Campania

Spaghetti allo Scammaro is a wonderful flavorful dish that was developed as a sustaining dish to be served on fast days. We know of it thanks to the 19th-century nobleman and gastronome Ippolito Cavalcanti, but it's probably much older.

Because it was for fast days, it includes no animal products, but it bursts with flavor from olives, capers, golden raisins, fresh basil and toasted breadcrumbs.

This dish is sometimes made in "frittata style" with the whole mass of seasoned spaghetti put into a hot skillet to crisp the bottom, then it's flipped to crisp the other side as well.

This is a quick and easy cheesy vegetarian dish that can all be made in the time that it takes to boil the pasta. It's a Neapolitan dish that translates at "shoemaker's pasta" because poor shoemakers couldn't afford expensive ingredients, but tomatoes, cheese, basil, and pasta were readily available to these urban workers. Some say that the shoemakers were sometimes paid with cheese in barter from their equally poor customers.

I like it best with a short tubular pasta for catching the halved cherry tomatoes, but any short dried pasta works well, especially something textured to catch the cheesy sauce. I made this one with Calamarata from the wonderful Pasta Somma di Gragnano; great pasta makes such a difference!

Maccheroni al Limone is a delicious light pasta dish for summer. A small serving makes a great appetizer because it wakes up your taste buds without filling you up.

This is also good with angel hair pasta and some filled pastas.

I learned this simple late-summer delight from my father. It responds well to different varieties of heirloom tomatoes. 

In southern Italy, where this recipe originated, they use the famous sweet Red Onions of Tropea. Those are indeed very mild and sweet, and they are unavailable in New England.

Instead of using supermarket red onions, I use Vidalia onions, which I find nearly as mild and sweet even if they lack the red color. 

Use a good quality olive oil, and if you cannot get fresh oregano, use dried oregano but infuse it in the oil for an hour or so before serving.