Scrippelle 'Mbusse

The first useful thing to know about Italian cooking is that, as such, it actually doesn't exist. There are the cuisines of Emilia-Romagna, of Venice, of Naples, of Sicily. And there is the cooking of Abruzzo, which gave us these simple egg crepes swimming in broth.

Scrippelle 'mbusse is restorative food. The kind of thing an Abruzzese grandmother makes when someone is recovering from illness, or when the morning demands warmth and substance without heaviness. The crepes are thinner than French crepes, almost translucent when held to the light. They roll around aged pecorino, nothing else. Then hot chicken broth transforms them into something that is neither soup nor crepe but something entirely its own.

The broth must be impeccable. If your broth is weak or cloudy, the dish fails. There is nowhere to hide inferior ingredients when you have only three components. This is the discipline of Italian home cooking: what you keep out is as significant as what you put in.