Weekend Cooking: Skinny Italian
One of the first things Teresa Giudice mentions in her cookbook, Skinny Italian, is Olive Garden does not serve Italian food – they serve American-Italian food. The difference, she says, adds lots of calories to food that doesn’t need to be fattening. I was excited when this cookbook showed up at my door and immediately flipped through to find a recipe to try.
Carl and I both thought the Bucatini All’Amatricina looked good, so we decided to give it a try. We followed the directions and mixed the pasta with the sauce – we must be too used to American-Italian food, because we both felt like there was too much pasta and not enough sauce, so we were a little bit disappointed.
For my next experiment, I decided to try Arrabiate, the Angry Sauce. I liked this one a lot, but Carl thought the heat was a little too overwhelming. It wasn’t until I was cleaning up, that I noticed the recipe said, “Now, I like it hot, but if you want to tone it down, only use ½ teaspoon of the red pepper flakes.” I think Carl will enjoy it the next time if I tone it down.
Here’s the recipe:
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
½ medium onion, chopped
4 garlic cloves, finely chopped
1 teaspoon crushed hot red pepper
3½ cups “The Quickie” Tomato Sauce
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
- Heat the oil in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add the onion and garlic and cook, stirring occasionally, until the onion is translucent, about 5 minutes. Stir in the hot pepper.
- Stir in the tomato sauce, lemon juice, and pepper. Bring to a simmer. Reduce the heart to medium-low. Simmer, uncovered, stirring occasionally, until lightly thickened, at least 15 and up to 40 minutes. The longer it simmers, the hotter the sauce. If the sauce gets too thick, stir in a little water. Just before serving, stir in the parsley. Serve hot, as a pasta sauce.
Basic Tomato Sauce, AKA “The Quickie”
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
One 28-ounce can imported Italian plum tomatoes, broken up, with their juices
¼ cup tomato paste
2 tablespoons chopped fresh basil or 2 teaspoons dried basil
- Heat the oil in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add the tomatoes and their juices and the tomato paste. Bring just to a boil.
- Reduce the heat to medium-low and add the basil. Simmer to blend the flavors, about 10 minutes.
I found the recipes to be clear and easy to follow. I think most people will find a recipe they’ll enjoy in this cookbook. I do wish it had more pictures of the finished foods.
Weekend Cooking is hosted by Beth Fish Reads and is open to anyone who has any kind of food-related post to share: Book (novel, nonfiction) reviews, cookbook reviews, movie reviews, recipes, random thoughts, gadgets, fabulous quotations, photographs. If your post is even vaguely foodie, feel free to grab the button and link up anytime over the weekend. To see who else is participating this weekend, click on the logo.
I won this book from Hyperion in a Twitter giveaway. I am an Indiebound Affiliate.
Even though I haven’t had a cup of coffee yet, I’ve got this urge now for Italian food!
This cookbook sounds fantastic! My DH is a HOT sauce kind of guy, so I look forward to trying The Angry Sauce! Thanks so much for sharing both the book and the recipes!
Have a great week!
The arrabiate looks really good. I might have been okay with all the red pepper, but would still probably start of with the lesser portion just to get a taste for it.
When I saw the cover of this book, I wondered if it would be as good inside is out. Thanks to your review I now know it is. I love pasta so this sounds up my alley.
Mason
Thoughts in Progress
Wow, that sounds great. I think i’ll try the Quickie Sauce.
I bet I’d find a lot to like in that book — I am always looking for skinnier recipes.
We eat pasta at least once a week. But since we’re not salad people, we add all our vegetables to the sauce (usually pepper, courgette and tomatoes). But it would be nice to try another sauce sometime!
Your post inspired me to look for a different sauce soon and use that instead of the sauce we always have.
Btw, we often use rice instead of pasta with our pasta sauce. This is also delicious!
http://leeswammes.wordpress.com
I have a friend whose son just returned from four months in Italy. He is constantly cooking for her and her one complaint is the high calorie meals he prepares. I’m going to get this book for her this week. He can cook. She can enjoy the food without completely going off her diet! I’m going to try the Quickie Sauce myself this week.
I love to cook, and when I have the time, I do it well. I am Italian, but unfortunately longevity doesn’t run in my family, so I had no older relative from which to learn to cook. I operate on instinct and by paying attention to friends’ parents/grandparents and asking questions from my chef-friend. In my opinion, very few Italian cookbooks get it right. I will flip through this one, though, the next time I see it, but I am skeptical. I am surprised at how few vegetables were in this “skinny” recipe, but not as surprised to see no onions or garlic in the quickie sauce. An extra 4 minutes shouldn’t undo the “quick” factor.
Aside from that, The Housewives of NJ make me want to lose my lunch – doesn’t do much for the appetite.
My favorite Italian cookbook? Naples at Table.
My trick to making Italian cooking “skinny?” More vegetables, less pasta, less cheese, fresh ingredients, no cream.
Yum…pasta! I learned from Mario Batali on Food Network how real Italians don’t smother their pasta with sauce–the pasta is the feature, the sauce is a condiment.
This looks like a great book with delicious recipe ideas–thanks for sharing!
~
http://mywindowswideopen.wordpress.com/
When I was in Italy I was a surprised by how much less sauce they use than us, but the food was still amazing! Can’t wait to try these.
I just love Theresa. I’d read anything she wrote because she’s so funny. I bet she’s a great cook, too. And, your dishes came out awesome. I love the idea of a super hot sauce–My husband would love it!
I totally agree about Olive Garden! And I much prefer authentic Italian. Sounds like a wonderful book!
There’s a really good arrabiata sauce over on allrecipes.com. If you search for Brooklyn Girl’s Penne Arrabiata, you’ll find it. I use the sauce recipe for all kinds of pasta, not just penne. (The recipe is delish just the way it’s written, a wee bit fattening, so I’ve lightened it up a bit, using about half the olive oil, etc. But I’m a wimp who doesn’t like spicy, so I don’t add the red pepper.)
