4 Simple Italian Dishes Anyone Can Master

Hey, what's up? Today, I'm going to show you guys four rustic Italian dishes that only require six ingredients to make. These dishes are perfect for a date night in when you're cooking for your sweetest babe, or when you have a small group of friends coming over for a dinner party. Oh, and before I get started, I want to clarify that when I say six ingredients, I'm referring to things that are fresh, that you bought recently, or stuff that you have in your pantry, like pasta. Oil, salt, sugar, and spices don't count because, I don't know, they just don't. First up is buttery, cheesy baked polenta with a thick, garlic-forward tomato sauce. To make it, I'll drop 300 grams of polenta into a high-sided nonstick saucepan and toast for three to four minutes over high heat. You can skip the toasting step if you're in a rush, but that makes bland polenta, in my opinion, so I always toast it. And after three to four minutes of stirring frequently, this has the aroma of popped popcorn. So next, I'll add in 1,200 grams of chicken stock and 7 grams of salt. Then I'll whisk that to prevent lumps, then I'll bring it up to a simmer and cook for 10 to 15 minutes. 15 minutes later, you can see the grains of corn are all swollen up and everything is fully tender. Note, only use actual polenta for this dish. Most cornmeal products at the grocery store are too coarse for this cooking method and take closer to an hour to get tender. Next, I'll add in 115 grams or one whole stick of butter, then I'll stir that in until it's nice and melty-looking. Then in goes 100 grams of grated parm. Use the most flavorful parm that you can find because this dish is very simple, so the quality of everything matters a lot. And once this parm is melted in, I'll pour this cheesy polenta into a buttered baking dish, then top with a couple more grips of grated parm. Finally, I'll throw this into a 400F oven to bake for 25 minutes. While that cooks, I'll make my rustic marinara sauce. For that, into a saucepan over medium heat, I'll add in a very generous squiggy of olive oil, maybe like a quarter cup. Then in goes a lot of sliced garlic, about 40 grams or 10-12 large cloves. Next, I'll fry this over medium heat for about 2 minutes until the garlic is smelling fragrant and it's slightly softened. From there, I'll add in one 28-ounce can of whole peeled tomatoes that I've pureed. For that, I just dropped my immersion blender right into the can and spun that until it was relatively smooth. Behind that, I'll drop in one more 28-ounce can of whole peeled tomatoes, but this time I've chopped them. For those, I just took the whole tomatoes out of the can and cut them into a medium dice. Using a puree and a diced tomato helps give this sauce a variety of fun textures. By the way, I don't love pre-diced canned tomatoes for this because they have calcium chloride in them, and that makes the tomatoes super firm. That's good for chili, but bad for marinara. Now, I'll bring this sauce up to a simmer, then lower the heat to prevent sauce plops, and then reduce for 20 minutes. 20 minutes later, this sauce has reduced by about 40-50%, and when I pass my spatula through it, you can see it leaves a little bit of a trail. Next, I'll add in a strong pinch of salt to season things up, then 10 grams of sugar to balance out the tomato's acidity. Once that's stirred in, I'll check on my polenta. After 25 minutes, the top has some nice browning going on, and it smells like nutty fried cheese. Now, before I plate this up, I'll let the polenta set for 25 minutes so that it can become totally sliceable, then I'll cut a chunk out of the pan and drop it into a low bowl and top with a generous dose of garlicky tomato sauce. To garnish, I'll sprinkle with a lot more Parmesan cheese, and then a little fresh-tasting olive oil to bring some additional luxury to this rustic dish. You guys, cheesy, buttery polenta with rustic tomato sauce is, like, top 10 dishes of all time for me. If you've never had polenta before, just let me tell you that it tastes good. Very good. And if you eat it, you're gonna have a good time. Just try it. Up next is a filthy little pasta dish that's just drippin' in briny white wine butter sauce. To make it, I'll drop 300 grams of linguine into a big pot of salty pasta water, then I'll come back with my tongs to make sure the pasta isn't sticking together and it's submerged fully in the water. From here, I'll move this pot over to the other side of my stove to boil while I prepare the white wine butter sauce. I'll check back in about 8 minutes. Next, into a large nonstick pan, I'll squiggle a few tablespoons of olive oil, then in goes 30 grams of sliced garlic, and then I'll saute it over medium heat for about 2 minutes