28 Of The Best Classic And Authentic European Recipes On The Internet

Do you ever feel like you’re making the same old recipes all the time?

Do you ever fancy trying something different to all the usual American recipes you eat every day?

If the answer to either of these questions is yes, then this is the article for you.

I have taken the time to have a good rummage through the internet looking for different classic and traditional European recipes.

I then made a shortlist of my favorite ones, and now I’m going to share my findings with you.

I’ve included a nice mixture of starters, main courses and desserts, and have tried to keep it quite varied.

Are your taste buds ready for this onslaught? Here we go!

1. Authentic Neapolitan Pizza Recipe From My Pizza Corner

Let’s kick things off with a nice crowd pleaser! Pizza, as we know, originates from Italy, and Italian cuisine doesn’t come much more Italian than authentic Neapolitan pizza, which comes from Naples in Italy.

This recipe walks you through making the pizza dough from scratch, using different types of flour, and suggests a nice range of toppings including tomatoes, tomato sauce, basil leaves, Mozzarella, Parmesan cheese, and more.

It tastes amazing and is way healthier than your average takeaway pizza.

2. Traditional Spanish Seafood Paella Recipe From Spanish Sabores

Paella is one of the more well known Spanish dishes, featuring rice and spices. Seafood is a typical ingredient in Spanish paella, but you can also get meat versions and vegetarian versions.

In this traditional Spanish seafood recipe you’ve got shrimp, mussels, squid, rice, tomatoes, onions, minced garlic cloves, paprika, saffron, and white wine.

It’s got a nice, healthy mix of proteins, grains, and healthy fats.

3. Classic British Fish And Chips Recipe From The Spruce Eats

Across the pond in the UK, the British love to enjoy the classic dish of fish and fries on the coast, or as they would call it, fish and chips by the seaside.

There’s fish, usually cod, fried in a thick batter, which gets served with French fries, which they refer to as chips. It’s typically served with a combination of salt and vinegar.

This particular recipe features beer in the batter.

4. Authentic Swedish Meatballs Recipe From Shugary Sweets

Swedish meatballs may originate in Sweden, but boy are they popular the world over!

You make the meatballs from scratch using such ingredients as ground beef, ground pork, minced onion, breadcrumbs and seasoning.

This recipe also features a wonderful creamy sauce that compliments the meatballs perfectly, and is made with butter, heavy whipping cream, spices and herbs.

It takes a while to cook, but it’s absolutely worth the wait.

5. Spicy Patatas Bravas Spanish Tapas Recipe From The Spanish Radish

In Spain, starter dishes are referred to as tapas. And there are a great many different types of tapas dishes. Most frequently, you will be presented with a board of various cold meats and cheeses.

There are also small plates that go round the crowd and the whole crowd digs in and passes the plates around.

This Spanish tapas recipe features potatoes, spiced with garlic, paprika, and chili powder.

6. Authentic French Croque Monsieur Recipe From My Parisian Kitchen

At first, this might look like a simple grilled cheese toast, but this way of eating ham and grilled cheese couldn’t be more French.

In addition to the sandwich bread, you will need some ham and cheese (such as emmental, comté, Gruyère, or cantal), and a béchamel sauce made with butter, flour, milk, nutmeg, and salt and pepper. It also often features French mustard.

7. Traditional Scottish Haggis Recipe From Travel Food Atlas

This is the most famous dish from Scotland in the UK. It’s made from the likes of internal organs or offal of calf or sheep, such as the heart, liver and lungs, which is then combined with oatmeal, onions and suet.

And while it may not look or sound particularly appealing, it has a nice, nutty, earthy taste, thanks to spices such as black pepper, coriander, chili flakes, ground cinnamon, and fresh thyme.

8. Authentic Spanish Gazpacho Recipe From Spanish Sabores

Spanish gazpacho is basically a soup that is served cold, which is the perfect way to cool down on a hot day in Spain.

It’s super healthy, easy to make, and is bursting with flavor, thanks to ingredients such as tomatoes, green pepper, white onion, cucumber, garlic, and sherry vinegar.

You can also throw in any combination of a range of different toppings, such as diced pepper, diced green apple, hard-boiled eggs, and croutons.

9. Authentic Original Traditional Swiss Cheese Fondue Recipe From Food

OMG – Swiss cheese fondue is amazing! It’s basically a combination of different cheeses, such as Gruyère cheese all melted together with added ingredients such as dry white wine, garlic cloves, lemon juice, and nutmeg.

You can also add a dash of kirsch if you wish.

