Recipes Featuring Grana Padano Cheese
View all 2Summer Minestrone
This soup is meant to showcase the vegetables of summer, so feel free to vary, based on what is good at your farmers’ market – green beans, yellow squash, or even a handful of cherry tomatoes would be a wonderful addition here. If you’re starting with favas in the pod, you’ll need about 4 pounds or so to get the yield below. But don’t worry- make it a family affair and you’ll have them shucked and peeled in no time.
Italian
Wedding Soup
The little meatballs make this a hearty soup that is a meal in itself. To make it even heartier, you could add a handful of rice or a small pasta shape, like orzo or ditalini. A tip: preseasoned sausage meat also makes a quick and easy base for meatballs. This soup is also known as zuppa di matrimonio.
Italian
Bucatini all’Amatriciana
Although today this dish is most commonly associated with Rome, it is originally from Amatrice, a town in the region of Lazio, north of the city, in the agricultural area of the Gran Sasso mountain range. It was originally made with a white sauce, before tomatoes were introduced to Italy in the eighteenth century, but the key ingredients now are jowl bacon (called guanciale), olive oil, ripe plum tomatoes, and pecorino cheese, cooked together in a lightweight cast-iron pan. This is my personal rendition, and deviates from the traditional version with the addition of sliced onions, for texture and sweetness, as well as some peperoncino and, to add complexity, bay leaves, which are one of my favorite herbs.
Italian