How to Make Your Own Vegan Italian Food
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!
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.
Never eat rice after 24 hours. Before cooking, read up on food safety for people and pets (many ingredients are unsafe near animal friends).
Bin allium scraps (onion, garlic, leeks, shallots, chives) as acids may harm compost creatures (same with tomato/citrus/rhubarb scraps).
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.
Authentic Italian Vegan Recipes (translated)
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!
Vegan Italiano is an English translation of a simple book by an Italian chef. The recipes all use easy affordable ingredients. Nothing fancy, but this book of seasonal recipes is the bomb!
If you tire of complicated long-ingredient recipes and are on a budget, try this book which is full of recipes that ordinary budget-conscious Italians eat.
The main ingredients are always fruits, vegetables and pasta. Recipes include:
- Crostini with Marinated Courgettes
- Spaghetti with Wild Asparagus
- Cream of Pumpkin & Potato Soup
- Seasonal Cherry Strudel
Rosalba Gioffré is native to Calabria and Florentine by adoption, and author of many cookbooks in Italy. She lives just outside of Florence, Italy.
Vegan Recipes from an Italian New Yorker!
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!
Vegan Italiana is the debut publication from the owner and chef at an esteemed vegan Italian restaurant in the USA. Part cookbook and part ‘love letter to Italy’, the 100 recipes are from a woman who grew up in a big Italian family in New York.
Learn to make:
- Fresh ‘cheese’ Ravioli
- Homemade Vegan Meatballs
- Homemade Vegan Parmigiano
- Homemade Alfredo Sauce
- Roasted Garlic Aioli
- Stuffed Artichokes
- Homemade Minestrone & Sicilian Red Lentil Soup
- Roasted Garlic Creamy Tomato Soup
- Heartbeet Risotto
- Strawberry Almond Ricotta Crostini
Tara Punzone is a professional chef who owns an esteemed vegan Italian restaurant in California. During the recent wildfires, her restaurant offered all fire-fighters free pizza, while they were saving all species in California.
A Recipe for Homemade Vegan Lasagne
This recipe for homemade vegan lasagne (Wallflower Kitchen) is a super-easy replica of meat lasagne. This one is not just animal-kind, but healthier and full of fibre, plus very tasty! Biona makes good organic lasagne sheets, from a brand that is transitioning over to paper packaging.
- This is a simple recipe that just requires three steps. First you make the sauce (use a homemade veggie stock to avoid palm oil).
- Then you make the filling (a tasty concoction of lots of different veggies, tinned tomatoes, mixed herbs, stock and balsamic vinegar.
- Then you layer the lasagne sheets with the sauce in a dish, top with grated vegan cheese and bake. Serve with a fresh green salad.
Spring Vegan Risotto (with asparagus and peas)
This spring vegan risotto (Wallflower Kitchen) is a lovely recipe for spring and summer months, ideal with a can of organic Vinca white wine! The secret to good risotto is to keep stirring throughout, so don’t leave the stove!
Check medication before consuming asparagus (due to vitamin K interactions).
This risotto makes use of asparagus, a super spring vegetable. But you’ll have to be quick, as it’s only in season for around 8 weeks each year. For some people, it does unfortunately make your pee smell. But it’s a small price to pay, for this king of vegetables!
This ancient veg (over 2000 years old) grows so fast (up to 7 inches in a day) that if you had nothing better to do, you could (just like with bamboo) sit and watch it grow before your very eyes!
Pea and Potato Risotto
This pea and potato risotto (Exploring Vegan) is a simple 5-ingredient recipe, to make yourself a tasty Italian supper. Use with Biona organic rice (in paper packaging). For other rice, recycle packaging at supermarket bag bins, if your kerbside does not recycle.
The secret to good risotto is to keep stirring, so don’t leave the stove! Using potatoes in a risotto means you don’t have to use milk or cream, as the starches break down into a creamy base. You can use fresh or frozen peas for this recipe (Pack’d Petit Pois are organic and sold in paper packaging).
Simple Vegan Italian Desserts
This espresso coffee cake(Rainbow Nourishments) is easy to make.
Avoid caffeine for pregnancy/nursing.
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!
Another popular way to end the meal in Italy is a small glass of ice-cold limoncello (a very lemony vodka drink that won’t freeze).
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!
