Italian American

A great one-dish meal in the tradition of the classic red-checkered-tablecloth, family-owned restaurant, this is Italian-American food at its best. I like to make individual portions ahead of time, and freeze them. When I get home really late from work, I just pop one in the microwave and have a full, comforting meal in mere minutes.

This tasty Italian-American invention (you just won’t find it in Italy) looks like it’s a heavy dish, but the vodka kicks in and heats up the back of your throat to cut through the heavy cream. You can buy it in a jar, but because it’s a cinch to make and very yummy, it’s definitely worth taking the few minutes to make it from scratch. I like to serve it with rigatoni or penne.

Here’s an osso buco everyone will love. Consider this a nontraditional Thanksgiving meal; you’ll get both dark and light meat without having to cook a whole turkey. Using a gremolata to spark up the flavor of a long-cooked dish like this one is a very traditional Italian touch that makes a huge difference in the finished dish.

This is the kind of side dish you would find on a steakhouse menu, rich and decadent. Frozen artichokes make this impressive dish quite simple to create. I like to bake it in individual gratin dishes because each serving gets its own crusty browned top, my favorite part!

This burger gets its inspiration from Italy’s insalata caprese, which is a simple yet totally delicious layering of fresh mozzarella, ripe tomato slices, and basil leaves. Basically, I just transplant that salad onto a burger. Because it is so simple, it is of the utmost importance that each ingredient be in its prime. That means only the ripest, tastiest tomatoes, the freshest, creamiest mozzarella, and the brightest green basil will do. (If you can find it, make this burger with milky buffalo mozzarella for a delicious and authentically Italian treat.) All it takes to dress this Italian trifecta is a splash of balsamic vinegar, olive oil, salt, and lots of freshly ground black pepper.

In a city full of Italian restaurants and specialty shops, Arthur Avenue in the Bronx is where you’ll find New York City’s most authentic Southern Italian fare. With its generations-old mom-and-pop businesses, this area of town seems as though it is stuck in a time warp—and I mean that in the most positive way possible. Arthur Avenue is the place to go when you want the real deal, from great eggplant Parmesan to baked ziti to mouth-watering Italian sandwiches. This burger, with its crispy frico made from nutty Fontina cheese, and a garlic- and chile-infused ketchup, is my ode to that famous neighborhood.

Rarely do I shock myself with how great a made-over dish can taste. I’m pretty realistic. Apple pie is pretty much an impossibility if I want it to taste like traditional pie and be lower in fat and calories because of all of the butter. There really is no substitute for butter in a traditional pie crust. I thought this dish would be an impossibility as well. But when we pulled the chicken out of the oven the first time, everyone in my test kitchen was shocked at how fattening it tasted. We knew it would be good, but we had no idea it would actually be great, especially given how much quicker it is than the traditional version! Just be sure you don’t overcook the chicken. If you do, not only will the chicken be dry, the breading will fall off.

If you don’t have a pastry bag, you can still enjoy these delicious and crunchy cookies in their traditional shape: Chill the cookie dough for about 1 hour, then divide it into fourths. Roll each piece out with the palms of your hands to a rope about 1/2 inch thick. Cut the rope into 4-inch lengths and lay them on the prepared baking sheets, shaping them into crescents and leaving about 3/4 inch between them. Lightly drag the tines of a fork over the crescents to create ridges. Bake and cool them as described below

A simple way to make spumoni in the shape you remember is to use tall 10-ounce paper cups, like the ones you get when you order a soda. You can make the layering process simpler by spooning in a level layer of vanilla ice cream, then chocolate ice cream, then flavored whipped cream. If you’d prefer to serve one large spumoni instead of individual ones, prepare the spumoni in a 6-cup soufflé dish, layering it into the dishes as described below. Let the frozen large spumoni stand at room temperature 10 to 15 minutes before inverting it onto a serving plate. Cut it into wedges to serve.

Granita is nothing more than a flavored liquid (in this case lemon) sweetened with sugar and frozen until crystallized. Understanding this makes it very easy to make any flavor granita that you desire. You can also use orange juice for granita; simply freeze it as is. Should you choose to flavor your granita with alcohol, don’t add it to the syrup—it will inhibit the freezing process. Instead, pour it over the granita just before you serve it. It will get slushy, but a good slush on a hot summer day might be just the right thing.

You may have seen struffoli jazzed up with pine nuts, candied fruit, or slivered almonds. Sometimes they are piled into one big mound, sometimes shaped into several smaller mounds, or, especially around the holidays, formed into a wreath. Once you have the basics down, you can go off in any direction.

Try this salad as it was made traditionally, without vinegar. If you feel the capers don’t supply the necessary zing, sprinkle a little wine vinegar over the salad and toss it again. Warm salads like this take the chill out of a cold-cut lunch and go very well alongside grilled fish, chicken, or sausages.

Thermometers—whether the instant-reading type used for meat, the large-dial models used to measure the temperature of oil for frying, or those used to test an oven’s temperature—are key tools to have in the kitchen. Why twice-fried potatoes? The first cooking, at a lower temperature, cooks the potato fully, and the second frying, at a higher temperature, makes a delicious crunchy crust. This comes in handy if you want to make the dish for company—the first frying can be done several hours in advance, and the second cooking takes only 5 minutes or so.