Agnello alla Ligure con Olive (Italian Ligurian Lamb with Olives) The Ligurian way with lamb and olives has one rule that separates it from every other version in Italy: no tomato. The braise is built on dry white wine from the Riviera di Ponente, taggiasca olives from the hills above Imperia, pine nuts and a handful of herbs, and the sauce is pale gold and faintly salty rather than red. Cooks who learned the Sicilian or Tuscan versions find this disconcerting for five minute

Agnello alla Siciliana con Pomodoro e Olive (Italian Sicilian Lamb with Tomato and Olives) This is the lamb of the Sicilian interior, of the Iblei plateau behind Ragusa and the high pastures of the Madonie, cooked the way it is cooked there at Easter: browned hard in olive oil, let down slowly with tomato in two forms, one fresh and one dried, and finished with Nocellara olives and wild oregano. It reduces until the sauce stops being liquid and becomes a dark glaze clinging t

Italian Braised Cauliflower with Olives (Cavolfiore Stufato con Olive) Cavolfiore stufato con olive is a winter side dish from the south of Italy, where cauliflower is cheap and in season exactly when nothing else in the garden is. Florets are browned in olive oil with garlic and chilli, moistened with tomato and stock, covered and stewed until a knife slides in without resistance, then finished with olives and parsley. No cream, no cheese, no oven. The difficulty is that cau