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Spring Recipes

When Spring has sprung, we’re ready for just about anything popping out of the ground that’ll make family meals a little brighter, lighter and fresh. This is the place to find delicious dishes, desserts, and meals we’ve waited all winter long for.


Crunchy spiced pecans in a scalloped snack bowl.

Candied Pecans Anyone Can Make (Easy, Crunchy, Delicious)

Candied pecans are a no-frills, no-fuss recipe perfect for topping salads, general snacking, adding to popcorn salads on family movie night, fancying up your holiday cheese or charcuterie board, or giving as delicious DIY food gifts. These sweet glazed pecans are delicious and hard to stop eating — you’ve officially […]

fresh spinach gnocchi just rolled and ridges added using the tines of a fork all on a semolina flour-dusted parchment-lined baking tray.

Spinach Gnocchi From Scratch (Italian Made Easy)

Spinach Gnocchi is a delicious healthy twist on my classic potato gnocchi recipe and it’s just as easy to make! Fluffy as pillows, these bright green tender little dumplings pair with any gnocchi sauce you can think of from the ultra creamy to the super meaty gnocchi Bolognese. Skip the […]

A bowl of simple chicken and dumplings with two dumplings surrounded by creamy chicken soup.

Mom’s Easy Chicken and Dumplings (6 Ingredients: 100% From Scratch)

This is my Mom’s Southern Chicken and Dumplings — and it’s hands down the easiest chicken & dumplings recipe you’ll ever make! Filled with fluffy scratch-made dumplings, this chicken soup fed our family (of six) hundreds of times throughout my childhood. With just 6 ingredients (+ salt and pepper) in […]

Squid Ink Linguine with Crab pasta in a pasta bowl with crab and tomatoes wine sauce.

Quick and Easy Crab Linguine (Linguine Nero di Seppia al Granchio Blu)

This crab pasta is perfect for any seafood lover! Lucious linguine tossed in a silky white wine crab sauce (Italian granchio blu) — this restaurant-quality seafood pasta has everything you could want flavor wise. Based on a Venetian crab pasta dish from one of our favorite restaurants here in Venice […]

A side by side photo of raw blue Italian crabs on the left and bright orange cooked Italian crabs on the right.

The Easiest Way To Cook Blue Crabs (Granchio Blu Facile)

This is your one-stop shop for how to buy, cook, and pick blue crabs!  Whether it’s Maryland blue crabs (Chesapeake Bay Crabs) or the now-infamous Italian Granchio Blu, you’ll find all you need to know right here. Blue crabs are delicious and can be boiled in just 5 minutes, or […]

Vanilla pudding mix in a mason canning jar with pieces of vanilla beans poking out from the top.

5-Minute DIY Vanilla Pudding Mix (For Adding to Cake & Cookie Recipes)

This quick and easy homemade vanilla pudding mix takes just 5 minutes to make and it’s the perfect substitute for Instant Jello Pudding Mix when you want to bake cookie or cake recipes that call for using a box of vanilla pudding. Plus, it’s made without all of the highly […]

A beautiful bowl of paccheri pasta with shrimp and zucchini in a tomato and white wine sauce.

Paccheri Pasta (With Shrimp and Zucchini Sugo)

This paccheri recipe (aka Paccheri con Sugo di Gamberi e Zucchine) was inspired by a handful of paccheri pasta dishes from one of our favorite restaurants in Venice, Italy (Antiche Carampane). Toothsome “slappy” tube-shaped paccheri gets paired with a simple seafood sauce as it’s often served here in the coastal regions […]

Boiled gnocchi tossed in a sage and extra virgin olive oil sauce and sprinkled with grated Grana Padano cheese creating a very light gnocchi sauce.

Toothsome Italian Potato Gnocchi (With Video)

You can find gnocchi on menus just about everywhere here in Italy — light, tender, toothsome, pillowy potato pasta dumplings! But making homemade gnocchi is incredibly simple and costs next to nothing (which is exactly why you should make your own). To make this potato gnocchi, you only need 3 basic […]

top down view into a jar of orange-red colored homemade strawberry-nectarine-apricot jam.

30-Minute Strawberry-Apricot-Nectarine Jam (Without Pectin)

If you love strawberry jam as much as we do and are just getting into learning how to make homemade jam, this unique fresh summer fruit jam recipe is for you! This isn’t just any strawberry preserves recipe, it also includes nectarines and fresh apricots to give it an almost […]

00 flour perfect pizza dough with pizza toppings (homemade pizza sauce, mozzarella, mozzarella di bufula)

Best Thick-Crust Pizza Dough Recipe (Using 00 Flour)

This crispy and tender easy thick-crust pizza dough recipe is made using our favorite 00 flour pizza dough recipe and it makes the best thick-crust pizza! We’re surrounded by delicious pizza here in Italy, but we also make homemade pizza at least once a month (sometimes more often) because it’s […]

top down view into a mason canning jar filled with pizza sauce from scratch.

Easy Homemade Pizza Sauce Recipe (With Video)

This pizza sauce recipe uses just 4 ingredients (plus salt) and is so simple to make you won’t ever need to buy store-bought pizza sauce again. In fact, this is the best pizza sauce recipe ever for any kind of homemade pizza (except, of course, Neapolitan pizza and classic Italian […]

Sliced Super crispy homemade sausage and onion pizza just taken out of the oven.

Best Thin-Crust Pizza Dough Recipe (Using Bread Flour)

This easy bread flour pizza dough recipe uses just 6 simple ingredients (5 if you omit the sugar — read on to find out what difference it makes). This thin homemade pizza crust is one of the best reasons to keep bread flour on hand and skip delivery! Adapted from […]

Super crispy sliced whole wheat Supreme pizza with green olives, spicy ventricina salami, salsiccia, prosciutto cotto, mushrooms, red bell peppers, and onions.

Best Whole Wheat Pizza Dough Recipe (For Thin Crust Pizza)

Adapted from my 00 flour pizza dough recipe, this easy whole wheat pizza dough comes together with 6 simple ingredients (5 if you omit the sugar). And it makes a perfect light and crispy thin-crust pizza that bakes up in just 8 minutes every time. In fact, this is one […]

Homemade thin crust pizza with pioppini mushrooms, salame piccante (like spicy pepperonit but larger and way better tasting), halved large shallots, mozzarella and bufula mozzarella and prosciutto cotto (Italian ham)

Ultimate Thin-Crust 00 Flour Pizza Dough Recipe

Living in Italy has its perks — one of them being that we can order delicious pizza pretty much anytime we want. But even with this tasty option, we make a lot of homemade pizza including this easy 6-ingredient 00 flour pizza dough which is one of our favorite recipes […]

a pasta bowl filled with lightly creamy mushroom pasta sprinkled with grated Grana Padano

Easy Creamy Pioppini Mushroom Pasta (Pasta con Funghi e Panna)

This is the best light and creamy mushroom pasta recipe! Creamy garlic mushroom sauce gets its delicious forest flavor and perfectly “meaty” texture from one of our favorite stars of the fungi family — Italian Velvet Pioppini mushrooms. And this easy pasta is ready in less than 30 minutes. Earthy, […]