Everyone gathers around and has large cubes of crusty bread on sticks, which they dip and twirl into the cheese fondue mixture before they eat it.

10. Classic, Authentic Italian Minestrone Soup Recipe From La Bella Vita

Minestrone is a famous Italian soup, which is based on tomatoes, but also features many wonderful additions.

Such additions include healthy veg such as onion, carrots, zucchini, cabbage, potatoes and celery, alongside beans such as kidney, cannellini, and garbanzo beans, and herbs such as sage.

You may also come across pasta shapes, pancetta, minced garlic cloves, and freshly grated Parmesan cheese to serve.

It’s healthy, filling and satisfying.

11. Apfelstrudel German Apple Strudel Recipe From Quick German Recipes

This traditional German recipe is a huge hit across the globe.

The recipe linked to here walks you through making your own homemade puff pastry strudel dough, but if you want to save yourself some time, you can just use some ready-made, store-bought puff pastry.

The filling meanwhile is made with thin apple slices, sugar, and flour. If you wish, you can also add in some sliced almonds and raisins.

12. Traditional Welsh Cakes Recipe From The Daring Gourmet

This cookie recipe comes from Wales, which is part of the UK next to England.

It has the texture of biscuits, but it’s not a savory dish that you enjoy with gravy, it’s sweet, and buttery, and it usually also features raisins.

There are different variations of this recipe that you can make, such as replacing the raisins with chocolate chips, or slicing them horizontally and adding a jelly and cream filling.

13. Authentic Hungarian Goulash Recipe From The Daring Gourmet

Goulash is a traditional Hungarian dish that is often overlooked, and rarely gets the kind of attention and recognition it deserves. It has a real depth and richness of flavor.

It’s made with beef broth and stewing beef, combined with healthy veggies such as bell peppers, potatoes, carrots, and onions, and is flavored with the likes of minced garlic cloves, salt and pepper, bay leaves, and crushed caraway seeds.

14. Traditional German Currywurst Recipe From Craft Beering

Currywurst is an authentic dish, originating from Berlin, capital of Germany. It’s often described as curry ketchup. It is usually served with German sausage such as Bratwurst or Frankfurters.

It’s made with ketchup, curry powder, Worcestershire sauce, paprika, salt, sugar, vinegar, mustard, onion, and minced garlic cloves.

It’s simple to make, and you can make all kinds of variations of it.

15. Traditional Greek Moussaka Recipe From My Greek Dish

Now, this is what I call comfort food! This traditional Greek recipe is a kinda eggplant casserole, with a rich tomato sauce with either ground beef or ground lamb, which is topped off with a deliciously creamy béchamel sauce.

The flavor is also boosted by the likes of red onions, garlic cloves, red wine, bay leaves, and cinnamon. The béchamel sauce features milk, butter, flour, nutmeg, and hard cheese.

16. Authentic Italian Chocolate Gelato Recipe From Recipes From Italy

Italy is famous for its ice cream, or as they call it, gelato. Gelato parlors in Italy typically offer a wide variety of different flavors. But in my experience, no flavor is a bigger crowd pleaser than a rich chocolate.

With this recipe you can make your own chocolate gelato with just a handful of ingredients, namely dark chocolate, cocoa powder, heavy cream, whole milk, granulated sugar, and egg yolks.

17. Authentic Cornish Pasty Recipe From The Daring Gourmet

Cornish pasties originate in a part of England, UK, known as Cornwall. They are basically hand pies. Savory, flaky pastry pockets, with a comforting filling. They are often served with fries or gravy.

The filling is made with beef skirt steak, waxy potatoes, and vegetables such as onion, rutabaga, carrot, or swede.

This particular recipe even walks you through how to make the pastry dough.

18. Tortilla De Patatas Spanish Tortilla Recipe From Spanish Sabores

A tortilla de patatas is a classic, traditional, Spanish omelet that requires very few ingredients, and is easy to make. It’s one of those comforting dishes that even picky eaters like to tuck into.

All you really need for this recipe is eggs, olive oil, diced onion, sliced potatoes such as Yukon Golds, and salt to taste. But you can also add in a few well-chosen herbs and spices. I like to make mine with garlic powder.

19. Homemade Greek Gyros With Tzatziki Recipe From Christina’s Cucina

Greek gyros feature sliced rotisserie meat that’s wrapped or stuffed into some pita bread with traditional Greek salad ingredients such as sweet onion, tomatoes, lettuce, and crumbled feta cheese.

These gyros combine ground beef and lamb, and are flavored with garlic, rosemary, and more. This recipe also features Tzatziki sauce, which is made from cucumber and Greek yogurt.

