22 Easy Italian Dinners That Taste Like a Restaurant's

From pasta to soup, here are 22 best Italian dinners you can make (and master) at home.

22 Easy Italian Dinners That Taste Like a Restaurant's
Italian butter chicken (petti di pollo al burro) in a skillet at a table with a plate of lemon slices, a glass of water, and a table napkin
Simply Recipes / Hannah Zimmerman

There's a reason Italian food is so popular in America: It's just flat-out delicious. Whether a recipe is exactly like one you'd find an Italian Nonna (or her grandson) making in Italy or an Italian American dish created by immigrants, the combinations of flavors the Italians have perfected over centuries appeal to all.

These 19 recipes all call on the Italian tradition, and you'll find them in Italian restaurants—independent and fast casual—throughout the US. They range from irresistible tomato, cheese, and pasta casseroles and flavorful soups to everyone's favorite spaghetti and meatballs. These don't need to be relegated to restaurants.

Adding a few of these Italian recipes to your regular rotation will satisfy your taste buds, your tummy, those you cook for, and yourself.

Bruschetta with Tomato and Basil

Close-up, overhead photo of bruschetta with tomato and basil
Simply Recipes / Mihaela Kozaric Sebrek

Bruschetta at home will always be better than any restaurant starter. Blanched, peeled tomatoes, garlic, olive oil, balsamic vinegar, basil, salt and pepper. Does it get more Italian than these simple ingredients? Mixed together they become a topping for toasted baguette slices.

Italian Butter Chicken (Petti Di Pollo al Burro)

Italian butter chicken (petti di pollo al burro) in a skillet at a table with a plate of lemon slices, a glass of water, and a table napkin
Simply Recipes / Hannah Zimmerman

Contributor Hannah Zimmerman says, "The best way to serve petti di pollo is over pasta with some lemon slices and chopped parsley. I recommend using a long noodle like spaghetti, fettuccine, or pappardelle. The parsley is optional, but I love the touch of freshness it adds to this dish."

Classic Minestrone Soup

minestrone soup in bowl
Elise Bauer

Italians have as many recipes for minestrone as they have individual families. It's that customizable. This version has the trio of carrots, celery, and onion of course, and also fennel, potatoes, cabbage, zucchini, and tomato plus white beans. Pasta is optional but recommended.

Chicken Piccata

Chicken Piccata
Simply Recipes / Michelle Becker

While this may not be a traditional dish from Italy, it's inspired by its flavors and served in many Italian restaurants. It's so easy and quick to put together that you'll serve it often. Cook flour-dredged thin chicken breasts in olive oil, white wine, and chicken stock, squeeze in some lemon, and throw on handfuls of beautiful, briny capers. In about 30 minutes, you'll have all the yumminess!

Tuscan Ribollita Soup

easy Tuscan ribolitta soup in a dutch oven at a table setting with a plate of bread and a kitchen towel
Simply Recipes / Shilpa Iyer

Contributor Devan Grimsrud says, "My recipe is called “easy” to highlight ease—it comes together in just over 30 minutes and is super versatile. It serves as a loose guide that allows you to use what you have in your pantry."

Cheese Stuffed Manicotti

Manicotti Removed From Casserole Dish Filled With Manicotti Using a Wooden Spoon
Simply Recipes / Ciara Kehoe

Ricotta, parsley, and mozzarella—with a touch of lemon—create a manicotti filling that's hard to resist. Cook manicotti shells and fill them with the cheesy mixture, or make it easier by piping the filling on fresh sheets of pasta and then rolling them. Then bake with seasoned tomato sauce for a satisfying Italian feast.

Spaghetti and Meatballs

Platter of Spaghetti and Meatballs With a Piece of Toasted Bread and Topped With Fresh Basil Leaves, and in the Surroundings, a Burgundy Table Napkin, a Bowl of Parmesan, Bite Size Bread Pieces Scattered on the Table, and a Plate With More Spaghetti and Meatballs
Simply Recipes / Ciara Kehoe

Adding mushrooms keeps these beef and pork meatballs from drying out. Cremini mushrooms are in both the meatballs and the sauce. Make the sauce. Make and brown the meatballs. Then finish the meatballs in the sauce, mingling them together for maximum flavor. Spoon over pasta and make everyone happy.

Easy Italian Wedding Soup

Overhead view of a two white bowls of Italian wedding soup topped with Parmesan cheese
Simply Recipes / Photo by Rachel Vanni / Food Styling by Tiffany Schleigh

Contributor Stephanie A. Ganz, says, "For this simplified version, I’m just using onions and garlic, but celery and carrots are common in other versions of Italian wedding soup. To make prep even easier, use store-bought mirepoix."

