Giada's Borlotti (Cranberry) Beans

Borlotti beans embody rustic Italian cucina povera—nutty, creamy, protein-rich, antioxidant-packed, wholesome, and deeply satisfying.

Borlotti (Cranberry) Beans

You've probably noticed that Southern influencers who video their recipes for social media tend to be pretty heavy-handed on the seasoning. Honestly? I gotta admit, it kinda freaks me out sometimes just how much they use!

I try to keep my published recipes with a lighter hand, with the understanding that everybody can choose to omit, reduce or increase certain seasonings to their own tastes.

Measure with your heart as they say!

Still, there are some things that just taste good out of the simplicity of them.

A spicy, slow-simmered red sauce made with tomatoes, garlic, olive oil and red pepper flakes and tossed with penne pasta. Here I've added a few additional seasonings, some chopped sweet onion and finished it with fresh Parmesan cheese and parsley.

Spicy Arrabiata Sauce with Pasta

The word arrabiata (ah-rah-BYAH-tah) literally translates into the word "angry" and it's the heat from the addition of red pepper flakes here that earned the sauce the name, setting it apart from other more traditional Italian sauces.

If you enjoy a little heat in your sauce, start with the lesser amount of red pepper flakes. If you are already a lover of super spicy, increase that according to your personal taste.

While you can use fresh tomatoes, this sauce is often made using shelf-stable canned tomatoes, whether home canned or commercially bought, so it's an easy pasta sauce that can be prepared from the pantry anytime.

Italian sausage, sweet peppers and onions, slow baked with crushed and diced tomatoes, olive oil and seasonings, served here on buttered and toasted rolls.

Baked Italian Sausage and Peppers

I love Italian sausage and peppers, but it never occurred to me to cook it in the oven.

While I think that this dish is not really authentic Italian, but more of a fusion of Italian with American, Italians do cook a lot of sausages, though the kinds do vary by region. Typically when authentic Italian sausages are referenced, it means salamina or salame da sugo, cotechino, zampone, or capello del prete and not the typical sweet or hot Italian sausages in our markets here in the U.S.

I love eating this dish, especially on a good sturdy bun, but mostly prepared it in what I thought was the more traditional manner - whole sausages, browned off in a skillet of oil, set aside while sliced peppers and onions are sauteed in that same skillet, then everything combined together.

Italian Chopped Salad Sandwich (TikTok - My Way)

An Italian chopped salad of lettuce, assorted Italian meats, black forest smoked ham, salami and provolone cheese, finished with olive salad and a homemade creamy Italian dressing, served on a hoagie or sub bun.

Italian Chopped Salad Sandwich

Y'all may remember this sandwich circulating on social media awhile back. I think it started as a TikTok Italian grinder sandwich with all of the meats layered up on a roll like you'd get at any good sandwich shop. From there, it appears that somebody thought to chop it all up together like a salad and then pile it on a bun.

Brilliant!

As always, multiple variations arose from whatever the original was as everybody put their own spin on it. Most of them actually do chop up the tomato with the rest of the ingredients but I really didn't want the juices of the tomatoes mixed it, so I opted for adding the tomatoes sliced to dress the final sandwich, if someone wanted them and then finished with a creamy dressing.

The flavors you love in a saucy and cheesy baked ziti, made one pot easy using uncooked pasta in an Instant Pot! Round out the meal with sweet tea, a mixed garden salad and some hot garlic bread.

Instant Pot Ziti

To say that I love pasta would be an understatement.

Thankfully so does my hubby, aka The Cajun, so we eat some sort of pasta dish regularly and one of my favorite ways to make pasta is in the Instant Pot!

Now, to clarify, just in case you're happening on my website for the first time, first, welcome! Second, come join us over on our Facebook page because I feature a lot of my past recipes there every day, and third, when I speak of the "Instant Pot," it is often in the context of using it as an electronic pressure cooker, though technically speaking it is a multi-function pot, and it is only one brand of said families of multi-pots. There are many others out there, all of which work with the recipes here designated as "Instant Pot," when used with the pressure cook function.

Million Dollar Baked Spaghetti (TikTok - My Way)

A rich baked spaghetti that includes spaghetti noodles mixed with sour cream, cottage cheese, eggs and cheese, topped with a meat sauce and finished with a layer of Cheddar, mozzarella and Parmesan cheeses.

