Notes about Recipes in this book

• Garganelli with ragù

  • SpatulaCity on August 24, 2023

    Really delicious! I made sure to follow all the instructions and set timers so as not to shortcut any caramelization and slow simmering. The result was a wonderful ragù! Personal preference - next time I would reduce the red pepper flakes. Grazie mille!

• Pappardelle with cream, peas, and leeks

  • Jeljh98 on November 29, 2024

    Huge portions! Very heavy, but also tasty!

• Orange chicken

  • SpatulaCity on August 22, 2023

    Really great. This is my husband’s favorite guilty pleasure food! I juiced my own oranges and I think they were too sour. This threw the balance off a bit, so per Eric’s suggestion to fiddle until it’s just right, I wound up adding more sugar and soy sauce. Also threw in some fish sauce, because that can never be bad. My husband loved it!

  • katiesue28 on March 21, 2025

    This was delicious and easy to tweak the sauce to be the spice/sweet/sour/salty level your prefer. Not a super quick recipe and leaves a bit to clean up, though. The sauce is easy and delicious, and could easily be used with fried chicken cutlets or even frozen chicken tenders/bites/nuggets if you want to be super fast!

• Chicken tower with herb overload

  • SpatulaCity on August 25, 2023

    Love it! Trader Joe’s used to sell a Vietnamese chicken wrap that I loved and bought all the time. Sadly they discontinued it, so believe my delight when I made this salad and joyfully found that it tastes just as delicious as my beloved wrap!!!! I doubled the mint and cilantro, and used roasted chicken (instead of the poached chicken called for here). Very happy. Needed only half of the nuoc Cham.

• Parisian chicken with mushroom sauce and French fries

  • SpatulaCity on April 16, 2024

    Very delicious, but need to take the cooking times and temperatures into your own hands. The mushroom sauce was fantastic - just needs 2x or 3x the time to reduce. The chicken achieved a light golden color, and probably could have used another 5-10 minutes at 475. After turning the temp down to 325, the bird was still way under temp after 30 min. Wound up turning the oven back up to 400 to try to get it cooked through. Used rosemary and thyme to stuff the bird and that leant a lovely herbiness to the mushroom sauce. Would happily make again!

• Ceviche with leche de tigre

  • sosayi on January 05, 2023

    Delicious and fairly easy! Had some leftover roasted sweet potato and used the alternate corn nuts, to speed things up. Would make again for sure.

• Rays of heaven

  • SpatulaCity on September 04, 2023

    While good, this wasn’t a favorite. The tastes and texture of all became sort of one note.

• Meat salad

  • SpatulaCity on August 25, 2023

    Lovely flavor combo - pistachios, figs and that touch of smoked sea salt raised the bar on the classic!

• Opa salad

  • SpatulaCity on October 11, 2023

    We really enjoyed this salad, even if the dressing is quite acidic. I added some extra olive oil to help tame that bite. Used a mix of chives, basil and parsley for fresh herbs. Tasted very bright!

• Tingle tagine

  • grindabod on April 28, 2023

    This was a delicious vegetarian main, super flavourful (be sure to season well and taste as you go along, especially the potatoes and cauliflower need quite a bit of salt). I made this in a clay tagine on the stovetop and increased the cooking time by about 20 minutes to get the vegetables gently simmering/steaming to where I wanted them to be. I highly recommend letting the dish rest for 10-15 minutes after cooking (no need to worry about heat loss in a tagine), to let the flavours settle and meld together some more.