40 heel recipes

Ricotta and pignoli sauce tosses fresh ricotta, toasted pine nuts, mint and basil with rotelle pasta in a quick tomato saute. A creamy Sicilian-inspired meatless pasta dinner.

A chunky vegetarian minestrone loaded with cannellini beans, tomatoes, zucchini, carrots, and spinach, thickened with rice instead of pasta. A hearty, one-pot Italian soup finished with Parmesan.

Mother's fruit cake is a brandy-soaked holiday classic with cherries, apricots, pineapple, peel, raisins, and currants bound in a spiced chocolate-scented batter. Baked slow and aged for two months.

Cucidati, the traditional Sicilian Christmas fig cookies, with a rich filling of figs, raisins, nuts, chocolate and rum wrapped in tender pastry, shaped into slashed horseshoes and dusted with sugar.

Hearty Italian sausage soup with hot sausage, tomato puree, red wine, bell peppers, and fresh herbs simmered in beef stock. Served over rotelli pasta with Parmesan.

Pan-seared bay bugs on wok-fried egg noodles with speck, smoked eel, peas, and capsicum, finished with a turmeric-chilli oil drizzle. Australian seafood meets Asian flair.

Pasta e fagioli with cannellini beans, fresh tomatoes, rotelle pasta, and Italian herbs finished with balsamic vinegar and Parmesan. A classic Italian bean and pasta dish that's hearty, healthy, and quick.

From McCall's Great American recipe card collection, Our Italian Heritage 5e, a baked meatball lasagna.