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Million Dollar Baked Spaghetti

Million Dollar Spaghetti is another one of those baked casseroles that has been around for a long time, although, it's gotten some recent viral attention on TikTok in the last year.

Like I said in a previous post, with social media, all things old become new again!

Although I am not a huge user of TikTok, or even necessarily a major fan, I have to admit it is kinda cool to see old recipes getting a revival with some younger folks.

A quick skillet meal of sweet or hot Italian sausage with seasoning vegetables, pasta noodles and a southwestern-seasoned tomato and sour cream sauce.

Italian Sausage and Pasta Skillet

Oh my goodness y'all... is this summer heat ever gonna end?? And it's not even August yet.

I know that I whine about it every summer but it's not getting any easier as the birthdays come on, that's for sure! The boys came by with their Dad for a swim and while PawPaw hung out in the pool with them, I had to go in and out of the house, alternating between visiting and cooling off. It was awful.

It's really been hard to get motivated to cook too.

A quick and easy, one pot spaghetti and meat sauce, finished with shredded Italian style cheese.

One-Pot Skillet Spaghetti

Spaghetti is such an easy meal that it's pretty much one of the first meals that everybody learns how to make.

Sometimes it starts as simply as boiling some noodles and topping it with a quality commercial sauce. Then it might graduate to adding beef, pork, or even a mix, chicken or seafood, using a mix of canned tomatoes instead (Cento San Marzano highly recommended) - and even better if they are home canned!

Hands down my personal favorite is a spaghetti made in the heat of the summer, from fresh, homegrown, backyard tomatoes.  You just can't get that flavor any other way. Yum y'all.

Oven-roasted shrimp served in a fiery, tomato-based, Italian Fra Diavolo sauce with pasta.

Roasted Shrimp Fra Diavolo

Fair warning. Sort of like shrimp sauce picante, just by virtue of the name, this sauce is fiery!! I ain't lying y'all. Let's just say I didn't need any lip plumper after eating this.

Now I made it exactly as I have written it, but if you prefer things a bit more on the mild side, simply eliminate the Cajun seasoning on the shrimp and reduce the red pepper flakes. Take note too though, that with any leftovers, heat will be intensified even further!

Garlic and butter scampi pasta with white wine, fresh herbs, lemon and red pepper flakes, tossed with seasoned, pan-seared shrimp.

Pan Seared Shrimp with Scampi Pasta

I always thought shrimp scampi was, well, just shrimp scampi. A very simple, but flavorful dish, and so satisfying for those of us who love shrimp with plenty of garlic and butter, tossed with some pasta. Accented with a little white wine, some fresh lemon and herbs, and a dash of red pepper flakes, it's a quick to the table dish and just delicious!

Apparently, the word scampi actually refers to the name of a pale pink crustacean called langoustines, or lobsterettes, according to my Italian cookbook The Silver Spoon {affil link}, which has a variety of recipes dedicated to using them... but oddly, nothing like this! Langoustines come from the North Sea, and look and taste similar to lobster, although it's far smaller. Reminds me of a pale pink version of our local crawfish, but with more slender claws. It is, apparently a very important part of European cuisine though. Who knew?

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An Italian-American pasta dish, this southernized version of ziti comes together fairly quickly in a skillet on top of the stove, but with no sacrifice of the classic flavor.

Skillet Ziti

Although my ancestors come from the same area of Europe, it wasn't until recently that I learned that there actually is Italian lineage in my family tree. Seems that at least one of my great times I don't know how many grandparents was actually 100% Italian!

I sure do seem to gravitate toward good Italian food. And good French food too for that matter. Aw heck, just good food I reckon!

I can tell you for certain that I sure do love my homemade baked ziti. Love, love, love it! But... like a good lasagna, homemade baked ziti takes a little bit of work and a whole lotta love to come together. It's a process, usually involving the entire family, to help make the sauce, the meatballs and all of the stuff that goes into making a good homemade meal, full of love.

My interpretation of Aglio e Olio, spaghetti, sauteed in olive oil and garlic, tossed with fresh herbs, red pepper flakes and parmesan cheese, and finished with melted tiny tomatoes.

Spaghetti with Olive Oil, Garlic and Melted Tiny Tomatoes

I cannot imagine living my life without pasta. I hope the day never comes that I have to!

