Want to eat like an Italian this summer? Indeed it’s hard to pick the best fresh summer recipes since Italy has soooo many to offer. However, in this article, we’ll give it our best shot! These Italian food recipes are great ways to use fresh summer ingredients like basil, tomatoes, zucchini, cucumber and more! Let’s get started
Basil Pesto Pasta with Pesto Genovese
No, these aren’t little worms! The pasta you see is a DELICIOUS regional pasta called trofie pasta. It is traditionally served with the authentic Pesto Genovese and accompanied with green beans and potatoes. Sounds weird, but it is truly a treat and the perfect dinner for a hot summer night.
Fast and Fresh ‘Caprese’ Pasta with Fresh Tomato Sauce, Mozzarella and Basil
There’s no one name for this pasta dish in Italy, though it’s a favorite when tomatoes are in season. We call it a ‘Caprese’ pasta salad because it has all of the ingredients of a fresh Caprese salad (tomatoes, fresh mozzarella, basil) plus a bit of Parmigiano cheese. It’s an Italian pasta recipe that you can whip up in minutes.
Panzanella: Italian Bread Salad Recipe
On a summer night, it’s hard to go wrong with a fresh Panzanella salad! This famous Italian bread salad recipe is actually just one of several Panzanella recipes that Italy has to offer. The recipe varies from region to region, though the basic ingredients are a sourdough (or Italian) bread, tomatoes, vinegar, olive oil, onions and anything else fresh that you fancy like cucumbers.
Italian Pan Pizza Recipes
When isn’t the time for pizza in Italy? Many Italians have outdoor ovens or even pizza ovens. So, it’s still a great season for pizza making. Here’s our favorite high hydration pizza dough recipe, which we use all summer long!
You can’t go wrong with a seasonal topping! Right now, Italian pizzerias are putting zucchini flowers on pizza, una and onion, fresh tomato and buffalo mozzarella cheese. The spelt pizza dough recipe you see above is topped as they do in Carloforte, a resort town on the Italian island of Sardegna. It has tomato, tuna belly, onion and strangely, Pesto Genovese!
Fried Zucchini Flowers
You could argue that fried isn’t fresh, but fried zucchini flowers are a super popular use of fresh zucchini flowers in the spring and summer. Zucchini flowers in general are considered a real delicacy in Italy (on pizza, in risotto..) but fried? There’s no better appetizer!
Italian Garden Pasta Recipe
Like the ‘Caprese’ pasta, garden pasta is another popular pasta recipe in Italy that has no one traditional recipe associated with it. However, our Creamy Italian Garden Pasta recipe has all of the classic ingredients: zucchini, pepper, onion and eggplant. Here we’ve also added Parmigiano cheese with starchy, hot pasta water to create a creamy sauce. We’ve made this recipe above with a Tuscan pici pasta, but choose any pasta you like!
Italian Steak Recipes: Tagliata and Florentine
Arguably, the best Italian steak recipes are also popular in Italy during the colder months. However, both of these famous Italian meat recipes are traditionally prepared on a wood fire grill, so summer is a popular time to prepare them.
