Recipes with extra-virgin olive oil

13 recipes that use extra-virgin olive oil, with photos, step-by-step instructions and cook times. The quickest, Fagioli all'uccelletto, takes 40 minutes. It is most often cooked with garlic, egg and parmigiano reggiano.

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Frustingo

In the Marche, from Ancona down to Ascoli Piceno, frustingo is the dark, dense Christmas cake every family makes its own way, born as a thrifty sweet of dried figs, nuts and stale bread. Chopped figs are soaked and simmered, then mixed with walnuts, almonds, raisins, candied peel, cocoa and coffee, and bound with sapa, the thick cooked grape must of the region. Many recipes also add mistrà, a local aniseed liqueur; this one uses ground anise seed for an alcohol-free cake. It bakes into a fudgy, almost black slab, rich with spice and not too sweet. Chef's tip: let it mature for two days in foil before cutting; it slices cleanly and the flavours come together.

90 min

Italian Baking

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Schiacciata all'uva

Each September, when the grape harvest comes in, Florentine bakeries fill their windows with schiacciata all'uva, a thin, oily bread dough layered and topped with small black wine grapes and baked until the juice bubbles purple. It is sold by the slice from big trays and eaten at breakfast or as a mid-afternoon snack for just a few weeks. The traditional Canaiolo grapes have crunchy seeds, which are part of the texture; seedless black grapes work at home. The result is sticky, jammy, crisp at the edges and not too sweet. Chef's tip: squash the grapes slightly as you press them in so the juice runs into the dough and caramelises with the sugar.

145 min

Italian Baking

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Castagnaccio

When the new season's chestnut flour comes down from the Garfagnana, the Casentino and Monte Amiata in late October, Tuscan kitchens bake castagnaccio. It is a thin, dense, unleavened cake with no eggs, butter or sugar: just sweet chestnut flour, water and olive oil, studded with raisins, pine nuts and walnuts and scented with rosemary needles. The top cracks as it bakes, the middle stays moist and fudgy, and the flavour is earthy and gently sweet. Older Tuscans eat it with a glass of something; a spoon of ricotta alongside is lovely too. Chef's tip: sift the chestnut flour; it clumps easily, and lumps stay floury after baking.

55 min

Italian Baking

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Strangozzi al tartufo nero

Strangozzi are the rough-cut strips of flour-and-water pasta made around Spoleto and Norcia, in Umbria; the name is said to echo the leather laces once used to tie shoes, or, in a darker story, to strangle papal tax collectors. Norcia is famous for its black winter truffles, and here the dressing is nothing more than olive oil gently warmed with garlic and plenty of grated truffle, a dish served from December to March. The pasta is chewy and square-edged, and the sauce earthy and perfumed. Chef's tip: grate the truffle into warm, not hot, oil; truffle aroma fades fast with heat.

60 min

Italian Pasta & Noodles

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Zuppa di lenticchie di Castelluccio

High on the Piano Grande above Norcia, the plateau around Castelluccio turns into a carpet of flowers each June, and among them grow the tiny, speckled lentils the village is known for. They are so small and thin-skinned that they cook in under half an hour without soaking and hold their shape, which is why Umbrian cooks keep this soup simple: a soffritto of garlic, celery and onion, a little tomato, the lentils and good olive oil poured on at the end. It is a cold-weather supper, brothy and earthy, often served with toasted bread. Chef's tip: salt only at the end; salting early can toughen the skins of mountain lentils.

50 min

Italian Soups

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Torta al testo con verdure

Torta al testo takes its name from the testo, a heavy round of stone or cast iron that Umbrian families heat over the fire; around Perugia, Gubbio and Foligno it's cooked for village festivals and quick weekday dinners alike. Unlike the thin, pliable piadina of Romagna, it is a thick disc, around 2 cm, raised with a little bicarbonate, with a crisp, freckled crust and a soft, bready middle that is split open like a pitta and stuffed. The favourite filling is wilted greens with garlic and chilli; sausage is common at sagre but has no place here. Chef's tip: prick the disc all over with a fork before cooking, so it rises evenly and doesn't balloon.