I try not to go overboard with it, of course, and yes, like everybody else, I try to incorporate some of the healthier pastas into my diet here and there too. Some of it is quite good, like this Dreamfields brand (love!). Unfortunately, this brand has gotten difficult to find and I'm afraid they're out of business considering I can only find it now on ebay! There are many others (#ad) out there now though along with a wide variety of gluten free options (#ad) now too.

A homemade spaghetti meat sauce made with fresh tomatoes and ground beef.

Homemade Fresh Tomato Spaghetti Meat Sauce

There is not a thing wrong with shortcut spaghetti sauce - I use a semi-homemade version of one myself most of the time. It's a quicker version that takes canned pasta sauce and jazzes it up a bit to give it homemade flavor. I've been making it that way forever, and it's a great recipe when you want a good sauce in a hurry. My husband loves it, and that's good enough for me.

Perfect minis for a party, these sandwiches are layered with provolone cheese, black forest ham, salami and your choice of Italian cold cuts, such as hot capocollo or mortadella, dressed with creamy Italian dressing, lettuce, tomatoes and olives, if you like.

Mini Italian Sandwiches

Now, first caveat before I get lectured, this is not intended to be any kind of authentic Italian sub or hoagie. There was a pizza joint near my Biloxi apartment many many years ago, and I was addicted to one of their menu sandwiches, called the Mona Lisa.

Like a muffuletta, I could get one of those and eat on it for days.

 

A southernized version of classic Italian Wedding Soup, made with spicy sausage and beef meatballs, collards and black-eyed peas.

Southernized Italian Wedding Soup

Italian Wedding Soup has long been a southern favorite, but this version inspired by John Besh, {affil link} makes it even more regional for us, and, it's a great way to use up some of those leftover black-eyed peas and collard greens you made for your New Year's Day meal.

Don't fret if you don't have any leftovers on hand though, because you can certainly used canned products very successfully here, or fresh, quick cooking greens such as turnip, mustard or even baby spinach.

A slightly southernized version of baked ziti, made with the Trinity of southern vegetables, tiny beef and sausage meatballs, a tomato-based sauce with Italian sausage and mozzarella and Parmesan cheeses.

Southernized Baked Ziti

While baked ziti may not be traditional southern fare, it's a popular dish that goes a long way to feeding a crowd of folks and y'all know I'm gonna have to southernize it just a little bit!

Actually, where I grew up here along the Gulf Coast of Mississippi, not only do we have amazing access to fresh seafood, but because of our history and our military bases, bringing people here from literally all over the world, we are so fortunate to also have a large influx of a variety of cuisines in our area.

A quick skillet version of lasagna made with ground beef and sausage, diced tomatoes, tomato paste, cottage cheese, mozzarella and broken lasagna noodles. All the terrific flavor of baked lasagna, without all the time and effort.

Skillet Lasagna

I love baked lasagna. You just can't beat it, especially when made with a homemade fresh tomato meat sauce. If you have only ever had lasagna from a jarred pasta sauce, you really need to treat yourself sometime! Of course, you can also make a great sauce using the convenience of canned tomatoes.

Take that same basic method to the skillet and you have an amazing meal, with all the flavor, but that's done in no time.

Easy Semi-Homemade Spaghetti Sauce with Meatballs or Meat Sauce

A great shortcut spaghetti sauce, made with onion, garlic, stewed and Rotel tomatoes, Italian and Cajun seasonings, and a little help from canned sauce, but tastes like you cooked it from scratch.

Easy Semi-Homemade Spaghetti Sauce

In the mood for spaghetti with a homemade taste, but that doesn't have to simmer all day long?

Okay, so yes, you do get a little head start with canned pasta sauce to start with so I guess you can call this "semi-homemade," BUT... once you add in some very simple but transforming enhancements, you will end up with something that tastes as if you made the sauce from scratch and simmered it on the stove for hours.

I've been making my spaghetti sauce like this for years, and The Cajun loves it!

A rustic, free form tart made with apples, pears and a cream cheese and grape filling.

Fresh Apple and Pear Crostata

I was watching the Food Network channel the other day and saw Sandra Lee making what she called a crostata - which is really pretty much just a tart.

Well, a free form tart, aka rustic.