I’ll read any book that promises I’ll be skinnier or make that skinny. (Actually, I first need to get to plump.) Your dishes look and sound good.
Italian food that isn’t fattening? I’m there. I could eat Italian every day of my life, and I love to cook it. It makes me feel all warm and homey! I’m going to see if my library carries this.
Yay! They had it! I’m on a wait list, but it will come eventually!
I immediately copied down your recipe….I have this habit of adding crushed red pepper or cayenne to everything I dish up…this sounds fabulous!
Thanks for the recipe. This one looks easy enough for even me to fix!
The dishes look so mouth wateringly delicious! Ahhh if only I cook whip up plates like that.
Thanks for the recipe and I’ll let you know my clan’s reaction.
Have a great week!
PS Come on by Aisle B for coffee and scones for Mailbox Monday tomorrow
Skinny and Italian are not two words I usually associate with each other. Although there isn’t much sauce the first picture looks good to me right now!
We love Italian food at our house, but are now on a weight loss program. So Skinny Italian cooking sounds perfect
Thanks for the recommendation and the recipe!
I agree about Olive Garden but still Love it. It is a treat when visiting the US. I also enjoyed the pasta and pizza in Italy but it is very different.
I do like when cookbooks have lots of pictures of the finished product.
Olive Garden is not Italian, I don’t care what the store says. I married a real Italian, and their food is amazing! Olive Garden is some American’s idea of what Italy tastes like, not actual Italian recipes.
Gross! If the people that liked Olive Garden ate real homemade sauce, they wouldn’t know what hit ‘em.
Yummy! That pasta looks delicious! I’m not a big sauce person, so I would probably have loved that first dish you made. By the by, I love Theresa from the Real Housewives – what a crazy show! And thanks for sharing that recipe – my sister would love it (she likes super spicy food). Cheers!
I can see the tsp. of red pepper might have been a bit much for some people..like me. otherwise it sounds fantastic.
Will I look like her if I use her recipes?
My weekend cooking project was a dud.
On a normal day I would crave this, but after being up all night puking with a stomach bug, I can’t bear to look at the photo. I’ll be back later in the week…LOL
If you like authentic Italian cooking, come on over to my place and check out my recipes as well as some of the links to the blogs of my fellow expats in Italy — many of us have lived here in Italy for years and have lost weight simply because we’re cooking and eating better, much as Alison described above
Yeah, Olive Garden isn’t Italian.
But American-Italian. Just as most Chinese restaurants here aren’t authentic Chinese, nor are most Indian restaurants here authentic Indian. I’m not a fan of cooking, but I love looking though cookbooks. LOL!
The food looks delicious. Maybe the reason you didn’t care for the first one is that we “Americans” are so use to a lot of sauce??? I definitely would love to try the recipe you posted..Thanks!
The arrabiate looks terrific! But I’m a huge fan of Italian food. I probably would have liked the first one too because I’m not a big sauce person.
Those both look really delicious!
I agree. The Olive Garden is not Italian. It may surprise you but I am actually part Italian and sauce is not meant to drown pasta, but to gently coat it. I learned that at a young age but I can see why some folks needs to have a bit more moisture.
I picked up this book at BEA-I have yet to cook anything from it -as I am cooking from some other books that I picked up-now you have made me want to cook from it.
Here is my link http://chocolateandcroissants.blogspot.com/2010_06_01_archive.html#123210841722504125
I’m not a big fan of sauces to begin with, so I bet I’d enjoy pasta more if it had just a touch of sauce and more veggies. Sounds like a cookbook I should add to my collection.
I love Italian, but I don’t have many great recipes that I can use to cook my own, so thanks for sharing this with us. I also tend to like a lot of sauce on my pasta as well, so I know how you feel!!
So true about Olive Garden… I love ‘authentic’ Italian food!
She wrote an essay about food for the Barnes & Noble free in-store content for Nook. That got me interested in this book, so I’m excited to see you reviewing it. We’re all trying to trim down a bit in my house, and we love Italian. Chuck and the kids are native upstate New Yorkers and they feel about Italian the way my native Texas heart feels about Mexican food. We’ll have to give this one a try.
This looks like a cookbook I need. We love Italian at our house. Okay, I love Italian and since I do most of the cooking they don’t get much of a choice.
I just got a text from my sister, who was flipping through this at the bookstore and said it looked really good. I’m going to have to get my hands on it…I have to admit that she’s one of my favorite Housewives.
OK, I just ate lunch, but this would have been much more fulfilling than my sandwich!
i’m still laughing about the olive garden zing!
i only ate there once, as a guest with some friends, and have to say that it wasn’t quite what my sicilian grandmother was cooking. but i’m sure that most chain places that have an ethnic sway wouldn’t be considered authentic by people of that ethnicity.
anyway, the recipes you posted sound great and i’d love to give a few a whirl. now that summer is here, i’m off from work and have so much more time to experiment in the kitchen! bring on the pasta.
After reading your post, I’m getting hunger pangs. I’d even settle for Olive Garden spaghetti!
I saw this cookbook at the bookstore the other day. I recognize the author from the Real Housewives show. She is a real hoot on there. I’ll probably pick this up at some point. I’m always looking for good Italian recipes.
I am in desperate need of skinny something. Plus, I’m hungry all the time.
This might just fit the bill!
Oooh! This one looks wonderful.
Love Italian food – I’m going to see if my library has this book.
I’m with Carl on toning it down. lol. The recipes sound good although I’d be making extra sauce. I’ve never understood not having lots of sauce on your pasta and that seems to be the way a lot of recipes are.