Fettuccine

To remove individual Brussels sprout leaves, cut the stem out of each sprout and gently ease apart all the leaves.

Now you can have all the richness of Alfredo sauce with only a fraction of the usual sodium, saturated fat, and calories. The addition of lemon gives this dish a fresh twist.

Swiss chard is a beloved kitchen-garden vegetable in Italian cuisine. Combined with white beans and tomatoes, this stick-to-your-ribs dish will satisfy the heartiest of appetites.

I love pasta—and who doesn’t? Because I didn’t grow up cooking Italian food, I usually save my Italian experiences for my favorite Italian restaurants, like La Mela in the heart of New York’s Little Italy and Anna’s in Los Angeles. But a gal’s gotta make fettuccine Alfredo occasionally. This is the very first home-cooked meal I tried on Garth, and I’m surprised he ever allowed me to cook for him again! It was early on in our relationship, and I wanted to impress him with my cooking skills, so I thought this recipe would be perfect. It is so rich it makes you full fast. That particular night, however, my Alfredo sauce came out so thick it was almost impossible to serve it from the pan. Garth, being the gentleman he is, took a big serving and attempted to eat it. I don’t know if he finished it all, but it was so rich and filling he almost fell asleep in his plate! He says he has no memory at all from about halfway through the meal until he woke up hours later on the couch.

Cayuga White is an easy-to-like, food-friendly wine, unique to the Finger Lakes region. Joyce Hunt was inspired by the Riesling-like characters in her family’s Cayuga, and she developed a German-inspired dish to match the local wine.

This is the soup I always make when I want something comforting and restorative. This method easily becomes second-nature and is good for all kinds of seasonal vegetable soups: Soften the vegetables in oil or butter, add stock, and simmer until the vegetables are tender. Flavor with herbs, and, for a more substantial soup, add cooked pasta, beans, or, as in this recipe, chicken. Brothy vegetable soups are even better with a plate of garlic croutons (see page 37) to dip in the soup.

This soup is what I want to eat when I’m feeling under the weather. It is light, clean, and full of flavor.

I had this dish at Del’s Bar & Ristorante DelPizzo, on Liberty Avenue in Pittsburgh, the local restaurant that caters to the neighborhood crowd, not too far from our restaurant Lidia’s on Smallman Street. This velvety combination of tomato and cream sauce is good on any pasta. The day we were there, it was offered with shells. But I think it is even better served with fettuccine.

Fettuccine Alfredo began as regular fettuccine al burro until the Roman restaurateur Alfredo di Lelio enriched it with a double and a triple dose of butter for his pregnant wife, who could not keep anything down. The dish was so delicious he kept it on the menu of his restaurant, Alfredo alla Scrofa, in Rome. Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks had it during their 1920 honeymoon trip to Rome, loved it, brought the recipe back, and served it to their friends when they returned to Hollywood. And so another Italian came to America. Fettuccine Alfredo has most certainly been eaten more in the States than in Italy since then. The dish is used as the base for many different versions, topped with shrimp, broccoli, asparagus, and more. Since butter separates readily when heated, cream is added to make the sauce creamier. In this version, I also add a few leaves of sage, since sage and butter are a marriage made in heaven.

“Straw and hay,” as the name of this pasta recipe translates, is a common dish in Italy, especially in northern Italy, Emilia-Romagna, the heart of fresh pasta making. It always includes a little prosciutto, the sauce is cream-based, and it needs lots of grated cheese. Here I added some chopped scallions for freshness, although the dish always has peas. It is best if made with fresh pasta, but dry fettuccine will still yield a perfectly delicious dish.

This is traditionally made with swordfish, but you can substitute tuna, bass, or other firm-fleshed fish in the recipe. You don’t need to buy expensive swordfish or tuna steaks—end pieces or chunks sold for skewered grilling are perfect for the sauce. Bavette is a long, flat dry pasta, like a narrow fettuccine. If you can’t find it, use good-quality dry fettuccine.

Here is a delicious pasta recipe, another example of the Roman affinity for offal. Whether tripe (trippa) or paiata (pasta sauce made with the stomach of a suckling lamb); or oxtails braised with tomatoes, celery and carrots (coda alla vaccinara), a true Roman meal is bound to include one of them. So what’s a little chicken liver with pasta, as in this dish? The Romans love it and have been enjoying it for centuries, so why shouldn’t you?

One would think that fresh pasta is a northern-Italian phenomenon, and in general northerners do eat more fresh pasta than dry, whereas southern Italians consume more dry. But the Roman tradition is to have freshly made tagliatelle as a Sunday treat. And in most cases it is served with cibreo—the giblets of a freshly killed chicken.

Here is a meaty tomato sauce that doesn’t need to cook for a long time to be flavorful. And the sauce keeps well in the freezer for up to 3 months.

This is one of the quickest and most satisfying pasta recipes you can make. Prosciutto is easier to slice when it’s cold; stack slices, and cut crosswise with a sharp knife.

Adding a bit of the pasta cooking water thins the goat cheese-and mustard-based sauce and helps it adhere to the fettuccine.

This is a very safe (and, of course, tasty) pasta dish guaranteed to please those less adventurous eaters. It is also good for you less-experienced cooks. It really is simple to make and almost impossible to ruin.