• Eat Your Books

  2002 International Association of Culinary Professionals Award Winner

  See Lisa Is Cooking's take on Sausage and peppers from this book.

• lorihenry on February 18, 2010

  Every recipe I've made from this cookbook has been a winner...and I use this book monthly. Lidia's soulful choices and clear instructions make for great eating.

Notes about Recipes in this book

• Spaghettini with oil and garlic

  • cactustree on February 18, 2010

    Best recipe for this classic dish - one of my favorite "go-to" recipes!

• Penne with cherry tomatoes, basil, and mozzarella

  • lorihenry on March 08, 2010

    Easy meal that tastes fresh and is truly satisfying.

• Braised lentils with spinach

  • jzanger on January 30, 2011

    Great dish with a few changes: sauteed veggies separately, added some tomato paste to veggies, used more liquid for braising, and added some white wine while braising.

• Rigatoni woodsman-style

  • Breadcrumbs on November 13, 2010

    p. 112 - Nov 2010 - First use of this recipe and results were wonderful, this is a real keeper! Surprisingly quick and easy to pull together yet with big, bold flavours. Definitely a wine-friendly dish!! We served w a Vino Nobile di Montepulciano and it was scrumptious! The only change I made was the use of beef stock since I had it on hand (vs veggie or chx stock). We really liked the richness the beef stock brought and would replicate this choice in the future. Mushrooms I used were Chanterelles, Portobello and Cremini. It's making me hungry all over again as I type! Excellent dish. 9

• Spaghetti with mushrooms, garlic, and parsley

  • Breadcrumbs on July 21, 2012

    p. 107 This simple recipe exceeded our expectations in profiling the wonderful, earthy flavours of fresh mushrooms. Though Lidia calls for sage, I have an abundance of basil at the moment (a very happy problem indeed!) so I used that instead. What I especially loved is how quickly this all comes together. I added some minced baby red onion along w the garlic since it was also a market purchase. Just a lovely summer meal. I’ll definitely make this again. Photos here: http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/799537#7476317

• Beef short ribs braised in red wine

  • Breadcrumbs on November 28, 2010

    p. 218 - Nov 2010 - Made as directed but instead of finishing on the stove, I popped the dutch oven into the oven to braise at 300 degreed. I loved the addition of porcini’s in this recipe, they really deepened the flavour of the final sauce. Also thought grating the carrots were a good idea as they just melted away until there was nothing left of them except their sweet flavour. Lidia suggests straining the sauce for serving but that seemed like an injustice. My sauce wasn’t chunky at all, just rich and flavourful. Love this dish, it would be wonderful for company. Served with olive oil and roasted garlic smashed potatoes. K - 9

  • PinchOfSalt on March 02, 2019

    The recipe does not say when to add the mushrooms and their soaking liquid. I added both along with the reduced wine, crushed tomatoes, and stock. Agree with Breadcrumbs about not straining the sauce. Be sure to let the sauce settle so you can skim the fat that rises. (It's short ribs after all!) Amazingly good. Served with polenta.

  • GiselleMarie on November 30, 2020

    Thanks to the rave reviews of PichOfSalt and Breadcrumbs, I finally tried this recipe, and it’s spectacular! I’ve owned this cookbook for many years and have read through this recipe several times but it seemed “wasteful” to reduce a perfectly good bottle of wine to one cup, just for its flavor. Well, it’s worth it. The generous amount of sauce in which the ribs simmer is wonderful, and the meat turns out tender and delicious. I served this over potatoes, with sautéed eggplant and a Greek salad on the side. I notice from reading reviews that many cooks make short ribs a day ahead so they can remove the fat from surface of the sauce after it’s chilled in the refrigerator. I’ll do that with our abundant leftovers.

• Roasted root vegetables

  • Gio on November 22, 2015

    Pg. 341. Delicious! We loved it. Having no leeks in the larder I used scallions, halved the recipe, and included 1/2 tsp cayenne. Perfect timing for all the VGs using the directed vegetable cuts. Could very well be a go-to recipe for all kinds of vegetables.

• Chicken scarpariello

  • Gio on February 09, 2016

    Pg. 262. Spicy seasoning, tender juicy chicken, sauce to soak into fresh ciabatta, Well-written recipe easy to complete. We enjoyed this tremendously. I used 6 bone-in chicken thighs instead of two small fryers/chickens, and included one teaspoon Greek oregano with the S & P. Worked very well. Must revisit.

• Swiss chard with oil and garlic

  • PennyG on March 19, 2014

    This is a great, easy side that I make often with any green I have on hand. Made recently with the beautiful greens from the beets and turnips delivered in my CSA box!

  • dmass on June 25, 2015

    This is delicious! Mmm... Just the way my mom made her greens. Great memories with this recipe. My favorite, and my Mom's was escarole. Spinach is also tasty this way.

  • Zosia on March 23, 2020

    Tasty way to cook this vegetable. I included the stems and followed the cooking instructions in the headnotes; I liked that they retained a bit of their crunch.

• Roasted pepper halves with bread crumb topping

  • PennyG on February 18, 2019

    Had some red bells to use and needed a side dish. Voila! And I had everything on hand. I will definitely keep this recipe marked for a future easy side or vegetarian main. ETA: I had one left over and took it to work for lunch during the week and it was delicious!

• Zucchini and potato minestra

  • kari500 on July 17, 2020

    I also skipped the mushrooms, and I think it was a mistake to do so. The family loved this double carb (potatoes and rice) meal, but I thought it was just ok. Good enough, and used up some CSA stuff that needed using, but I won’t be rushing to make it again.

