cbrm-Lidia's Favorite Recipes & a giveaway!

Lidia Matticchio Bastianich is a prolific cookbook author and television chef. She also owns a restaurant and lectures about Italian food all over the USA. To top it all off, she has a website full of good food, Lidia's Italy. It is a safe bet that someone with those kind of chops has a very good recipe box.

 

Lidia's Favorite Foods; 100 Foolproof Italian Dishes, From Basic Sauces To Irresistible Entrées is full of the recipes Lidia makes for her own friends and family. Decades of experience has gone into turning out dishes that are full of flavor and not too difficult to make. Every recipe begins with a story or a note about ingredients. I love that the recipe for Baked Polenta "serves 12, with leftovers that can be easily frozen". Pan-Seared Steak with Pizzaiola Sauce has you, "pour in the tomatoes, and slosh out the can with 1/2 cup hot water, adding that to the skillet as well." This is the way you would pass along a recipe to a friend over the phone.

The book has 100 recipes broken up by course. Appetizers, Salads and Soups, Sandwiches and Pizza, Primi-Pastas, Polentas, and Risottos, Sauces, Sides and Vegetables, Seafood, Poultry and Meats, and Desserts. Many beautiful photos accompany the text.

Reading through the recipes I find the instructions to be straight forward. Instructions include Lidia's own words of wisdom and helpful hints to guide you through each recipe, making this a book suitable for cooks of all levels. I can not wait to try,

 

Rice Balls,

 

Straw and Hay,

and the aforementioned Baked Polenta Layered with Mushroom Ragù.

Then there is Chocolate Biscotti Pudding, oh my.

A perfect book to keep on your shelf for inspiration when making your dinner menus, as well as a great gift for the cooks on your holiday list. Who doesn't love soul-satisfying food?

Knopf has offered to give one of these books to my readers. To enter, leave a comment telling us about your favorite Italian food. Comment before midnight, Thursday Novemeber 8th and I will post the winner on Friday. Good luck and I can't wait to read your comments.

 

Posted with Blogsy

Comments

[Patty]

I have an Italian Pot Roast recipe that we all enjoy. It's served with linguine and is yummy. The baked poleta with mushroom ragu and the rice balls both look good and something I'd like to try.

[Maureen]

I love pasta carbonara. I love the combination of the pasta with the bacon and the cheese and the egg.

[Anne Marie]

Very similar to the first photo of your post, my families favorite from my mom's Italina cookbook -- Suppli al Telefono: Deep-fried Rice and Cheese Balls. YUM!

[Sheila]

I have a spinach lasagne recipe that is wonderful! I make a big pan, then after cooking I freeze the leftovers in individual serving sizes. My very own frozen lasagne for the days I'm too lazy to cook. Much better than the store-bought type.

[Angie S.]

The best Italian food I ever had (besides Gelato) is a simple Pesto Gnocchi dish in Siena. I can't seem to duplicate it. Maybe I will just have to go back to Siena.

[Nancy]

Cannot beat a big pot of gravy with homemade meatballs and some brasciole simmering in it for hours!

[Jaime]

My favorite Italian food has to involve some pasta, Parmesan cheese and the rest is flexible.

[Sage Green]

Pizza. Of all kinds as long as it includes mushrooms and garlic!

[Anne]

My grandfather was Sicilian. His grandmother came over with his mother when they were 33 and 16, respectively. And my great-great-grandmother's meatballs and sauce are IT. I could eat those every day of the year and die happy. My gramp's mom taught my grandmother (who was Scotch-Irish and an awesome cook) to make them so her "poor boy wouldn't starve" after he got married. :) Not likely.

[Susanne]

Thinking of Italy just makes me happy. The best food we ever had was at a small hotel in Lido di Camaiore, Hotel Bacco. I can't wait to travel there again some time in the future.

[Thanksgiving Menus]

Better to taste them than staring to them but I admit so hard to stop looking on them, I want to bite those rice balls.

[acne]

I can recommend to come on a website, with a large quantity of posts on the theme fascinating you. acne http://www.acnecyst.net/use-of-shea-butter-for-the-acne-treatment