Notes about Recipes in this book

• Broccoli and anchovy crostini

  • joneshayley on August 16, 2020

    The broccoli mash is lovely, and the salty fish compliments it perfectly

• Warm salad of lamb, mint and new potato

  • joneshayley on August 16, 2020

    A wonderful classic combination. Would definitely make again

• Grilled asparagus, goat’s curd and speck bruschetta

  • joneshayley on August 16, 2020

    This is my favourite Bridgette from the book. Perfect flavours well balanced. Simple and perfect

  • hlange on August 23, 2024

    I couldn't find goat's curd or pea shoots so subbed goat cheese and rocket. Like many of RN's recipes I've tried so far, this was simple and easy, greater than the sum of its parts, and this one in particular was phenomenally delicious. The asparagus here adds something really special. A lovely light lunch and new favorite.

• Baby artichoke risotto

  • Hansyhobs on April 12, 2024

    Not sure what happened but I hated it!

• Venetian rice and peas

  • joneshayley on August 16, 2020

    This is sensational. It took longer to cook than advosed, but the final result is a beautiful family style meal. The children loved this

• Spaghetti with onions

  • hlange on August 26, 2024

    I was surprised I liked this as much as I did. The entire dish takes on the very sweet flavor of caramelized onion. You're eating the onions themselves as if they were another noodle and it's surprisingly amazing. I'm not sure how small onions run in Italy, but I cut back on the quantity of "medium" onions I used and I'm glad I did. I think there would have been more onion than spaghetti in this dish if I hadn't. I also caramelized the onions longer than the stated 15 minutes in the first step, and kept refreshing the stock during the last 10 minutes of cooking. I would absolutely make this lovely dish again.

• Frittata with prawns and dill

  • Charlotte_vandenberg on January 16, 2019

    Very nice and easy to make. I used a 24 cm pan, it’s a lot flatter than in the picture in the book!

  • wester on September 19, 2019

    As the thickness of a frittata matters, I would have liked the pan size to have been specified a bit more precisely than "smallish". I also thought it was weird that the recipe told you to only add the dill when the eggs are already in the pan, so I added them before. Otherwise, a good frittata with good combination of flavours.

• Smoked mackerel panzanella

  • kari500 on June 02, 2023

    This is SO good. I'm sure it depends a lot on your tomatoes, but if you have good ones, this is absolutely delicious. I used smoked trout instead of mackerel. I think you could get away with just toasting the bread (although I loved the fatty flavor of them being grilled with butter - and a little olive oil). This will be now be a summer staple here.

• Pea, broad bean and Stracchino bruschetta

  • Hansyhobs on May 03, 2022

    Lovely. Used ricotta and blitzed up the peas and beans in a food processor

• Fresh spaghetti with raw peas, young pecorino and mint

  • joneshayley on August 16, 2020

    This is nice, though it didn't come together as a complete dish for me. Perhaps with a different pasta shape? one that scoops the peas and sauce would improve this, as the spaghetti and peas are hard to pick up as one

• Spaghettini with oven-dried tomatoes, chilli and garlic

  • joneshayley on August 16, 2020

    Fast Easy family meal. I'll make this again

  • TrishaCP on December 24, 2021

    The oven-dried tomatoes from this book are so versatile, and they shine again in a very simple pasta. We didn’t have the basil on hand and I definitely missed it, but this was a nice meal.

• Aged Parmesan risotto

  • TrishaCP on March 28, 2022

    Another winning risotto from this book. I used sub-par parmesan but it still tastes wonderful. It absolutely needs the black pepper at the end.

• Zucchini, mint and goat’s cheese risotto

  • nicolepellegrini on June 28, 2020

    One of my neighbors who is a fabulous gardener "unloaded" a bag of zucchini on me this weekend - as tends to happen when it's zucchini overload season. I've had this recipe bookmarked for a while to try as I do love goat's cheese and have used it in beet risotto before, so I wanted to see how it would pair with the zucchini. The mint and scallions add even more to the lovely early summer freshness of this dish. I actually used a little less goat's cheese than the recipe called for as my risotto was already extremely creamy and I didn't want it taste of nothing but the cheese.

