Notes about Recipes in this book

• Tagliatelle with artichokes (Tagliatelle al carciofi)

  • Yildiz100 on October 21, 2018

    Just ok. Needed a lot of parm and salt to balance out the lemon. A bit watery- too much stock. The mint became unpleasantly brown with the long cooking. The flavor would probably permeate just as well if the mint were added later, so I would do that if I made this again. However, I will make other artichoke cream sauces first before ever repeating this.

• Tagliatelle with asparagus (Tagliatelle agli asparagi)

  • Wormella on March 31, 2022

    This was delicious, a rich carbohydrate hug on a bad day. However, it may not be the best way to experience the delicate flavour of spring asparagus, which was somewhat lost underneath the cheese & cream

• Pappardelle from the hills of Florence (Pappardelle delle colline di Firenze)

  • Yildiz100 on July 03, 2016

    The vegetables in the sauce needed more time to simmer. Maybe 20 minutes more? I used 250 grams dried egg pappardelle nests. (It seems less dense than non-egg pasta. It made quite a lot.) Still, it was too much sauce. I'd consider repeating this with tweaks, but may never get to it with so many pasta recipes tagged to try.

• Penne with cauliflower (Penne al cavolfiore)

  • Tiganna on September 16, 2018

    Excellent. Didn't require a full cauliflower, but with that adjustment, simple and tasty. Will definitely repeat.

  • Yildiz100 on September 30, 2018

    This was just meh for us. The sauce was very heavy on the cream, and without much acidity, no cheese, and light garlic it ended up dairy forward and a bit bland. Also, cooking the cauliflower till soft enough to mash with a potato masher took way longer than stated, so this is not the quick dinner it sounds like when you read the recipe.

• Chickpea and pepper soup (Minestra di ceci e peperoni)

  • London_Mummy on November 29, 2025

    This comes out as more of a stew than a soup, but it would be easy enough to add some more water of stock to make it soupier. I thought it would be very bland but it is quite tasty. To save time, I used tinned chickpeas & tinned tomatoes, including all the liquid. All the ingredients are cheap & readily available in London, so it is a useful recipe.

• Farmer's salad (Insalate del contadino)

  • tekobo on September 21, 2021

    Made with spinach in place of broccoli. Tasty. Might reduce lemon juice next time.

• Beans with tomato sauce and sage (Fagioli all'uccelletto)

  • Yildiz100 on September 08, 2019

    Vaguely written recipe. Calls for 250 grams cooked cannellini beans, but based on the quantities of other ingredients, it seems like she might mean 250 grams of dried cannellini beans which have been cooked. Used 250 grams cooked weight and it had way too much tomato. The beans were just swimming.

• Roast potatoes with garlic, rosemary and lemon (Patate al forno)

  • Yildiz100 on October 09, 2018

    Halved the olive oil (calls for 1/2 cup for 1 kilo potatoes!) Was still loads of oil. I only used the juice of half a lemon because I had an enormous one that was very juicy. Next time I would use the full jumbo extra juicy lemon-love the tanginess. Potatoes were soft at 25 minutes but needed much more time to get golden, more like an hour. Sadly the garlic and rosemary were flavorless by then.

• Cauliflower salad (Insalata di rinforzo)

  • tekobo on April 13, 2018

    Simple side, very tasty with roast duck at Easter.

  • Yildiz100 on August 27, 2018

    Very nice, looks Christmasy. Will add a bit of garlic next time.

• Cheese and black pepper bread (Crescia)

  • Yildiz100 on November 26, 2021

    This recipe needs salt. I assumed that it was not included because the cheese would make it salty enough, but it did not. It was very bland. Also, this bread was pretty dry considering the large amount of egg and butter. I think I will try another version of crescia before repeating this one.

• Spiced almond and chocolate cake (Pan rozzo)

  • London_Mummy on November 29, 2025

    This cake has a lovely flavour from the almonds, cinammon & Amaretto. I had no potato flour so substituted rice flour. You could substitute mashed potatoes too (I made a nice chocolate & mashed potato cake out of "Veggies Every Day of the Week" earlier this year). The recipe says to bake at 180'C for "about an hour". After 50 mins in my fan-assisted oven, it was slightly over-done, hence a bit on the dry side. Another time, I'd cook at 160'C for 50 mins or 180'C for 40 mins, then test it with a skewer.