Italian Beef Recipes for Scrumptious and Special-Occasion Meals

The star of today's Italian-style dishes is beef. These Italian beef recipes feature spaghetti and meatballs, as well as a unique take on regular pizza.

They are tasty, filling, and perfect for midweek and special-occasion meals. Best of all, you will still enjoy all the hearty flavors of Italian cuisine without having to go out to a restaurant!

Collection of Italian Beef Recipes

If you’re looking for inspiration for your weeknight meals, check out the most flavorful Italian beef recipes that you can make at home with simple ingredients.

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Vegetable Beef Ragu Recipe

This ragu is packed with vegetables simmered in a satisfying, hearty broth. It’s so robust that it carries a life of its own. You’ll undoubtedly want to cling to each spoonful to prolong this experience.

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Calzone Recipe

Eating calzone is one of our favorite ways to imagine eating pizza. It’s basically the same thing but with a double dose of crispy crust goodness that you might eventually opt for in place of the original pizza. Once you taste it, you’ll understand why.

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Creamy Tomato Rigatoni Pasta Recipe

Rigatoni is wide, cylindrical pasta with ridges on the exterior. All the better to soak up as much of these savory mushroom and parmesan flavors in each spoonful!

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Stuffed Shells Recipe

This recipe includes conchiglie, a shell-shaped pasta of medium size. We stuffed them with ricotta, mozzarella, and parmesan, poured meat sauce, and baked them to a rich, caramelized finish.

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Spaghetti Bolognese Recipe

When you plan a dish you want everyone to love, Spaghetti Bolognese should come to mind. It’s a time-tested meal that requires little effort yet never fails to impress. The kids will be lining up for seconds.

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Spaghetti and Beef Meatballs Recipe

We love the simplicity and style of Spaghetti and Meatballs. It’s semi-rustic, yet it just cuts it as a classy meal. It’s our idea of an all-purpose dish at its finest.

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Ground Beef Casserole Recipe

They must have had rumbling bellies in mind when they invented casseroles. Like the best casseroles, this one is creamy, cheesy, and loaded with filling carbs. A foolproof main sure to please your guests.

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Reasons to Love

Italian cuisine offers a vast array of highly unique and delicious culinary dishes, and beef dishes are some of the most popular.

The majority of Italian beef recipes are reasonably priced. They use substances that are readily available on the market, which contributes to their affordability. If you have steak, bread, olive oil, cheese, and tomatoes, you can easily prepare many flavorful dishes.

Moreover, Italian beef recipes are all about improving the flavor of the original ingredients, while maintaining the highest level of simplicity.

Lastly, the quality of the final dish depends on the ingredients and condiments you use. Whether you're cooking rice or pasta with tomato and bell pepper, or diverse pizza flavors, it all depends on the ingredients you choose and prepare. We’ll discuss traditional Italian seasoning in the following section.

Seasoning, Spices, and Herbs for Beef

There are several typical herbs and spices that impart flavor to beef recipes in Italian cuisine. Here are 8 Italian culinary condiments you can use to enhance the flavor of your beef dishes:

Salt: Italian cuisine is renowned for its beautifully savory comfort dishes, and salt is the key to bringing out these flavors.
Garlic: Garlic is one of the spices most commonly used to impart a burst of flavor and aroma to meat. Use it with any stir-fried, grilled, or pan-seared steak.
Pepper: Freshly ground black pepper is ubiquitous in Italian meat dishes. In addition to its intensity, black pepper adds lemony and piney flavors to your food.
Bay Leaves: Italian chefs use these dried laurel tree leaves to season poultry and beef meals, as well as soups, stews, and sauces. Bay leaves release their flavor during slow cooking, adding another dimension to recipes that have been cooked for an extended period of time.
Rosemary: This herb grows profusely across the Italian countryside and is perfect for meat marinades and grilling.
Sage: This perennial herb is distinguished by its fuzzy gray-green leaves, earthy sweet-and-savory flavor, and peppery bite. Sage is nearly always used in grilled foods.
Fennel: Fennel has a licorice aroma that may be present in some sausages. Ground fennel loses its taste rapidly, so either use whole fennel seeds or grind them prior to use.
Marjoram: Marjoram is similar to oregano, but with a milder flavor and more flowery scent. You can use it fresh or dried in a variety of meat preparations, including marinades and stews. Due to its robust aroma, we recommend using marjoram sparingly so as not to overpower the beef’s flavor.

Popular Ways to Cook Italian-Style Beef

Italian cuisine features a wide range of beef dishes; from lasagne to spaghetti you will undoubtedly discover a variety of flavorful meals.

In addition, Italian foods, such as pizza, are accessible in a variety of styles, increasing the popularity and diversity of Italian-style beef recipes. Other famous Italian cuisine options include salads, soups, and appetizers, all of which are adored by meat lovers everywhere.