45 min

Italian Breads & Parathas

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Fagioli all'uccelletto

Florentines are nicknamed mangiafagioli, bean-eaters, and this is the dish that earned it: creamy cannellini simmered in olive oil with whole sage leaves, crushed garlic and a little tomato. The name, 'little-bird style', comes from the sage and garlic once used to cook small game birds, though there has never been a bird in the pot. In trattorie it sits next to grilled meat as a side; served with crusty bread and greens it makes a full vegetarian supper. The beans should be soft and glossy in a thick, rust-coloured sauce. Chef's tip: let the sage and garlic sizzle gently in the oil before the tomato goes in; that scented oil is the whole flavour of the dish.

40 min

Italian Sides

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Acquacotta maremmana

Acquacotta, literally 'cooked water', is what the butteri, the cattle herders of the Tuscan Maremma, and charcoal burners made from whatever they carried: onions, a few vegetables, stale bread and, on a good day, an egg. Around Grosseto and the hills of Monte Amiata it is still a family supper in autumn and spring, ladled over toasted bread with an egg poached right in the soup. Slow-cooked onion makes it sweet and deep, the egg yolk runs into the broth and the bread turns soft and spoonable. Chef's tip: give the onions a full 20 minutes; the soup is only as good as their sweetness.

55 min

Italian Soups

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Torta pasqualina

Genoese families bake torta pasqualina for Easter Monday picnics, and it is just as good cold the next day as warm from the oven. Paper-thin sheets of olive-oil pastry enclose a deep layer of chard and ricotta, and whole eggs are cracked into hollows in the filling so that every slice shows a neat yellow and white circle. Old recipes boasted 33 pastry layers, one for each year of Christ's life; four sheets top and bottom give a crisp, flaky crust at home. The taste is mild and green, lifted with marjoram and hard cheese. Chef's tip: stretch the dough on the backs of your hands like strudel rather than only rolling it, and brush every sheet with oil, so the layers separate in the oven.

135 min

Italian Baking

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Panissa ligure

Panissa is farinata's quieter sister: the same chickpea flour and water, but stirred on the stove into a thick polenta, poured into a tray and left to set firm. In Genoa and along the Savona coast it turns up at friggitorie, the frying shops by the harbour, as golden sticks in a paper cone with salt and pepper; at home it is just as often cubed cold and dressed with raw onion, olive oil and lemon. Fried, it is crisp outside and creamy within, with a sweet, nutty taste. Chef's tip: make it the day before and chill it overnight; a well-set panissa cuts cleanly and doesn't spit in the oil.

170 min

Italian Snacks & Starters

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Corzetti con maggiorana e pinoli

On the Riviera di Levante, from the Fontanabuona valley down towards Chiavari, corzetti are pressed between two carved wooden stamps, so each thin disc carries a pattern on both faces: a family crest, a flower, a ship. Noble families once had their arms carved into them for festive tables. The ridges are there to hold a light sauce, and the simplest is melted butter with toasted pine nuts and fresh marjoram, the herb Ligurians reach for before basil. They have a firm, slightly chewy bite. Chef's tip: no stamp? Cut the discs with a 6 cm glass and press each with the bottom of a patterned glass or a carved wooden butter mould; any relief gives the sauce something to cling to.

60 min

Italian Pasta & Noodles

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Erbazzone reggiano

Bakeries in Reggio Emilia sell erbazzone in squares from big trays, and people eat it standing at the counter mid-morning or wrapped in paper for the walk home. It is a farmhouse pie of chard and spinach, sharp with spring onion and garlic and generous with Parmigiano, sealed in a very thin, crackly crust. The classic recipe uses lard in the pastry and often pancetta in the filling; both are left out here, and butter and olive oil make the crust. Serve it warm or at room temperature. Chef's tip: dry the greens thoroughly in the pan after blanching; erbazzone should be dense and green, never wet.

75 min

Italian Baking

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Pansoti con salsa di noci

In Genoa and the hills behind it, pansoti are the pasta of the spring greens: plump triangles stuffed with a bundle of wild and garden leaves the Ligurians call preboggion, bound with soft cheese. Instead of pesto they wear salsa di noci, a pale, nutty sauce pounded from walnuts, garlic and milk-soaked bread. The dough is lean, just flour and water, often with a splash of white wine; this version gives a water-only option for an alcohol-free plate. Expect a soft bite, a grassy filling and a sauce that tastes of autumn. Chef's tip: blanch the walnuts for a minute and rub off the papery skins; the sauce turns sweeter and stays cream-coloured instead of grey.

90 min

Italian Pasta & Noodles

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Goes well with extra-virgin olive oil