Pasta & Rice
Pasta recipes
Crouton’s Pasta alla Puttanesca
This is my interpretation of spaghetti alla puttanesca (whore’s spaghetti), a simple yet robust pasta dish that’s easy to make with around-the-house ingredients (well, our house anyway). Don’t be squeamish about the anchovies … they add flavor to the dish, but without the…
Crouton’s Cafeteria Chili Mac
Ditalini put me in charge of the kitchen last night, so I decided to indulge myself in some good old comfort food. We’ve both been away, things have been hectic and disorganized, and a simple one-dish hot meal seemed like…
Photoblog: an Italian Family Dinner
Yesterday Ditalini and her Aunt Radicchio made three pounds of gnocchi and a big pot of sauce. When it comes to rolling and shaping gnocchi, there’s some twist of the wrist thing I never quite mastered, but Aunt Radicchio, now…
Sausage & Spinach with Fettuccini Alfredo
We went to one of our favorite Italian restaurants a few weeks ago. We were with a crowd, so we ordered appetizers. On the appetizer menu was a dish labeled Sausage & Spinach. Sounded good, so we tried it, and…
Ditalini’s Easy Jambalaya
Ditalini makes this jambalaya from time to time, and it’s always good. It’s adapted from a Rachel Ray recipe; we call it “easy jambalaya.” The list of ingredients is long, but the dish itself is easy to prepare. Ingredients 1…
Ditalini’s Family Gnocchi Recipe
Ditalini’s Aunt Joyce, a first-generation Italian-American and today the matriarch of the della Fagiolis, taught us this authentic gnocchi recipe, brought to the USA from Vittorio Veneto when the family emigrated. Ingredients 5 lbs russet potatoes 2 eggs, lightly beaten…
Polenta
I learned about polenta when I married Ditalini. It was what you ate when you were poor, or when you were tired of pasta and wanted something different. Sometime during the 1980s polenta became trendy and today you can find…
Ditalini’s Pasta alla Carbonara
We love pasta carbonara, but it’s so rich we have it only once or twice a year. Ditalini bases her recipe on one from Mario Batali. Ingredients olive oil 8 oz pancetta or bacon 1 lb spaghetti or other pasta (fettuccine…
What’s On the Stove?
Pasta alla Putanesca, that’s what!
Crouton’s Quick Fettuccini Alfredo w/Shrimp
Ingredients 1 lb fettuccini 3/4 stick butter 1/2 cup half & half 4-5 cloves garlic, sliced 12-24 large shrimp (21/25 count), deveined, heads & tails removed dried parsley flakes white pepper grated Parmesan cheese Directions Put a large pot of…