Valerie Bertinelli - One Dish at a Time: Delicious Recipes and Stories from My Italian-American Childhood and Beyond

For my mom and dad,
with love and gratitude

W RITING A COOKBOOK was always a dream for me, and this first one has been an exciting adventure. I was helped by a talented group of people, each of whom added a touch of expertise and a pinch of brilliance.

It started with my editor Kathleen Hackett, a woman of exceptional patience and knowledge. Without her, this book never would have been completed. Recipe developer, Lesley Porcelli, too, was instrumental. She nimbly translated a dash of this and a knob of that into precise recipes that taste just as they should: delicious. Photographer Brian Bowen Smith and his team shot amazing pictures at my California home and had way too much fun doing it. There, food stylist Susan Sugarman turned out sauces, sandwiches, and pastas just like my Nonnie, mother, and aunts didwith a lot of love. Prop stylist Dani Fisher set such lovely tables that I have repeated them since. In the studio, food photographer Quentin Bacon, food stylist Mariana Velasquez, and prop stylist Lisa Lee made a formidable team. They made every dish look like art.

Putting recipes and imagesarchival and new in this casetogether is an art in and of itself and senior designer Kara Plikaitis did a beautiful job marrying the two. Executive director of art and design Amy King created a fantastic, vibrant cover. The executive team at Rodale clearly knows the recipe for taking care of authors and successfully publishing books. My best to Maria Rodale and the Rodale family. To Rodale Books publisher Stephen Perrine; Rodale Books and Healthy Living Group general manager Dave Zinczenko; associate publisher Beth Lamb; design director George Karabotsos; editorial director Elissa Altman; and publicity directors Yelena Gitlin Nesbit and Aly Mostela very big thank you. Senior managing editor Chris Krogermeier and senior project editor Marilyn Hauptly kept all of the moving parts on track as well as managing the copyediting and indexing of the book. Thanks to Angela Giannopoulos, assistant managing editor, and Rodale Test Kitchens JoAnn Brader, manager, and Jennifer Kushnier, assistant manager, for crunching all of those nutrition numbers.

Special thanks to my pal Todd Gold. This is our third adventure in publishing, and I look forward to many more. The dear Clara Martinez helped me meet every deadline and more, and knows how to nudge me just enough to get me going. To Roque, Eric, and Linda who made me look purdy for the shoot; Jack and Marc, as always; Dan Strone at Trident Media Group; Lois, Rod, and all at GR&F; Jamie for all the hard work behind the scenes; everyone at Innovative; Heidi, Jill, Gabe and everyone at PMK for making it fun; and, of course, all the amazing women in my family and my dear, sweet girlfriends who have shared their passion for food and personal recipes over the years. They are the real secret ingredients here. Food is always best when shared with people you love.

I FELL IN LOVE with my husband, Tom, when we were making dinner. I had already met and liked him, but Im talking about the moment when I felt the sweet flutter of desire and knew that one day soon I was going to say those three incredible words that as a single woman I uttered only to a bowl of pasta alle vongole or a slice of walnut banana bread: I love you.

We were at the home of my brother, Pat, and his wife, Stacy. We all were preparing the meal together. Tom and I had been assigned starters. He was making shrimp appetizers, and I was topping crostinis with mozzarella, prosciutto, and fresh basil leaves. As we worked, the two of us kept trading glances and helping each other. Walls came down as we touched and tasted each others ingredients. Soon all I wanted to do was to kiss Tom, and it turned out he was thinking, Wow, I could really spend the rest of my life with this woman.

Now I cant promise you that I know the recipe for finding love, but I do know that finding the right recipes frequently results in that special feeling you never want to forget. In One Dish at a Time, I have collected recipes from my life that fit that description. Each one represents a food memory, past and present. They have come from a lifetime of cooking, eating, and sharing meals with those I love. In many cases, the people have made the meal, but the meal has been whats made those occasions unforgettableand thats what I am hoping to share with you and hoping you end up sharing with others.

Youll also find dishes that earned raves from Tom, his children, the ladies in my book club, and my son Wolfie. The influences here range from childhood memories to recent travels. I have included recipes from family and friends, like my girlfriend Lynns brownies. One bite of those and youll feel like youve known her for years, too.

In my mind, a good cookbook is about relationships. Its a collection of love stories. These are my love stories, beginning with my memories of being in my Aunt Adelines basement kitchen as she, my grandmother, my Aunt Norma, and my mother made dinner for the extended family. They worked on a large table, kneading and rolling dough for gnocchi and cappelletti. Sauce simmered on the stove, and the air was infused with garlic. You want to know what love smells like? It smells like that basement.

My father recently sent me my Nonnies rolling pin. Its one of my most treasured possessions, as are my mothers recipes. She wrote them down for me, but the truth is, most times she didnt look at recipes. When I was growing up, she cooked three meals a day. The kitchen was her office, the heartbeat of our home, and no matter how many people were at the tableour family of five or more if we had friends overshe knew what to do. Mrs. Van Halen was like that, too. When Ed would go on tour after we were first married, I would spend the night at his parents house, and in the morning his mother made the most amazing coffee I had ever had, which holds true to this day. She put everything in a French presscoffee, milk, sugar, and secret ingredients. Ive spent years trying to duplicate it and crying over my inability to re-create that magical taste. Wolfie still kids me about it.

Unfortunately, you wont find her coffee in this book. She never wrote down the recipe, and Im someone who still needs to follow a recipe. I aspire to the level of culinary skill where I can open the fridge and, sans recipe, whip up the kind of meals that Im sharing with you here. My girlfriend Suzanne can do that and I marvel at it. Shes the one who reawakened the foodie in me and put me on the road to respecting and appreciating food again. Slowly but surely Im getting there.

As you know, Ive been public about my weight issues and eating problems, which many of us share. As a child, I loved food. It conveyed feelings of family, comfort, and safety. Later, as an adult, I chased those same feelings and used food as fuel to feed my emotions, to block bad feelings, and sometimes to punish myself. In the morning, Id swear to be faithful to my broccoli and fish all day, and then cheat on them at night with pepperoni pizza. The guilt! The unhappiness! The unwanted pounds! I lost precious time to counting calories instead of appreciating the exquisite simplicity of using food to nourish my body and feed my friendships.