Vegetarian recipes from Italy

Meatless Italian cooking rests on a short list of staples: durum or soft wheat, olive oil, pulses, and cow or sheep milk cheeses that supply the salt and the fat. Stale bread is not thrown out, it becomes a dish in its own right, as in panzanella or pappa al pomodoro. Beans take the role meat plays elsewhere: pasta e fagioli pairs a pulse and a grain in a single bowl. Pepper, garlic, chilli and basil carry the seasoning, rarely more than two of them in the same dish.

A meal runs as successive courses rather than one composed plate: pasta or rice first, then a vegetable or a cheese. That structure explains why so many meatless dishes exist in their own right rather than by subtraction: cacio e pepe depends only on pecorino, pepper and cooking water, spaghetti aglio olio on three ingredients. Regions matter more than the country: caponata and pasta alla Norma are Sicilian and sweet-sour, ribollita is Tuscan and rural, trofie with pesto is Ligurian.