Gourmet

Oltranti and his family prepare this dish with rabbit, but it's equally appealing with chicken. Roasted with super-savory pancetta and olives, the garlicky meat stays moist in a shallow bath of white wine.

A savory soup with ginger, saffron, and curry.

In these tender, elegant cakes, the Italian dessert wine Vin Santo contributes intoxicating flavor that's played up by the addition of plump grapes.

Store-bought panettone is the foundation of this raisin and bread pudding. Because the bread is so eggy, it bakes into an extra-silky custard that contrasts with a generous expanse of buttery golden brown crispness on top. (Using a shallow pan is key.)

In the waste-not mentality of Italian cucina povera, panfried patties made with eggs and bread crumbs are a great use for leftover eggplant parmigiana ingredients. In fact, the patties are so incredibly delicious that we made them the crisp showstoppers in this fun reconstruction.

The airy ricotta filling—with chocolate chips and flecks of candied orange peel speckled throughout—makes for a perfect marriage of Italian and American.

No need to open a bottle of white wine for the few tablespoons you'd require: Lemon brightens up this easy risotto.

A tender, short crust is filled with a creamy orange-scented ricotta custard. Served with hot espresso, these little pastries are a wonderful way to end a big meal.

Jazz up your winter repertoire with a tangy, colorful pomegranate dressing that melds fennel and oranges with salty Pecorino

No surprises here: The classic combination of bitter greens and sweet sausage is as warming and comforting as the Italian grandmothers who have been making it for generations.

In this quick version of a common Puglian dish, pungent garlic and spicy red-pepper flakes turn frozen broccoli into a perfect partner for ear-shaped pasta.

Sweet nibbles of butternut squash temper the bitter edge of radicchio in every bite of this healthful, satisfying pasta.

This refreshing salad serves as a palate cleanser before dessert. Oltranti updates a traditional Italian-style salad dressing with the modern flavors of California cuisine: Floral Meyer lemon amplifies the acidity of red-wine vinegar in a bright shallot vinaigrette.

Fresh mint and sliced cucumbers give this American-style salad a lightness that leaves you feeling satisfied, not stuffed.

Hake, like cod, is mild in flavor yet meaty in texture. Here, it embraces the crunch of sautéed hazelnuts, whose richness is offset by fresh parsley and briny capers.

This bottomless bowl of meat sauce is the stuff of dreams—the American Dream, in particular. In Italy, ragù would have been flavored with a small piece of pork, but because meat was so readily available in the United States, immigrants included beef braciole, meatballs, sweet and hot sausage, and pork shoulder and ribs. This dish requires hours on the stovetop to make the meat tender and juicy and the sauce thick and intense, but it's well worth waiting for.