It’s relatively low in calories at just 343 calories per serving.

20. Traditional Eton Mess Recipe From Great British Chefs

This delectable dessert dish from the UK is refreshing, creamy, and sweet. Not to mention super simple to make.

You don’t need many ingredients to make it, just fresh slices of strawberries, chilled double cream, and icing sugar.

While the crunchy Eton mess meringue is made with egg whites, caster sugar, a vanilla pod and a pinch of salt.

It’s fun to make and even more fun to eat!

21. Pastel de Nata Portuguese Custard Tarts Recipe From Fed By Sab

This simple yet popular dessert recipe originates from sunny Portugal. It is basically a creamy custard which is baked to caramelize in a light and flaky pastry crust.

The ingredients are all very easy to get hold of, it’s just flour, milk, egg yolks, puff pastry, sugar, water, vanilla extract, cinnamon, and salt.

And despite tasting so good, they’re actually pretty low in calories, at just 257 calories per serving.

22. Crème Brulée French Vanilla Custard Recipe From Recipe Tin Eats

If you haven’t tried crème brûlée before, boy, you sure are missing out! It features a rich and silky smooth custard which gets topped off with a thin layer of crunchy toffee, so you get an amazing pairing of textures and flavors.

It takes a little effort to make, but it only requires 5 ingredients in total, all of which are easy to get hold of. They are heavy cream, a vanilla pod or vanilla bean paste, caster sugar, and egg yolks.

23. Traditional Toad In The Hole Recipe From The Daring Gourmet

This dish comes from the UK, and is reminiscent of another British classic, bangers and mash.

Toad in the Hole is made with roasted sausages enveloped in something known as a giant Yorkshire pudding.

But despite the title of “pudding”, it’s not sweet but savory. It is crispy on the outside and soft on the inside.

It features such ingredients as beef bouillon, mustard powder, and fresh herbs, and is typically served with gravy.

24. Austrian Wiener Schnitzel Recipe From The Foreign Fork

Wiener schnitzel is an Austrian dish (not an Australian one), which is made with veal that has been pounded into thin slices before being breaded and fried.

You don’t need a whole lot of ingredients to make it, just milk, oil, flour, veal cutlets, breadcrumbs, and egg.

I recommend serving it with a nice side dish, such as crushed potatoes or a side salad.

25. Traditional French Ratatouille Recipe From Ask Chef Dennis

Traditional, authentic French ratatouille is a wholesome, healthy stew that’s loaded with healthy veg in a wonderfully warming broth.

It can feature summer vegetables such as bell peppers, eggplant, squash, zucchini, and tomatoes, while the broth is flavored with the likes of minced garlic cloves, and fresh herbs oregano and basil, followed by salt and pepper to taste and parsley to garnish.

26. Traditional Scottish Shortbread Cookies Recipe From Scotch And Scones

Cookies originating from the UK are quite different to ours here in the US. They share the same texture as biscuits (which is what they call them) but they’re not served with gravy as we do over here.

Scottish shortbread biscuits are wonderfully sweet and moreish, and are made with just 3 ingredients, namely butter, sugar, and flour.

And it’s easy to make different variations, for example by adding in some chocolate chips.

27. Traditional French Coq Au Vin Recipe From The Daring Gourmet

What a great way to cook chicken!

In this traditional well-loved French dish, chicken is braised in a mixture of dry red wine, chicken stock, bacon, onions, porcini mushrooms, shallots, carrot, and tomato paste with added thyme and bay leaves.

No wonder it’s one of France’s most popular dishes!

28. Traditional Spaghetti Carbonara Recipe From Recipes From Italy

Besides pizza and lasagna, spaghetti carbonara is one of Italy’s most popular cuisines.

And you can make this delicious recipe right in the comfort of your own home. The basic recipe requires only 5 ingredients in total, namely seasoned spaghetti, eggs, Romano cheese, and ground black pepper.

And you can have it on the table in as little as 20 minutes – perfect for a busy weeknight!

Are There Any Traditional European Recipes Included in the List of 35 Traditional Foods From Around The World?

Traditional European recipes are indeed included in the captivating list of 35 traditional foods around the world. European cuisines have left an indelible mark on global gastronomy, with dishes like French escargot, Italian pasta carbonara, and British fish and chips. These mouthwatering delicacies are celebrated for their rich cultural heritage and culinary innovation.

Wrap Up

I hope you’ve enjoyed having a good browse through. There’s certainly a lot of variety there.

European cuisine features something from several different cultures, but you can often find the very same ingredients locally, so there’s no reason why you can’t go ahead and make them here.

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