until the garlic is softened and it's starting to smell rich and aromatic. From there, in goes 2 grams of chili flakes, and then I'll stir those in and fry for another 2 minutes or so to perfume my oil. The flavor of this oil is kind of the backbone of this dish, so we want it to be deeply saturated with roasty garlic and fried chili flavor. Next, I'll add in 300 grams of dry white wine, then I'll simmer until the alcohol flavor is cooked off and the liquid has been reduced by about half. Two minutes later, I'll grab a strainer and two 185 gram cans of cooked clams. Then I'll pour the clam juice right into the saute pan, because I want to reduce this liquid with the wine without overcooking the clam meat, so I'll reserve the meat until the pasta is all the way cooked. Now, I'm gonna reduce this liquid by half yet again, and then take a quick minute to talk about this 12-inch nonstick pan that's been doing all the heavy lifting here. It's from Made In, who happens to be sponsoring this video, but to clarify, I'd be using this pan regardless of their sponsorship. Why? Because they make really great, professional-quality products for the home cook that are also good enough to be used in multiple Michelin-starred restaurants. My favorite part of this pan is that the surface is double-cured, making it one of the best nonstick surfaces that you could possibly cook on. Plus, these pans use the same 5-ply stainless material that Made In uses in their stainless steel line. That means that these pans heat evenly and quickly, and unlike other nonstick cookware, which I'll be demonstrating later in this video. On top of all that, these pans are super easy to clean. They just require a quick rinse and a wipeout, and then, boom, you're on with your day. So, if you want to pick up some of Made In's nonstick pans, use my link in the description below to save some money on your next order. Again, save money with the link in my description. Thank you, Made In. At this point, it's been 8 minutes, and my pasta is cooked to al dente, and my sauce has reduced down to about a cup's worth of liquid. So, I'll grab my noodles out of the water with some tongs and move them over to my nonstick pan. And once my noodles are in the pan, I'll add in my reserved clam meat, a bunch of chopped parsley, maybe 20 grams, then 115 grams or one stick of butter. From here, I'm gonna swirl this butter into the pan whilst agitating the pasta. This releases additional starch that will help hold the butter in an emulsion. Also, if you can manage a proper toss-toss-toss maneuver like this, that'll always cream up the pasta more than just a stir. This is how restaurant pastas are made a la minute, and it's one of the reasons that they're so much better than what most people make at home. And after 30 seconds of constant agitation, you can see this linguine is bathed in a silky, creamy white wine sauce. To plate it up, I'll swirl this pasta into a low bowl, then scoop out some of the clams and butter sauce that stayed behind in the pan and drop those on top. To finish, I'll hit it with some chopped parsley and a little bit of olive oil. You guys, linguine and clams is the best cheeseless pasta on Earth. It's buttery, it's rich, it radiates the flavor of the sea, and it's a date night weapon. Serve it with some chablis and cheday, and something good's gonna happen. Up next is a juicy, braised chicken cacciatore. To make it, I'll season up four to six skin-on, bone-in chicken thighs with salt and pepper on both sides. By the way, these thighs are like six ounces each, so I'll serve one per person. Now to cook this thing, I'll move over to the stove and drop these thighs skin-side down into a significant amount of olive oil. And then I'll sear them for about five minutes. I want to render out the chicken fat in the skin and get it nice and browned up and crispy. And after about five to six minutes, these thighs have taken on some beautiful browning, so I'll move them back over to the wire rack that I seasoned them on. But Bri, there was raw chicken on there. I know. We're gonna be cooking the sh** out of these thighs in just a second, so it doesn't matter. Back at the stove, I'll add in some additional olive oil. Then in goes 250 grams of sliced onion, 150 grams each of sliced orange and red bell peppers, then 40 grams of sliced garlic, and a strong pinch of salt. From here, I'll stir to combine and saute these veggies for about five to eight minutes over medium heat, until they're pretty much all the way softened and starting to take on some color, like this. From here, I'll add in a strong pinch of chili flakes, then 125 grams of halved Castelvetrano olives. Any olives that you've got on hand would work, but I prefer these Castelvetranos because they're super buttery and they have a really mellow salt level. Next, in goes one 28-ounce can of whole peeled tomatoes that, again, I spun with my immersion blender until it was pretty smooth. And once the sauce is up to a simmer and everything is stirred together, I'll add my seared thighs back in and snug those into the sauce to make sure that the heat is getting evenly transferred. From here, I'll load this pan into a 325 oven with a lid and braise it for 45 minutes. 