Pasta & Rice
Pasta recipes
Crouton’s Bucatini alla Amatriciana
A traditional dish from Rome and the Lazio region, usually served as the primo or pasta course of a full Italian dinner.
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,…
Crouton’s Cheesy Shrimp & Grits
We’re not Southerners, and until a few years ago knew not of shrimp & grits … or even grits for that matter. But we were exposed one night at a restaurant in downtown Tucson, and last night I decided to…
Ditalini’s Sautéed Scallops & Spinach Over Bucatini
This is one of our favorite one-dish meals: sautéed scallops & spinach over pasta, enhanced w/garlic & bacon.
Crouton’s Pasta with Italian Sausage
Here’s another easy pasta dish anyone can make. It tastes as good as it looks. Notes I’ve tried this with both kalamata olives and canned black olives. The strong flavor of the kalamatas overpower the bell pepper and broccoli, so…
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.
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.