. Add pasta water as needed. Sprinkle with parsley, serve immediately. No Parmesan with seafood. In Italy, it's an affront.
Tartufo di Pizzo – Calabria's Best Dessert
Anyone traveling through Calabria cannot bypass Pizzo. And anyone passing through Pizzo cannot bypass Tartufo. This hand-shaped ice cream ball of chocolate and hazelnut, with a liquid chocolate filling inside, is the region's most famous dessert – invented in Pizzo Calabro, now on every menu throughout Calabria.
We ate ours in Tropea: pistachio ice cream, pistachio cream, dark chocolate crumble on a white plate. A dessert that looks like art and tastes like the perfect end to a long summer's day.
Recipe: Tartufo di Pizzo con Crumble al Cioccolato
Ingredients for 4 pieces: For the Tartufo: 300g chocolate ice cream, 4 tbsp dark chocolate sauce, 100g chopped hazelnuts. For the pistachio ice cream: 150g pistachio ice cream. For the crumble: 80g dark cocoa powder, 60g flour, 60g cold butter, 50g sugar, 1 pinch of salt.
Preparation Crumble: Mix all ingredients into coarse crumbs, bake on a baking sheet at 175 degrees for 12–15 minutes. Let cool.
Preparation Tartufo: Press a hollow into the chocolate ice cream, pour in chocolate sauce, close, form into a ball. Roll in chopped hazelnuts. Freeze for at least 2 hours.
Serving: Place Tartufo on a plate, pistachio ice cream next to it, crumble over it. Serve immediately.
Pasta al Limone – Amalfi on a Plate
There's no dish that captures the spirit of the Amalfi Coast better than Pasta al Limone. Few ingredients, ready in twenty minutes, and yet so good you'll wipe the plate clean twice. The secret lies in the quality of the lemon – and in making the sauce truly from the zest and juice, not from a bottle.
Recipe: Pasta al Limone
Ingredients for 2 people: 200g spaghetti or linguine, 1 untreated lemon (zest and juice), 80ml whipping cream, 40g freshly grated Parmesan, 2 tbsp butter, salt, black pepper, fresh basil leaves.
Preparation: Cook pasta in well-salted water until al dente. Melt butter in a pan, add lemon zest, sauté briefly. Add cream, reduce slightly. Transfer pasta directly from the water to the pan, add a little cooking water. Stir in lemon juice and Parmesan until a creamy sauce forms. Serve with basil and black pepper. Eat immediately – pasta waits for no one.
The trick: The cooking water is the gold of pasta cooking. It binds the sauce and gives it body. Always save a cup before draining the water.
The Secret of Italian Cuisine
It's no secret. It's respect – for the ingredients, for simplicity, for time. A good dish doesn't need twenty ingredients. It needs three very good ones.
And of course: the food tastes better sitting in a lively, historic piazza or by the sea. And what the perfect outfit for that is, is shown in our Dolce Vita Collection and the Bella Italia Collection. You can find more inspiration for your Italian summer in our Aperitivo Drinks Guide, the Must-See Italy Guide and the Girlfriends Guide Rome.
