Notes about Recipes in this book

• Lasagne with slow-cooked vegetable ragù (Lasagne con ragù di verdure)

  • swegener on November 14, 2015

    Very good--though my family said it tasted like mac n cheese. I loved the fall veggies, and thought this was delightful.

• Octopus salad (Insalata di polipo)

  • KarinaFrancis on September 22, 2018

    This was fantastic, admittedly there is a bit of pfaffing around with the cooking and preparing the octopus, but it’s all done well in advance. I substituted cherry tomatoes for the olives and it took us right back to Sorrento. Delicious!

• Everyday beef and vegetable stew (Spezzatino casalingo)

  • saladdays on January 06, 2019

    I don't often like beef stews but this is classic comfort food, just like grandma used to make except she didn't have access to the glass of red wine which adds some depth of flavour. I cooked it in a slow oven for nearly 3 hours. It must be served with mashed potatoes.

• Lamb stew with beans (Agnello con i fagioli)

  • jo_shayne on December 06, 2025

    I made using lamb neck (bone in), used more tomato & simmered longer.

• Summer vegetable stew (Verdure estive stufate)

  • JFM on June 26, 2017

    Very good

• Filled rolled beef cooked in tomato sauce (Braciolone Palermitano)

  • KarinaFrancis on May 31, 2020

    If you are feeding a bunch of people and can't be bothered making individual braciole/involtini then this is the dish for you! It's comfort food, nona style packed with robust southern Italian flavours. Butterflying a hunk of brisket is a fun challenge but not too difficult. The filling is delicious, but unfortunately a lot of mine leaked out into the sauce, not really a bad thing but I would have preferred it in the beef. I might not make it this way again, but would certainly use the recipe and go back to the pfaffing with individual braciole. Apologies for the picture, there really was no pretty way to present this

• Meringue with zabaglione and strawberries (Meringa con zabaglione e fragole)

  • Pamsy on May 30, 2019

    The idea of this recipe is good and I don't think you need to stick to strawberries, raspberries or peaches would be fine. However, there are far better zabaglione recipes, this one thickens up too much when cool. In future I would use Sauce Sabayon from Delia''s Complete Cookery Course p448. Always good to have a recipe that uses both the whites and yolks of eggs. UPDATE Aug2025...after checking other Zab recipes, GC uses one third of the alcohol.....no wonder the custard is so thick and doesn't foam!!