With no advance planning required, these pan-seared chicken thighs require just a few minutes of work in the kitchen.

This recipe is a great one for using dried spices; as the chicken slowly cooks, it will absorb all of those Italian flavors. There is no need to marinate the meat, simply sprinkle each thigh with seasonings and drop it in the pan.

Pan Seared Chicken Thighs

The hardest part of this recipe is waiting while the chicken slowly cooks on its own. You want the skin to be golden-brown with all the fat rendered before you turn the pieces over.

This recipe results in incredibly juicy chicken with a crispy skin every time. It is completely worth the wait! Crispy pan seared chicken is a great match for Classic Potato Salad, Italian Herb Rice or Rosemary Roasted Potatoes.

Creamy, rich Truffle Mac and Cheese is a fancy spin on comfort food. If you’ve never tasted this awesomeness, you’ve been missing out on this ultimate side dish.

In the mood for some awesome vegetables? Sriracha Honey Roasted Broccoli is a friend and family favorite, as is this Asparagus, Bacon, Corn, and Sweet Potato Skillet.

Italian Chicken Thighs

You’ll need just a few ingredients to make this recipe:

• light-flavored olive oil or coconut oil
• chicken thighs
• kosher salt
• freshly ground black pepper
• granulated garlic or garlic powder
• dried oregano
• dried basil
• herbs de Provence, optional

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Loaded with flavor and just a hint of heat, these Italian stuffed bell peppers are filled with ground beef and rice, seasoned with plenty of Italian spices, and topped with cheese.

Served with a salad or warm rosemary garlic bread, this is a hearty meal that comes together without any fuss.

Just brown the meat, fill the peppers, and let them roast away while you kick back on the couch with a book. Sprinkle the warm peppers with cheese just before serving and you’ll have an easy dinner on the table with minimal effort.

Spicy Italian Peppers

These Spicy Italian Peppers are one of my husband’s favorite meals. I’ve been making them for at least 8-10 years now and I double this recipe almost every time I make them.

They’re loaded with flavor and just a hint of heat, but if spicy dishes aren’t your thing, skip the crushed red pepper and you’ll have Italian-style stuffed peppers that will make everyone happy.

The meat mixture freezes perfectly on its own and the stuffed peppers freeze well too. I often freeze the cooked peppers individually for quick and easy lunches.

Italian Style Stuffed Peppers

To make the recipe even easier, you can also use cooked rice leftover from a previous meal. Make rice as a side dish for your lunch and use the leftovers in stuffed peppers for dinner!

My kids and I typically eat one pepper each and my husband will eat a couple of them. They’re filling, delicious, and enthusiastically enjoyed by everyone.

Stuffed Bell Peppers are easy to customize based on your family’s tastes. You can play with different pre-made spaghetti sauces, adjust the spices and try different kinds of cheese on top of the cooked peppers.

Feel free to use this recipe as a jumping off point for making the Stuffed Peppers of your dreams. I love the ground beef in the original version but sausage and ground turkey work well too.

These Italian style stuffed peppers have the advantage of being convenient, easy, customizable and kid-friendly to boot. As far as weeknight meals go, can we ask for anything more?

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Almost 20 years ago, I was handed one of the most delicious cookies I had ever tasted. The Pignoli Cookie is unique in flavor and texture; completely unlike anything I had tasted before.

The restaurant where I first tasted these cookie does not share their recipe; they simply called them Pinon Cookies (a.k.a. Pine Nut Cookies). Crunchy, chewy, sweet and nutty, these cookies are a perfect match for any almond-lover.

Pine Nut Cookies

I spent three years thinking about those cookies and wondering how on earth they were made. Many of the recipes for cookies with pine nuts that I found were merely sugar cookies or shortbread topped with or rolled in pine nuts.

I’m sure those cookies are delicious, but that was not what I was searching for this time. I eventually learned that these pine nut cookies are most commonly known as Italian Pignoli Cookies or Italian Pine Nut Cookies. In New Mexico where I first tried them, they are called Pinon Cookies.

As you can guess, I was beyond excited to share the recipe with you all after I finally found this recipe.

I followed the recipe, tasted one of these cookies, and nearly shrieked out loud with joy. The hunt was over. These Italian Pine Nut Cookies are every bit as delicious as I’d remembered.

The recipe and method below have been very lightly adapted from and with an abundance of thanks to Shockingly Delicious.

Italian Pignoli Cookies

Over the past few years, I have shared these cookies with friends and family countless times, and every single person that tastes them comments on how unique and irresistible they are.

These cookies always bring people back for “just one more”

Are you looking for the perfect pork roast recipe? Roasted all day, left falling apart and tender enough to cut with a fork; this Italian Pork Roast just might become your favorite pork roast with the very first bite.

Italian Slow Cooker Roast

The first time I made a slow cooker red wine roast beef (over ten years ago now), my husband requested that I please put that roast on the menu at least once a month. I was more than happy to oblige.

My family was still talking about that meal two days later. So, naturally, I decided to play with a pork version of that Italian flavor-inspired roast.

When I cooked that first five-pound pork roast, I expected to have a huge amount of leftovers. However, almost everyone went back for seconds and I wound up with far less than half of the roast left for another meal.

If you are fortunate enough to have leftovers at the end of the meal, they are delicious when combined with potato, onion, and apple to make this Roasted Italian Pork with Apples and Potatoes.

Italian Pork Roast

This Italian pork roast recipe is an absolutely hassle-free dinner. Less than 10 minutes are required to prep the roast; then just sit back and enjoy how wonderful it smells as it cooks through the day.

Cooking this roast in a slow-cooker makes it easier than you ever imagined to roast pork to perfection. This Italian-inspired slow cooker roast starts with a 7lb pork shoulder (shoulder blade is my favorite cut of meat for this roast recipe).

After layering thinly sliced onions on the bottom of a crock-pot, cook the roast with the onions, a blend of fragrant Italian herbs and spices, water, and red wine for 9 to 10 hours.

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This Italian Red Wine Roast Beef slowly cooks in the crock-pot creating an unforgettable dinner with almost no effort at all.

This smells absolutely fantastic as it slowly cooks through the day.

Crockpot Roast Beef

I could hardly wait to taste this pot roast the first time I made it and let me tell you, it did not disappoint. Seasoned with a light blend of Italian spices and then cooked in red wine, served with Baby Red Potatoes and Roasted Green Beans this roast is happily eaten by every member of the family.

I’ve been making this Red Wine Roast Beef for a few years now and it never fails to impress. This recipe was originally inspired by a recipe I found over at allrecipes.com. I’ve simplified it over time and the whole family enjoys it.

The aroma, while it cooks, is almost as amazing as the resulting meat. I could eat this roast beef every week all year long with no complaints.

Red Wine Roast Beef

What really makes this Italian roast beef recipe stand out is the red wine that it cooks in. I use a dry red like cabernet or a merlot to fill this roast with delicious flavor. (Not a big wine drinker? I buy these tiny bottles of wine and stash them in the pantry. I use one small bottle each time we make this roast recipe.)

The red wine gives this meat a whole extra dimension of taste. It tastes better than any roast beef I’ve had at a restaurant but is incredibly simple and easy to make. This is a standard dinner time main dish for us by now but we never ever get tired of eating it.

I first made this pot roast with red wine by baking it in the oven. The meat was perfectly tender and fell apart on the fork easily. I had a feeling the recipe would work well in the slow-cooker, too and I was right.