Learn Hardcore Italian: Mio cugino frigge le patate in padella prima della cena. - My cousin fries the potatoes in a pan before dinner.

In Italian, when a possessive adjective (mio, tuo, suo, ecc.) directly precedes a singular family-member noun without additional modifiers, you normally drop the definite article:

mio padre, tua sorella, nostro zio.
You can still say il mio cugino (especially in more formal style or to add emphasis), but in everyday speech mio cugino is perfectly natural. If you insert an adjective (per esempio il mio caro cugino) or talk about plural relatives, the article comes back.

How do you conjugate friggere in the present tense, and why is it spelled with double g in frigge?

friggere is an -ere verb whose root ends in a hard g sound. To keep that hard /g/ before e, Italian doubles the g. The full present-tense conjugation is:
• io friggo
• tu friggi
• lui/lei frigge
• noi friggiamo
• voi friggete
• loro friggono

Without the double g, a single g before e would become soft (as in gente).

Why is le used before patate? Couldn’t we say delle patate or just patate?

In Italian you generally need an article before a noun. Here le patate (definite article) indicates those specific potatoes being fried.

delle patate (indefinite): “some potatoes” – more vague, would change the nuance.
dropping the article entirely (frigge patate) sounds ungrammatical.

Also, when talking about a category in general (e.g. “Potatoes are tasty”), Italian uses the definite plural: Le patate sono buone.

Why is there no article in in padella? Shouldn’t it be nella padella or in una padella?

in padella is an idiomatic cooking expression meaning “in (the) frying pan.” In many Italian cooking phrases the article is omitted:

in padella (fry)
al forno (in the oven)
in pentola (in the pot)

If you want to specify which pan, you can say nella padella (in the particular frying pan) or in una padella (in a pan). Otherwise in padella is the standard form.

Why is della used in prima della cena? Could we say prima di cena instead?

The preposition + article della comes from di + la. You have two options:
• prima di cena — general, “before dinner” as an abstract event
• prima della cena — more specific, “before the (particular) dinner”

Both are correct; choose prima di cena for a general routine, prima della cena if you’re referring to a specific meal.

Why doesn’t the sentence include lui before frigge? Don’t we need a subject pronoun?

Italian normally drops subject pronouns because the verb ending makes the subject clear. Here frigge is 3rd person singular, so “he” or “she” is already understood. You’d only add lui or lei (e.g. Lui frigge le patate) to add emphasis or contrast.

How would you change the sentence if you wanted to say My cousins fry the potatoes (plural)?

You pluralize both the subject and the verb, and re-introduce the definite article with plural possessives:
• I miei cugini friggono le patate in padella prima della cena.
Note: with plural family members you typically keep i miei, le tue, i suoi, etc.