Bastianich Lidia Matticchio - Lidias favorite recipes: 100 foolproof Italian dishes, from basic sauces to irresistible entrées

This Is a Borzoi Book
Published by Alfred A. Knopf

Copyright 2012 by Tutti a Tavola, LLC

All rights reserved. Published in the United States by Alfred A. Knopf, a division of Random House, Inc., New York, and in Canada by Random House of Canada Limited, Toronto.

www.aaknopf.com

Knopf, Borzoi Books, and the colophon are registered trademarks of Random House, Inc.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Bastianich, Lidia.
Lidias favorite recipes : 100 foolproof Italian dishes, from basic sauces to irresistible entres / by Lidia Matticchio Bastianich and Tanya Bastianich Manuali ; photographs by Marcus Nilsson.
p. cm.
This is a Borzoi book.
Includes index.
eISBN: 978-0-307-96085-6
1.Cooking, Italian.I.Manuali, Tanya Bastianich.II.Title.
TX723.B318982012
641.5945dc23 2012023455

Interior photographs by Marcus Nilsson
Jacket photograph by Marcus Nilsson
Jacket design by Kelly Blair

v3.2

I would like to dedicate this book to all my loyal and committed fans. Through the years our friendship, bond, and trust have grown, and you have invited me into your homes and given me the opportunity to bring my Italian culture and flavors to your tables. You have shared my family and stories with your family and friends, have cooked many of my recipes, and have made some of them your favorites. I sense your appreciation for my recipes and my teachings through your e-mails and letters, and when we meet at special events, at book signings, and at my restaurants. I am immensely grateful to all of youyour hands and your kitchens bring Lidias flavors alive. Thank you for allowing me to be part of your lives. I cherish and love being there.

Grazie ,
Lidia

I want to thank my great team for the creativity, enthusiasm, hard work, guidance, ideas, testing, and tasting that have gone into creating this book.

To Jessica Freeman Slade, thank you for your enthusiasm, for fresh perspectives, and for your incredibly thorough editing. And dear Ken Schneider, thank you for pulling it all so diligently together. Thank you also to the newest members of my Knopf team, Peter Gethers and Christina Malach. I look forward to working on many more projects together. Thanks to my ever-dependable kitchen companion, Amy Stevenson, for her shopping, testing, and contribution in writing to the recipes for the book as well as for being our culinary producer for the companion TV series.

For capturing my food through his eyes, I thank Marcus Nilsson. For tying up all the efforts and hard work into a wonderful design, thank you to Carol Devine Carson, Kelly Blair, and Kristen Bearse. A special thanks to my old friend Paul Bogaards for his endless efforts in marketing and promoting my works.

Thanks to Robert Barnett and Deneen Howell from Williams Connelly (wc.com) for helping me when I most needed assurance and security. This book would not have happened without your guidance and counsel.

A constant support throughout my life, Erminia, my mother, is a source of wisdom and good laughs for me. Thank you to my daughter, Tanya, for being my researching and writing companion as well as my confidant and partner, and thank you to my son, Joseph, a solid business partner; a family to be proud of. And not enough could be said about my love for my five little darlings: Olivia, Lorenzo, Miles, Ethan, and Julia. They make all the long hours and hard work easy; they make me so proud to be a grandmother.

I also want to thank my strong office team, led by Shelly Burgess Nicotra, who has stood by me for the past fifteen years: Lauren Falk, together with Sara Eagle from Knopf, who have kept me and my book in the limelight during and after my promotional travels; Rebecca Fornaby, who has kept our website visitors and Facebook fans informed; and Meghan Liu, my assistant, who has kept me and my ever-changing calendar updated and on schedule.

I would also like to thank those who make my show on public television possible. Thank you to the American Public Television team for always doing a stellar job distributing my show. And thanks to the wonderful team at my presenting station, WGBH in Boston. Their enthusiasm is contagious and their professionalism is exemplary. My show would not be possible without my sponsors: Grana Padano, Colavita, Perugina, and Cento.

While I am on the road filming and researching, there is an army of people who work and make sure my businesses continue on as I would have them. For their dedication and hard work, thank you to the staffs of Felidia, Becco, Del Posto, Lidias Kansas City, Lidias Pittsburgh, and Eataly.

And a big thank you to all my viewers and readers. I am so pleased you enjoy and am ever so grateful for your appreciation of the work I do.

Mille grazie!

Lidia

I have written seven cookbooks thus far, and Im so happy to have earned a place in your cookbook library. Im sure that, as you read and cooked your way through each book, you found recipes that became your favorites. Some might be reliable recipes that are easy to cook, and others are probably more difficult recipes that are worth the effort, but my hope is that all of them are dishes that your family loves and that became part of your own traditions. As readers tell me about their experiences around the table, its become clear that if I collected those favorite recipes and compiled them all accessibly in one book, it might be just the Lidia cookbook you are looking for. And here it is, just for you: Lidias Favorite Recipes .

These recipes include not only your favorites, but mine as well, like , and many more. And as I put this book together, I added some of my new favorites, which I know you will try and love.

Family is very important to me, and I love to cook for my family and friends, so I included the simple and flavorful Italian dishes that you will love to prepare for your family and friends, like straight to the table. Today more than ever we want and need to gather around the table with our family and friends to escape our daily distractions, and what better way than with food that is luscious, nutritious, and cooked with love.

For most of these recipes, the ingredients are affordable and easy to find. This is especially true if you cook by the seasonsand, after all, that is the best way to cook. Today all of us care about eating consciously, sustainably, and responsibly, to keep our environment safe for future generations. Cooking and eating seasonal and local food, and not wasting a bit of it, is something all of us can do to make a difference while enjoying meals we love. A favorite dish is timeless, no matter your budget or the season, and I think youll find that these favorite dishes of mine will remain your favorites as well.

Continue cooking, and tutti a tavola a mangiare ,
Lidia Bastianich