Famed chef, cookbook author and restaurateur Lidia Bastianich is stopping by TODAY to share a few of her signature Italian recipes from her newest cookbook, "Felidia: Recipes from My Flagship Restaurant." She shows us how to make melt-in-your-mouth ossobuco served with creamy risotto and penne with homemade ricotta.
Ossobuco is a recipe that goes back to the opening of my first restaurant, in 1971, and it was the favorite dish on the menu at Felidia in the 1980s. Combining good veal shanks with lots of vegetables and herbs, and simmering this for hours, results in fork-tender meat nestled in a complex and savory sauce.
Risotto Milanese is a sacred risotto in Milan, and, as much as chefs generally like to change and create, with this recipe Italian chefs usually stick to tradition. It can be served by itself or with ossobuco. For those who love Milan or have always wanted to visit that dynamic city, this dish will make you think you are there. It's Italian comfort food.
This dried-pasta dish is super easy to make. It's called "al brucio" because of the spicy flavor. It originally did not include ricotta, but that helps balance the spiciness of the sauce. You can also top it with a spoon of burrata at the very end, or even a slice of buffalo mozzarella. At Felidia, we make it with candele pasta, an extra-long, smooth pasta that is tubular, hollow and wide, like a rigatoni, and looks like a long candle.
If you like those classic Italian recipes, you should also try these:
