Anthony - Low-carb Italian cooking with the Love Chef: delicious Italian recipes for todays new lifestyle

Whats so special about chicken salad? youre thinking. Well, this Italian Chicken Salad will knock your socks off! It starts with a roasted chicken (to save time, you can even cheat and buy it already cooked). Poached chicken breasts cant compare to the taste of roasted whole chicken with the flavor combination of white and dark meat!

SERVES 6

Remove the meat from the chicken and shred it into bite-sized pieces. In a large bowl, combine the chicken, fennel, red onion, and celery and toss. Set aside.

In a skillet, heat the olive oil over moderate heat, add the garlic and saut until golden. As soon as the garlic has colored, add the lemon juice all at once. Remove from heat and set aside to cool; then add to the chicken mixture. Add the parsley, mayonnaise, zest, salt, and pepper. Serve on a bed of arugula.

Youll enjoy this make-ahead party item that is perfect for cocktails. For this recipe, buy only the best prosciutto you can find. The prosciutto from Parma, Italy, is the one by which all Italian ham is measured; some Italian companies have opened plants in the United States and are producing excellent domestic hams. The key here is to buy the best you can afford, since the ham is what you taste in this recipe.

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In a mixing bowl, toss the arugula and shallots with the Lemon Vinaigrette. Make small bundles with the arugula by gathering a few leaves at the stems. Secure by wrapping a strip of prosciutto around the stems.

This delicious starter can also be made with oysters. Your main course likely would be fish, but this is also a great appetizer with a beef course.

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In a large skillet with a tight-fitting lid, heat half of the olive oil over moderately high heat. Add the clams; saut until they start to open. Add the wine, cover, and steam until all the clams open, about 5 to 8 minutes. Discard any unopened clams. Transfer the clams to a shallow bowl until cool enough to handle. Remove the clam from its shell; put it on one of the half shells and discard the other. Arrange the clams on a baking sheet and chill.

Preheat the broiler. Squeeze any excess moisture from the spinach. Chop the spinach and put in a large bowl. Add White Sauce, Parmesan, and parsley and mix until well combined. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Mound the spinach stuffing on top of the clams. Broil the clams until hot and bubbly, 3 to 5 minutes. Cool slightly and serve.

This is an easy top-of-stove recipe. I try to cook this dish with the same wine I will be serving with dinner.

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In a skillet, heat 2 tablespoons of olive oil and saut the pancetta and yellow onion until the onion is translucent. Add the tomatoes, 1 tablespoon of parsley, salt, and pepper, and continue to cook for 5 minutes. Set aside in a bowl.

Wash and dry the skillet. Heat 2 tablespoons of olive oil in the skillet and add the mussels, 1 tablespoon parsley, garlic, bay leaf, salt, and pepper. As the mussels start to open, add white wine, cover, and steam for 5 minutes or until all the mussels have opened. (Discard any mussels that do not open.) Cool the mussels and any cooking liquid in a bowl. When the mussels are cool enough to handle, remove the mussel meat and reserve one half of the shell from each.

Put one mussel on each shell, and divide the tomato mixture among the mussels. Sprinkle the mussels with the remaining parsley, and drizzle 1 tablespoon of the cooking liquid over them. Chill until ready to serve. Drizzle each with the remaining oil and serve immediately.

This appetizer is equally great as a starter for either fish or meat. The secret is not to overcook the mussels. One rainy afternoon off the beaten path in Rome, I walked into a small family restaurant and was served this dish with fantastic bread (no bread now), some house wine, and a lot of smiles.

SERVES 6

In a large deep skillet, heat the oil over moderate heat. Add the yellow onion, bell pepper, and garlic and saut for 5 minutes or until onion is translucent. Add the sausages and prosciutto, and cook until sausages are no longer pink. Add tomatoes, wine, pepper flakes, salt, and pepper. Reduce heat to low and simmer 20 minutes.