  • ellencooks on November 01, 2017

    I roughly halved this and left out the mushrooms. Really liked this!

• Sicilian pizza

  • kari500 on February 16, 2021

    Easy and it works. Make dough the day before. I used my stand mixer and it was fine. Sauce is on the salty side.

• Escarole and white-bean soup

  • franniepie on April 09, 2021

    My favorite soup recipe. Every fall I look forward to making an enormous vat of this at the first sign of sweater weather. I like to use fresh spinach for the super silkiness. Finely chopped carrots are great, too. With a little grated cheese on top, this is nourishing, delicious cold weather heaven.

  • aileent1 on March 08, 2013

    I've made this recipe probably 30 times over the years. It's simple and absolutely wonderful. I've tried other escarole and white bean soup recipes, but always come back to this one because extra ingredients (like chicken broth) just muddle the flavor. One exception: I cook the beans with a Parmigiano-Reggiano rind.

  • LauraMB on November 05, 2023

    Very good. I made this with dried beans, which gives the soup great body. Delicious.

• Spaghetti and meatballs

  • franniepie on April 09, 2021

    Great meatballs, straight forward recipe. Very flavorful with the firmness I’ve been looking for. As a NY Italian-American, this is the real deal to me. I’ve always used my grandfather’s recipe but was needing a different type for making in bulk. I bake them on a sheet pan where their crust gets delicious, then freeze plain in a bag. They reheat beautifully, too.

  • Rinshin on May 22, 2016

    I was looking for a little firmer meatballs that I can freeze and stay whole without crumbling from being too soft in the sauce and tried this recipe. It's a no-nonsense recipe that makes very good meatballs.

  • MeganGarcia on February 05, 2019

    A very simple recipe that yielded extremely tasty results. The meatballs held up well through simmering, and turned out moist and flavorful with very little effort compared to recipes I've tried in the past. I used sourdough bread crumbs from a leftover boule. Will repeat.

• Braised pork ribs with rigatoni

  • aileent1 on February 01, 2019

    I use pork shoulder and extra garlic and hot pickled peppers. I also add a bit of white wine. This is a wonderful dish!

• Braised fennel

  • okmosa on March 28, 2021

    I’ve never braised fennel before but will gladly do it again. However, not with this recipe. Surprisingly Lidia uses butter to start the braise which caused the final product to taste more like butter than fennel. I have now looked up other recipes and will try some things differently next time – olive oil, white wine, cutting in wedges not crosswise.

• Broccoli rabe and sausage

  • PinchOfSalt on September 27, 2022

    Very tasty. Be sure to peel the broccoli rabe as directed. Now that I have cooked this, I will take this recipe as more of a method or guideline than exact directions: the proportions don't really have to be exact, especially when it comes to the amount of broccoli rabe compared with the amount of sausage and garlic. Use what you have and think about the flavor profile and spiciness of the sausage when judging the amount of garlic and hot pepper flakes to add.

• Chickpea and white-bean soup

  • Zosia on September 30, 2017

    Simple, hearty and very tasty soup that was given a lift from the pesto. I didn't include the optional pasta and it wasn't missed.

• Neapolitan pizza sauce

  • Zosia on September 25, 2017

    This was a great last minute, no-cook pizza sauce that I will make again. The flavours were concentrated so a little went a long way. My yield was a scant cup (I really don't know how the yield could be 2 cups from a 14oz can of tomatoes, drained).

• Chicken cacciatore

  • Zosia on September 25, 2017

    Really tasty variation that didn't seem to require much effort. The chicken was fall-off-the-bone tender, the sauce was rich in flavour and I loved that the peppers and mushrooms added part way through cooking were in the sauce long enough to impart their flavour but not so long that they lost their shape and texture. I used skinless chicken thighs.

• Stuffed artichokes

  • Tinala523 on April 03, 2023

    My go-to recipe, with some variations. The lemon juice in the pan gives a wonderful tartness!

• Pine nut cookies

  • inflytur on January 05, 2018

    The recipe creates a very slack batter that is difficult to shape and work with. The cookies spread and had very little body. Next time I will add almond meal/flour to make a firmer dough. Otherwise, the cookies were delicious. Everyone I gave them to enjoyed them.

• String beans and potatoes

  • MeganGarcia on February 05, 2019

    This recipe is so simple it's hard to believe you hadn't already thought of it, but it's also quite delicious and rustic. I left the skins on the potatoes, which added to the texture. I also added about a teaspoon of red wine vinegar, which, after sitting for a few minutes, gave this dish a delicious flavor. I will make this again and again. Scratches the itch for mashed potatoes but it's a lightened up version with the addition of the string beans.

• Egg-battered scallopine with lemon sauce

  • MeganGarcia on February 05, 2019

    I halved this recipe and made it for lunch with garlicky sauteed spinach and sauteed mushrooms. So simple and easy, yet so delicious; I had all the ingredients at hand. The lemon slices weren't at all bitter, and the sauce had the perfect amount of butter to cut the tartness of the fresh lemon juice.

• Monkfish meatballs in tomato sauce

  • GiselleMarie on January 14, 2021

    When I tasted a monkfish ball fresh out of the fryer per Lidia’s suggestion, I was disappointed. I thought it was too salty (and I really like salt!) but lacking in fish flavor. After simmering in the super-easy, super-quick tomato sauce, though, the monkfish balls were fantastic and my husband thought so too. We’re looking forward to the leftovers. Next time, I will reduce the salt in the fish mixture to 1/2 teaspoon and put 1 teaspoon of salt into the sauce.