45 minutes later, I'll pull this out and check for doneness. The final texture of the chicken should be pull-apart tender. You want meat that very easily shreds off the bone because that'll give the dish a bit of a stew vibe. To serve, I'll drop one of my braised thighs onto a bed of peppers, onions, and olives. And if you wanted some carbs here, I'd say baked polenta would be my first choice. But also, crusty bread is excellent. Just wipe it through these peppers. Anyway you go, this is a delicious dish that is very hearty, very rustic, and super easy to make. Hope you try it soon. Okay, the last dish is an epic Italian sausage pasta that is frickin' delicious. To make it, I'll drop half a bunch or about 150 grams of chopped rapini into a big pot of salty boiling water. To chop this rapini, I remove the stems, then cut it down into 1-inch pieces. If you don't have rapini or you are adverse to its mild bitterness, sub in kale or Swiss chard. 30 seconds later, I'll come back with my spider and scoop this rabe out of the pot and drop it onto a bed of paper towels into a bowl. I want to get this rapini as dry as I can because if it's sopping wet, it's going to water down the final dish. Okay, I'll set that aside to cool. Then back at the stove, I'll drop 225 grams of orecchiette into my blanching pot. If you're not familiar, orecchiette are these little earlobe-shaped pastas. And the indents in the middle are very good for catching bits of crumbly Italian sausage. Once the pasta is in the water, I'll move the pot to the far side of my stove to keep on cooking. Then I'll drop a large nonstick pan over medium-high heat. Once that's hot, in goes a long squiggle of olive oil, then two large Italian sausages. Combined, these weigh 225 grams or a half pound. And once I've got this browned off, I'm going to come back with my ground beef smusher and smash it down even more. I want to crumble it down pretty far because I find that crumbled sausage integrates with the orecchiette much better than large clods of sausage. I'll smush this for about two to three minutes until everything is broken down into half-inch-sized particles or smaller. Then I'll add in my bland strapini and toss toss to get everything mixed together. This will help sizzle some of the moisture off of the broccoli and deglaze some of the sausagey bits that have stuck onto the bottom of the pan. And at this point, it's been about eight minutes, so I'll check back on my orecchiette to see if it's cooked. And yeah, it's got a little bit of bite, but it's still tender. So I'll grab a half-cup measure and scoop out some pasta water and add that to my saute pan. This will be the base of my sauce. Then I'll use my spider to lift the pasta out of the water and drop it into my pan. Next, I'll add in one stick of butter or 115 grams worth into my pasta. Then I'll give everything a thorough toss tossing to get the butter emulsified with the water. Again, if you can do it, I recommend using the toss move over stirring because that makes for a much creamier sauce. Okay, once this is looking all shiny and opaque from the emulsified butter, I'll turn off my burner, then add in 40 grams of grated Parmesan cheese. Then I'm going to give this a few more tosses to get that cheese elegantly melted into the background. And I'll do that off-heat so the parm doesn't get overheated and coagulate. That would make for a grainy broken sauce. Now to serve, I'll pile this into a low pasta bowl, then top with some grated Parmesan cheese, some cracked black pepper, and then some red chili flake. I'll call this Salsiccia Pasta. That's what people in St. Louis call spicy Italian sausage. And it's a simple rustic dish that will prolapse. That's what my script says. It says it'll prolapse any crowd. I freaking hope not. This dish will please any crowd. The sausage brings a breath of fennel seed and garlic to every bite, and the texture of the crumbly fried brown bits is so epic. I hope you guys learned something new in this video, and I hope you feel excited to cook at least one of these dishes sometime soon. If you want another video for easy-to-make regional cuisine that uses very few ingredients, check out this video for five-ingredient Mexican. The enchiladas in that MF are pretty freaking sick. Now, let's eat this thing!