Easy Italian Recipes

Cooking from the Hearth

Landlocked Umbria lies at the center of Italy, with Tuscany to the west, the Marches to the east, and Lazio to the south. Often called the green heart of Italy and home to many of the country's most famous hill towns, Umbria is a rolling patchwork of olive groves, vineyards, fields, and forests. Food here is hearty and direct, and meat reigns supreme, especially pork and game, such as boar and hare. The pork butchers of Norcia are so famous for their sausages and salumi that norcineria is the name used for similar butcher shops in much of Italy. Umbrian food is a cuisine of the hearth, with meats and sausage slowly roasted or grilled over wood embers. Black truffles appear in autumn, contributing flavor to pastas and other dishes. Like Tuscans,Umbrians like their bread sciapo, or "unsalted" a fitting counterpoint to the often highly salted food of the region. Notable Umbrian wines include Orvieto Classico, a renowned white, and Sagrantino di Montefalco, a lush, full-bodied red.

Culinary Signature: Porchetta

Pork and wood-fire roasting, two hallmarks of Umbrian cooking, achieve their highest expression in porchetta, a regional specialty that is now found throughout centrai Italy. To make it, a whole pig is boned, stuffed with garlic and herbs—usually fennel and rosemary—salted liberally, and slowly roasted until the skin is golden and crisp and the meat tender and succulent. Because home ovens are not large enough to hold a whole pig, the job is left to professionals, who sell porchetta by the slice and in freshly made sandwiches at local markets and along roadsides.

Regional Specialties

Umbricelli flour-and-water pasta hand rolled into individuai strands like thick spaghetti, often served with meat ragù or tornato sauce

Torta al testo flatbread cooked on rustic griddles, then split and stuffed with pork sausage, cooked greens, prosciutto, or other savory fillings

Bruschetta and crostini toasted bread topped with olive oil and garlic, tomatoes, or savory spreads, such as liver Ote, fava bean puree, or truffle paste

Porcini large wild mushrooms (also known outside Italy as cèpes) with a meaty consistency, often roasted or sauteéd and tossed with pasta.

Lentils Italy's most famous tiny legumes are grown in the high plains of Castelluccio

Chocolate the Perugina candy company takes its name from its hometown, Perugia, the region's capita)

Photo: Bruschetta can be made with all sorts of toppings, the simplest being a rub of garlic and a drizzle of extravirgin olive oil. Fresh summery tomatoes and basil are a classic topping for this iconic antipasto.