Easy Tuscan Bean Soup

Tuscan Bean Soup
Simply Recipes / Sheryl Julian

In Italy, simmering pots of soup are plentiful in homes throughout the country. This version makes use of canned beans to make a little less work of it all, but it's still a robust Italian-inspired soup with plenty of vegetables that begs for a topping of Parmesan cheese.

Potato Gnocchi From Scratch

Potato Gnocchi
Simply Recipes / Sally Vargas

Gnocchi is easy to make and needs no special equipment. Bake potatoes, then mash them and work in flour, egg yolks, and salt. Roll into long cylinders and cut into 1-inch pieces. Then cook or freeze to serve with any sauce such as Butternut Squash Parmesan Sauce.

Osso Buco

osco busco in a dutch oven with a serving spoon
Elise Bauer

This Italian dish of braised veal shanks gets the flavor for its rich sauce from the marrow of the shank bone. Brown the shanks in fat rendered from pancetta and then sauté carrots, celery, and onion in the fat of both. Then add wine and simmer it all for 1 to 1 1/2 hours. It's not difficult, but it does take time. Serve with gremolata.

Eggplant Parmesan

Baked eggplant parmesan in a casserole dish.
Ciara Kehoe

When you need to serve a crowd, go for the classic. As opposed to frying on the stovetop, these eggplant rounds are roasted in the oven before assembling the casserole, which makes far less of a mess. Don't skip salting the eggplant first to drain its moisture, or you'll end up with a soggy mess.

The Best Homemade Lasagna

Side view of a piece of lasagna on a plate.
Cambrea Bakes

Easy in the eye of the beholder, right? Some may find building this lasagna from scratch easier than buying a sub-par store-bought version that's so very disappointing. Taking the time to make this ooey, gooey, scrumptious lasagna does not disappoint, especially if you freeze half of it (it freezes really well) and have a second lasagna dinner with no work at all!

Baked Ziti

Oval baking dish filled with a cheesy pasta bake
Cambrea Bakes

Baked ziti has many of the attributes you love about lasagna but with less fuss. Choose your favorite—ground pork, beef, or veal—for this version that's bursting with mozzarella, ricotta, and Parmesan. Use store-bought or homemade pasta sauce.

Stracciatella alla Romana

Italian Egg Drop Soup
Elise Bauer

Sometimes referred to as Italian egg drop soup because of its resemblance to Chinese egg drop soup, Stracciatella is full of hot chicken broth, and drop dumpling-noodles of beaten egg, Parmesan cheese, spinach, and panko. It's ready to serve in just 20 minutes.

Italian Meatballs

Baked Meatballs in Tomato Sauce served in a bowl
Elise Bauer

Meatballs don't have to be the partner to pasta or a hot sandwich filling. They can be a dish all of their own, and these meatballs are perfect for just that. Made with ground beef and pork, ricotta, Parmesan, fresh bread soaked in warm milk, and the rest of the usual meatball ingredient suspects, you tuck them in homemade or store-bought sauce to finish cooking them.

Risi e Bisi

Risi e Bisi Italian Rice and Peas
Elise Bauer

Risi e bisi is Italian for rice and peas. This Venetian, risotto-like dish also has ham, either in the form of diced prosciutto or other dry ham, and gets finished with plenty of Parmesan cheese and parsley.

Classic Bolognese Sauce

Pasta with bolognese sauce on a white plate.
Sally Vargas

A good Bolognese sauce is a thing of great beauty. Simmer slowly for 2 hours with onions, carrots, celery, clove, cinnamon, tomatoes, milk, and meat such as beef or pork. Serve it over fresh pasta or your favorite cooked dried pasta.

Pasta e Fagioli

pasta fagioli soup in bowl
Elise Bauer

This traditional peasant soup is full of beans and pasta plus vegetables and tomatoes. Made with chicken stock, leftovers get thicker after refrigeration because the pasta absorbs the stock, but it's still delicious either way.

Linguine With Clam Sauce

linguine and clams on a blue plate
Elise Bauer

This red-sauced version of the classic Italian American linguine dish uses both fresh and canned clams. It gets a punch of flavor from some fennel and a little dash of anise liqueur. Serve with crusty Italian bread to sop up all the yummy sauce.

Caponata

how to make Caponata
Elise Bauer

This versatile Italian relish can be a pasta sauce, a dip, or a spread. Made with eggplant, onions, garlic, tomatoes, pine nuts, olives, raisins, capers, parsley, vinegar, sugar, and basil, then cook then cool the ingredients before serving.

Pasta Puttanesca

Pasta Puttanesca
Elise Bauer

Quick puttanesca uses pantry staples: canned tomato paste, crushed tomatoes, canned anchovies, and jarred olives and capers. Garlic, onion, and oregano season the sauce that's traditionally served with spaghetti.