Notes about Recipes in this book

• Marinara sauce (Salsa marinara)

  • chawkins on October 16, 2019

    A simple pantry ingredient recipe if you omit all the optional ingredients. Makes a decent sauce.

  • foodgloriousfood on April 26, 2022

    It is a good marinara but isn't as good as the jarred Raos marinara - even with the optional ingredients (fatback or salt pork and fresh basil) but then, of course they aren't giving up THAT recipe! First time I made it with Carmelina brand San Marzano tomatoes second time around I made it with La San Marzano with Basil, and the Carmelina brand was better.

• Meat broth (Brodo di carne)

  • ntt2 on February 28, 2012

    bones are roasted!

• Chicken broth (Brodo di pollo)

  • ntt2 on February 28, 2012

    Chicken is roasted!

• Minestrone

  • tinalee55 on May 28, 2023

    This is my favorite soup recipe. I add whatever vegetables need to be used to the base.

• Insalata tricolore

  • fprincess on September 29, 2011

    Three different kinds of bitter salad greens in a simple salad.

• Orecchiette with broccoli rabe and sausage (Orecchiette con broccoli di rape e salsiccia)

  • Mdesorbo on March 16, 2025

    Add a few anchovy filets to the hot oil in the pan until they dissolve. Add hot pepper flakes to the oil. You can use spicy Italian sausage.

• Spaghetti alla carbonara

  • nadiam1000 on October 24, 2021

    Excellent - silky, creamy and rich - great flavor. I did sub regular bacon for pancetta which added a smokiness. I would like to make again with pancetta. Simple recipe that is perfect comfort food.

• Lasagne

  • twoyolks on January 30, 2021

    The sauce ended up really acidic. It was fine when there was enough cheese in a bite of lasagna but otherwise it was unpleasant.

• Pappardelle with hot sausage sauce

  • twoyolks on October 29, 2015

    This makes a large amount of watery sauce. The pasta to sauce ratio is way too far towards sauce for my tastes. The sauce wasn't bad but it didn't really have a lot of flavor. It probably would've been much better reducing for a longer period of time. I made this with penne instead of pappardelle. On a positive note, our toddler loved this.

• Rao's famous lemon chicken (Pollo al limone)

  • chawkins on May 31, 2015

    This was very good and quite simple to make, you would think that 2 cup of lemon juice was too much but it wasn't. The only down side was the smoke generated, I purposely chose a small chicken with less fat and had to open the oven door frequently to release small burst of smoke and the hood vent running at max speed so as not to trigger the smoke alarm. Next time though, I would do the first part of the cooking on the grill and the last part of cooking (broiling the chicken in the lemon dressing in a sheet pan) in the oven.

  • Sandiegolemons on September 07, 2018

    This was a bit of a bummer. Thanks for the idea of using the grill to cook the chicken without smoking out the house. That worked great. The problem was the lemons. The lemons were too tart and it really showed. I should have known better. The sweeter the better. Or add sugar if you have tart lemons. It’s imperative to get this right. I also don’t think the home cook has the right temp to really pull this off. A Salamader or really high heat is a must. And lots of salt. We won’t be doing this again. Oh well. Fun to try.

  • twoyolks on September 19, 2020

    I did the chicken in the broiler and didn't have any issues with smoke. The sauce is very lemony but too much so. And it didn't flavor the chicken itself very much.

• Roast chicken with potatoes (Pollo arrosto con patate)

  • Breadcrumbs on August 20, 2012

    p. 82 Quick, Simple & Delicious - what more could you ask for! A large chicken (mine was 6.5 lbs) is dressed with lemon juice, S&P and fresh rosemary. Lemon rinds and more sprigs of rosemary are placed inside the bird and I also added some garlic cloves. Potatoes are quartered then tossed in evoo, S&P (yup, I added some garlic too!). The book has you roast at 450 but I can’t stand the smoking that typically occurs at this heat so I compromised and went w 375. Our chicken was tender, moist and delicious. The taters were perfectly crisp and exceptionally flavourful. We loved this dish and will use this method again. I’d baste half way through next time.

• Veal Francese (Vitello alla Francese)

  • twoyolks on October 29, 2015

    This has a nice lemon flavor without being overpowering. Make sure to fry the veal well as it helps with the flavor. I'd also reduce the sauce more in the future than the recipe called for. This went well with egg noodles.

• Sausage with peppers and onions

  • chawkins on September 15, 2018

    Other than giving you the quantity of each ingredient, this is hardly a recipe, not that you really need one. Brown the sausages, add the veggies and fry until soft then season to taste. It turned out well anyway.

• Garlic-and-oil-sautéed broccoli rabe

  • billcranecos on May 19, 2022

    Simple and classic.

• Garlic-and-oil-sautéed broccoli

  • twoyolks on October 29, 2015

    This added a nice, complimentary garlic flavor to the broccoli. Just make sure to fully cook the broccoli during the blanching step as it doesn't cook much during sautéing.