Vegan Italian Recipes (simple ideas and good books)
Learning to cook your own food is empowering, as you no longer have to rely on expensive plastic-wrapped ready-meals and takeaways. Master your favourite cuisines at home. Then every night is restaurant night!
Italian food is some of the most popular on earth and for good reason. Not just unbelievably tasty, but the ingredients are easy to find (onion, garlic, lentils, tomatoes) but also good for your health.
Don’t eat cooked rice after 24 hours.
Before cooking, read up on food safety for people and pets (many foods including onion, garlic, mushrooms, fresh dough and coffee unsafe near animal friends). Bin allium scraps (onion, leeks, garlic, shallots, chives) and citrus/tomato/rhubarb scraps, as acids could harm compost creatures. It’s okay to put them in food waste bins (made into biogas).
For tinned foods, fully remove lids (put inside) or pop ring-pulls back over holes (and pinch tops closed) before recycling, to avoid wildlife getting trapped.
The vegan Italian grocery shop
- Tomatoes! These feature in most Italian recipes, along with garlic and onion. Mr Organic has a fine line of products, all from eco-friendly farmers in Italy. From tinned chopped tomatoes to tomato puree and passata, sauces and even organic tomato ketchup.
- Plastic-free pasta. You can now buy home-grown pasta made with British wheat in plastic-free packaging. Brands including The Yorkshire Pasta Co, Northern Pasta Co, SUMA and Biona (found in good health shops).
- Arborio Rice. This is used for risotto, and again Biona offers an organic brand in plastic-free packaging.
- Vegan Parmesan. Conventional Parmesan is not even vegetarian, as it contains a cheese made with calf rennet. Read the post on vegan Parmesan, to learn how to make your own or find good brands.
- Mozzarella. You can make or buy good brands, ideal on vegan pizza.
- Fresh basil. Go for fresh, you won’t regret it. Grow some yourself or buy from farm shops, instead of big plastic pots in supermarkets.
- Coffee. This features in many Italian desserts. So choose an ethical brand like Sanctuary Coffee (profits help animal shelters).
NHS says that it’s best to avoid caffeine for pregnancy/nursing (or no more than 2 cups of weak tea daily – or 1 cup of mild coffee or cola). Also avoid caffeine for certain medical conditions.
Use a sink protector to catch coffee grounds, then bin (caffeine may affect compost creatures). Same with tea leaves.
Summer Caprese salad recipe
Caprese salad (Veggikins) is a classic mix of fresh basil, tomatoes and vegan mozzarella. This version adds pasta to turn the snack into a meal and Italian Balsamic vinegar.
Creamy Broccoli Risotto
This broccoli risotto (Ela Vegan) is very simple to make, using a good veggie stock, lots of veggies, a little white wine and some vegan cheese sauce.
Vegan spaghetti carbonara
Vegan Carbonara (Running on Real Food) replaces the cream and ham with plant-based versions. This natural recipe uses cashews infused with mushroom, garlic and paprika, and cheesy-tasting nutritional yeast. You could of course cheat with vegan cream and ham!
Spaghetti bolognese
From Bologna in central Italy, this is the classic! This hearty beet and mushroom bolognese (The First Mess) has natural sweetness, and is made with all natural ingredients.
Vegan pistachio gelato recipe
This pistachio ice cream recipe (Rainbow Nourishments) is an authentic flavour, and the recipe is super-simple to make. You don’t even need an ice-cream maker!
Easy vegan tiramisu recipe
Try this Easy Vegan Tiramisu (Rainbow Nourishments). Unlike most recipes, there’s no faffing about buying or making sponge fingers, you just need 5 ingredients (no cashews, coconut oil or vegan cream cheese needed). And it’s ready in 20 minutes!
Tiramisu is Italian for ‘pick-me-up’, due to containing chocolate and coffee (lots of caffeine!) Unlike England (where tiramisu is sold in plastic pots), in Italy people make it themselves. A few tries and you’ll have this recipe down pat!
Silco Limoncello (from Cornwall!)
St Ives Limoncello obviously has to import the lemons. But the drink itself is mixed in Cornwall, for a sunny yet local end to your Italian meal. Keep this in the freezer (this uses gin rather than the normal vodka). It’s very very lemony!
Good plant-based Italian recipe books
Cooking with Nonna is a fun and unique book to make the best Italian home cooking. Giuseppe is a second-generation British Italian where food and family have always been intertwined.
So when Giuseppe went vegan, he needed to find a way to cook the flavours of his family. There was only one person who could help; his nonna! Together they learned how to make the authentic Italian and Sicilian dishes that Nonna grew up with, using all plants.
Recipes include:
- Classic Lasagne with Homemade Mince
- Arancini (croquettes) Della Nonna!
- The Perfect Tomato Sauce
- Pasta Aglio Olio & Peperconico
- Homemade Focaccia
- Tiramisu
- Coffee Granita
- Biscotti
Giuseppe Federici comes from a long line of passionate foodies, and only at 15 did he realise that a British roast dinner did not begin with a full plate of pasta!
He has a huge fanbase of 440K Instagram followers and 300K on TikTok, and has hosted supper clubs and been crowned Digital Creator of the Year at Fortnum & Mason food and drinks awards.
Vegan Italiana is a highly-reviewed book of recipes by a professional restaurant chef in the USA. From homemade meatballs to fresh cheese ravioli, you’ll learn how to create 100 authentic recipes from a woman who grew up in a big Italian family in New York, and now runs LA restaurant Pura Vita.
Look in stores for plastic-free pasta brands (Yorkshire Pasta Co and Northern Pasta Co are the two main brands, both made with British wheat to support our farmers).
As well as learning to make your own mozzarella and ricotta cheese, enjoy recipes like:
- Baked vegan ricotta
- Macadamia Parmigiano (keep macadamia nuts away from pets)
- Alfredo sauce and roasted garlic aioli
- Bruschetta
- Caprese salads and stuffed artichokes
- Minestrone and Sicilian red lentil soup
- Aubergine Parmigiana and Heartbeet risotto
- Cacio e pepe
- Tiramisu, Panna Cotta and lemon mint granita
Music Break: Quante Stelle Nel Cielo Con La Luna
Translation (how many stars in the sky with the moon!)
