Makes one tall loaf in a 7-inch-wide by 5-inch-high (18 by 12 cm) panettone mold, yielding 12 slices and serving 12 at Easter breakfast or as antipasto. Prep time: about 45 minutes. Cook time: about 55 minutes. Rise time: about 3 hours 15 minutes, guided by volume and fingertip response. Rest and cooling time: about 2 hours. Total time: approximately 6 hours 55 minutes. This is savory Abruzzo cheese-and-pepper bread, not flat pizza or the region's candied sweet loaf.

Melanzane Ripiene alla Lucana (Lucanian Stuffed Eggplant) Melanzane ripiene alla lucana is a dish built out of what a Basilicata kitchen already had on the shelf. The long narrow eggplants of the region are hollowed out, and the flesh that comes out of them is chopped and returned to the shell with stale bread soaked in milk, an egg, grated pecorino, garlic and parsley. Nothing is discarded and nothing is bought in. The whole thing is baked in a shallow bed of tomato until th

rigatoni coated in a slow cooked veal ragù with aromatic vegetables, tomato, wine and Parmigiano