This Is What a Spring Dinner Looks Like in Italy

In Italy, spring at the table means one thing above all: vegetables that actually taste like something. Asparagus, peas, fava beans, zucchini flowers — the kind that arrive at the market for a few weeks and disappear before you've had enough of them.

A proper Italian spring menu doesn't need to be complicated. It needs to be seasonal. Here are five recipes that cover everything from antipasto to something to share at the center of the table — built around what's best right now.

Spring Cones Puff pastry strips wrapped around cone molds, baked until golden and crisp, then filled with two creams — one of prosciutto cotto and cream cheese, one of mortadella and pistachio — and decorated with fresh spring vegetables. Colorful, fun to eat by hand, and the kind of appetizer that disappears from the table before everyone has sat down.

Pro tip: bake the cones up to two days in advance and store them in a cool, dry place — fill them just before serving to keep the pastry crisp.

Garden Vegetable Fusilli Fusilli bucati corti tossed with a soffritto of leek, celery, and carrot, then finished with zucchini, eggplant, peppers, and cherry tomatoes — each vegetable added in order of cooking time so everything stays perfectly tender. A southern Italian classic that puts whatever is freshest in the market directly on the plate.

Pro tip: finish the pasta directly in the pan with the vegetables for the last three minutes — it absorbs the sauce and the result is completely different from tossing them together at the end.

Seabass in Crazy Water Sea bass fillets poached in a broth of cherry tomatoes, white wine, garlic, chili, and fresh herbs until the fish is just cooked and the liquid has reduced into something you'll want to mop up with bread. Acqua pazza — "crazy water" — is one of the great dishes of the southern Italian coast, and one of the simplest ways to cook fresh fish well.

Pro tip: don't skip the crusty bread — the broth is the best part, and scarpetta is mandatory.

Spring Salad New potatoes, asparagus, green beans, fava beans, artichokes, radishes, and spinach — some blanched, some sautéed until golden — tossed together and dressed with a blended cream of peas, yogurt, lemon juice, and olive oil. A contorno that could easily become the main event.

Pro tip: the pea dressing can be made with fava beans instead of peas — same technique, slightly earthier flavor.

Spring Focaccia A herb-scented focaccia dough — oregano, thyme, and marjoram kneaded directly into the base — topped halfway through baking with stracchino and asparagus, then finished until the cheese melts into the bread and the edges turn golden. The kind of thing that goes in the center of the table and comes back empty.

Pro tip: stracchino can be hard to find outside specialty stores — crescenza is the same cheese under a different name and works identically.

Five dishes, one season. Mix and match as you like — the cones and focaccia work on their own, the fusilli and salad make a complete lunch, and the seabass is a dinner all by itself. Spring doesn't last long. Start cooking.

Related: The 6 Spring Recipes Worth Making Right Now / This Is How Italians Shop at the Farmers Market / The Italian Way to Eat Well Without Trying Too Hard