Fettuccine

You can make this kind of soup anytime, using any kind of pasta you like. Small shapes and short noodles are the obvious choices, but my parents often added spaghetti or fettuccine, broken into small pieces so we could still eat it with a spoon. The fettuccine looks a little more elegant, but if all you have on hand is spaghetti, that’s fine; the soup will have a more rustic, homey look.

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.

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.

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?

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.

This recipe is one of my personal favorites. Using milk instead of cream and cutting down on the Parmesan cheese makes a waistline-friendly alternative to alfredo sauce. I love lemon in just about anything, and together with the asparagus it makes for a light and refreshing pasta dish. The best part is how easy it is. You can do all of the other preparation in the time it takes to cook the pasta.

When my family lived in Vietnam, these noodles were considered special because Western noodles (called nui, the Viet phonetic equivalent of the French nouilles) and butter were expensive imports. Once we arrived in the United States, we indulged in them to the point that they were no longer dear. In fact, I forgot about them for years, only to rediscover their garlicky, buttery, nutty goodness at a Vietnamese French restaurant in Westminster, California. Nowadays, I prepare these noodles not just because they are a comfort food from my youth, but also because they are good. The unusually savory quality of the dish is due to Maggi Seasoning, a soy sauce–like condiment and Vietnamese staple that was most likely introduced to Vietnam by the French. It is fine to use dried pasta for this recipe, though fresh fettuccine or even flat Chinese egg noodles yield a superior dish.

Salmon roe, a sushi bar standard here in America, is a very popular ingredient in Japan. I love how these orange-colored pearls explode with a burst of flavor when you bite into them. They add a wonderful zing to this classic fettuccine recipe. Try this dish in the spring when broccoli is at its peak.

Pasta is one of my favorite foods of all time, and this version is really easy and super good. Although I do occasionally eat shrimp, I probably make this more often without shrimp than with it. It kind of depends on if I am making it for myself, or the whole family. If my parents are eating, then for sure it has shrimp. If it’s my sister, I leave the shrimp out because she likes to add (big surprise) grilled chicken.

Wild mushrooms abound in the mountains of northern Greece, and like everywhere else in the world where wild mushrooms grow, they make their seasonal appearance in stewpots throughout the region. Much to the surprise of many nonresidents, pasta is very common in Greece, too.

Here is a good way to use up leftover chicken that makes a full, satisfying meal.

When I go to New York, I often eat at Serafina Restaurant, which makes an amazing lemon spaghetti dish that is so good that I was again inspired to get the recipe. The chef kindly obliged. This version is a little simpler and creamier than the original. As with most other pasta dishes, you want the sauce to be ready before the fettuccine is so that the hot noodles absorb the creamy, lemony sauce (the longer it sits, the less saucy it will be). Note that the broth and cream will need to simmer for a good long time so that they are well reduced. Be sure to grate the lemons before you juice them. This is wonderful served with grilled chicken brushed with Steak Grill Sauce (page 164).

This dish was inspired by my friend and mentor Frank Crispo. To satisfy those deep creamy-pasta cravings, you’re not gonna get more decadent than carbonara sauce. Pasta bathed in butter, oil, eggs, bacon, and cheese—it’s a rich dish but enjoy it; you don’t eat this every day.