  • Frenchfoodie on August 11, 2021

    Really good, the cooking method (and nice precise instructions on courgette size) left the courgette juicy but not soggy. My goats cheese was very creamy so it was creamier than I’d usually go for but still delicious.

  • TrishaCP on August 16, 2021

    This is such a great dish. The tanginess of the goat cheese really lightened everything up. I was initially concerned about the amount of mint but since it gets cooked the flavor is not overpowering. I agree that the zucchini was juicy and very appealing cooked this way.

  • FJT on June 27, 2023

    I absolutely loved this but, as my husband definitely wasn't impressed, I guess I won't be making it again. It's very difficult to find vegetarian dishes that appeal to him!

  • Astrid5555 on August 15, 2023

    Perfect risotto for the height of summer. The goat cheese adds a delicious creaminess and the zucchini are perfectly cooked. Will go into summer zucchini rotation!

  • hlange on January 14, 2026

    This was an amazing light dinner. The zucchini really transforms and adds a special texture here. It was a huge hit and the entire pot was devoured.

• Swordfish puttanesca

  • nicolepellegrini on April 08, 2021

    Simple yet delicious. I did use cooked garlic instead of raw.

• Seabass in crazy water

  • Indio32 on September 20, 2018

    This was really good. Very quick and easy to put together as a midweek supper. Would definitely up the liquid content next time as the sauce was divine.

• Almond cake

  • Charlotte_vandenberg on June 03, 2020

    Delicious, unfortunately I left mine too long in the oven. Will have to try again, soon!

• Autumn celery salad

  • lean1 on January 02, 2026

    Used only celery. Easy to make. I added a dab of blue cheese. Excellent.

• Tuna, radicchio and horseradish crostini

  • kari500 on May 19, 2023

    I tripled this and served on toast. Used thinly sliced cabbage instead of radicchio (none in the store), and used prepared instead of creamy horseradish. We liked this.

• Fish soup

  • nicolepellegrini on April 21, 2019

    Pretty good. I made with monkfish and cod fillets. Broth is quite rich with the wine and brandy. I think I prefer a fish soup with a little more vegetables and tomatoes, in general.

• Ravioli di magro

  • twoyolks on April 23, 2020

    This is a very nice spinach ravioli. The spinach is identifiable but doesn't overwhelm the cheese flavor.

• Pan-fried sea trout, salicornia, lemon butter

  • Charlotte_vandenberg on April 24, 2021

    Wow, excellent dish for a summer evening. As a weeknight dinner, or as a dish for a dinner party, both perfect. Will definitely make this again.

• Oven-dried tomatoes

  • joneshayley on August 16, 2020

    Easy to make, and they impart a great amount of flavour to any dish.

  • TrishaCP on November 15, 2021

    I used these in the tomato risotto recipe, but they would also be great on pizzas and in pasta dishes. A great way to store tomatoes during the late summer glut.

• Olive oil cake

  • hlange on February 09, 2026

    It was bland. I added a lemon glaze to it which sort of helped.

• Venetian pasta and bean soup

  • TrishaCP on September 15, 2021

    This soup has a really great depth of flavor, even though the ingredients are very simple. The texture after pureeing half of the beans and adding them back to the broth was very pleasant. After adding the pasta, the soup was very substantial (in a good way)- so this is a good one for dinner. I subbed cranberry beans for borlotti beans and used about one teaspoon of dried ground rosemary for the fresh.

• Bread soup (Panada)

  • hlange on August 28, 2024

    Different. I thought it could have maybe used something more, like pancetta.

• Cacio e pepe

  • hlange on September 02, 2024

    Totally delicious cheesy goodness. Luckily the sauce wasn't as finicky as the recipe made it out to be. I was even able to stop stirring a few times when necessary and with the pasta water it still came together just fine.

• Chicken liver tagliatelle

  • Astrid5555 on August 31, 2018

    This is a very simple chicken liver dish, no tomatoes, no wine or vermouth, just chicken livers, stock and Parmesan cheese. Still delicious! We ate the leftover sauce with scrambled eggs on toast the next day, so good!

• Duck rigatoni

  • TrishaCP on February 09, 2019

    This was straightforward to make, and a pleasure to eat. The cinnamon was particularly nice with the duck meat. I ended up with more sauce than I needed for a pound of pasta.

  • Frenchfoodie on August 14, 2021

    Seriously good, rich and tasty sauce. I was a bit sceptical about the volume of cinnamon but it worked really well. I will definately return to this sauce in the future.

  • Beth891 on February 06, 2025

    Delicious and definitely one to make again. Worth the effort!

• Linguine carbonara

  • Lepa on September 27, 2018

    My kids fell in love with carbonara this summer while visiting Italy and I was anxious to try making it but I had read so many stories about the sauce not working out. This recipe/method worked well for me and we ended up with a smooth, silky sauce that tasted authentic. I used guanciale instead of pancetta. I also used all parmesan because I didn't have pecorino so that's one change I'd probably make next time.

  • Indio32 on November 20, 2018

    Haven’t eaten much today so this was either a very late lunch or a very early supper! Hardly an original recipe but boy oh boy was it good! Will definitely be doing this again.

  • tmjellicoe on July 26, 2021

    I used bacon as that was what was on hand and it was tasty. I 1/4’d the recipe as I was dining alone. It worked quite well. My only note for the future is to use less pasta. Even 4 oz was too much for one serving. Next time I’ll use 2oz and have no leftovers and room for a salad. I also added a few florets of roasted broccoli for some vitamins and fibre.

  • TrishaCP on December 10, 2022

    This is a great carbonara recipe.

• Tagliatelle secoe

  • twoyolks on February 01, 2019

    I really liked this sauce. The beef is much more prominent of a flavor than in a Bolognese. I found that the cinnamon really complemented the flavor well and helped cut some of the richness.

  • Charlotte_vandenberg on September 17, 2019

    Delicious comfort food.

  • TrishaCP on September 11, 2021

    I made this since I needed a pantry meal, but I really liked the results. The cinnamon was really delicious. I did end up having to hold it on the stove for about an hour longer than planned, and it did get a bit dry so I would caution to not overcook this one.

  • Beth891 on July 26, 2024

    This is going straight on the favourites! It's so good with tagliatelle! I largely followed the recipe but made a couple of changes- no celery so I added extra carrot and a TSP of old bay and I chucked in a handful of peas for extra veg. I made ahead and then heated to serve. It needed a little splash of the pasta water at the very end but the end result was delicious, full of flavour and the meat was lovely and soft. Definitely one to make again!

• Tomato risotto

  • Charlotte_vandenberg on January 24, 2021

    Tomatoes take 2.5 hours in the oven.

  • TrishaCP on November 15, 2021

    This was absolutely great. Good flavor from the risotto with nice pops of acid from the tomatoes. (I had made and frozen the tomatoes back in September, which saved a lot of time.) I needed to cook my risotto about 15 minutes longer than specified.

• Tardivo and very good red wine risotto

  • Hansyhobs on March 03, 2023

    Delicious with my homemade chicken stock. Very easy recipe.

• Chicken cacciatore

  • NealStreet on January 09, 2022

    This was straightforward and worked well. We added chopped parsley at the end for a bit of colour.

• Veal chops with sage and lemon

  • nicolepellegrini on October 30, 2020

    Outstanding recipe, and so simple. May be my new favorite way to prepare veal chops.

• Venetian Manhattan

  • TrishaCP on November 29, 2021

    I used Cognac but otherwise followed the recipe. This is very easy-drinking.

• Tomato sauce

  • joneshayley on August 16, 2020

    A great sauce, with numerous uses. I'll use this often

• Pizza dough

  • joneshayley on August 16, 2020

    Works perfectly and makes a lovely dough