Dairy

Rice salad can be made with long- or short-grain rice. I prefer short-grain rice, like Arborio, because it cooks up fluffier and absorbs more of the flavors of the other ingredients in the salad. Long-grain rice, like Carolina and Uncle Ben’s, stays firmer and has a more “staccato” effect—that is, it’ll stand more separately and distinctly from the other ingredients. The one good thing I can say about pasta salads is that people feel comfortable improvising with them. Feel free to treat rice salads the same way. Although there are some traditional combinations, like seafood rice salad or shrimp-and-asparagus rice salad, you can really be creative and make any combination. And they are a great way to use leftovers. For this dish, I took the classic salad of mozzarella, tomato, and basil from Capri, added rice, and dressed it with virgin olive oil and lemon juice. Some of my other favorite combinations are shredded grilled chicken, tomatoes, and arugula; cubes of grilled fresh tuna, Gaeta olives, Cerignola olives, cherry tomatoes, sliced red onion, and basil; grilled vegetables like peppers, zucchini, eggplant, and mushrooms with shavings of Parmigiano-Reggiano; thinly sliced raw baby artichokes, diced celery, and shavings of Parmigiano-Reggiano; rice-salad “antipasto” with cubed prosciutto, mortadella, cacciatorino, provola, Pecorino, Gaeta olives, roasted peppers, pickled mushrooms, and pickled artichokes.

Pick the youngest, crunchiest romaine heads you can find. Keep them crisp, before and after cleaning, in the vegetable drawer of the refrigerator. Even if you pick young, crispy lettuce, you should use only the pale-green and yellow inner leaves for this salad. But don’t throw out the outer leaves. Shred them and stir them into soups, or into a panful of sautéed fresh peas. The dressing shouldn’t be too dense; it should be just thick enough to coat each leaf lightly. The cheese that is added at the end will thicken it a little. Oil and vinegar stirred in at the end is a little touch of mine. It’s how we serve the salad at Lidia’s Kansas City and Pittsburgh. Another little touch that looks nice on a plate is to set one or two whole romaine leaves on the plate and pile the cut leaves over it. Shaving Parmigiano-Reggiano over the finished salad looks nice and tastes nice, too. It’s a good thing to keep in mind for other salads as well. Traditionally, Caesar salad was made with a barely cooked egg. Here I use a hard-boiled egg, as I do in my restaurants, for safety reasons.

Cherry peppers are plump, round peppers that are usually sold pickled in vinegar. They range in color from bright red to dull green, and in spiciness from mild to hot. Good in salads and as part of an antipasto tray, they add a kick to cooked dishes, too, like the Chicken Scarpariello on page 262.These stuffed cherry peppers will look very nice and go a long way to dressing up an antipasto table if you use both red and green peppers. Sometimes you will see these already stuffed hot peppers marinating in oil and vinegar. You can do the same by packing the stuffed peppers into a clean jar and pouring the liquid from the jar of cherry peppers and some olive oil over them. Store them in the refrigerator for up to a few days like that, but be sure to drain them well before you serve them, or they will be messy to eat.

If you can buy fresh mozzarella “hot off the press,” before it’s been refrigerated, it will be easier to cut and fill. There are a lot of different fillings you can use in place of the prosciutto—olives, salami, fresh basil leaves, or pesto. Choose a thin-bladed knife with a blade long enough for you to see what the blade is doing as it cuts through the cheese.

If you haven’t bought a deep-frying thermometer yet, this is a good time to do it. A few of the pizzette may “spring a leak” while they fry—you can minimize the risk by not overfilling the pizzette, and by wetting and sealing the edges well as you form them.

What makes this frittata different is the bread. It soaks up the egg and cream and gives the frittata a firm but still tender texture. It also makes it easier to slide onto a serving plate, if that’s how you want to serve it.

We made this dish at Ristorante Buonavia in the early 1970s with white bread. Now I find I like the flavor and texture of wheat bread, and I like it even more if the bread is lightly toasted before you put the sandwiches together.Vegetable stock is nice here—it cuts the acidity of the white wine without adding a definitive flavor. If you don’t have vegetable stock, use water or, if you want to add a richer flavor, chicken stock.

The carriage in the title refers to the bread that the mozzarella rides in. Like the preceding recipe, this dish was originally made with white bread. Whole-wheat bread adds texture and complexity. You can see in the directions below that everything is laid out before the oil is heated. Once the oil comes to temperature, you should be ready to start frying right away.

Serve these nice and hot, or let them cool to room temperature. If you’d like to make this a little more contemporary, you can add a dash of balsamic vinegar to the red peppers and scallions as they cook. In true Italian-American style, these are topped with butter, but in Italy, we would use olive oil. Best yet, top them with butter, then “bless” them all with a little olive oil. This wonderful stuffing is delicious in celery stalks baked with a light tomato sauce. You can also line up blanched asparagus on a baking sheet, sprinkle the bread crumbs over them, and bake them until the crumbs are crispy. I’m sure you can come up with a lot of uses for the bread crumbs. Remember, I give you the basics, but I want you to go and play.

If the vegetables you are preparing can cook in 10 minutes or so—thin asparagus or thinly sliced zucchini, for example—there is no need to precook them. Boil vegetables that take longer—sliced carrots or parsnips—in salted water until al dente, then proceed.

If you’re going to take the time to churn your own ice cream, I think it should be chocolate, don’t you? This is sweetened with agave nectar instead of artificial sweetener because the nectar gives the finished stuff real unctuousness and body—almost like the real thing.

Time to go through the impulse purchases you’re storing in the attic or basement and dig out that old-fashioned ice cream maker you thought you couldn’t live without. Here’s a very good reason to unpack it.

This recipe was created for my friend Bill, who told me he couldn’t get his daughter to eat fruit. I asked him what her favorite food was and the response was “ice cream.” (Well, what would you say?) These pops are mostly fruit, with just a little bit of “ice cream” made from low-fat Greek yogurt and sugar substitute. But when the pureed fruit was mixed with it, she couldn’t tell the difference. At just about 60 calories a pop, you can eat these all summer long.

Traditional rice pudding contains cream, eggs, and sugar. You’ll find none of that here. You will find healthful whole-grain brown rice, raisins, creamy Greek yogurt, and lovely flavor from real vanilla bean and cinnamon. Eat any leftovers for breakfast.

Even though there is no sugar in the custard part of the recipe, I did decide—after experimenting with every sugar substitute out there—that it would be okay to use unrefined Demerara sugar for the brûlée part of this dessert. Considering that the fat grams are down to less than 3 from 50, I gave myself a pass.

Tiramisù is a high-calorie dessert if there ever was one. I started the makeover process thinking the lighter version should include from-scratch sugar-free ladyfingers—homemade génoise piped in perfect finger shapes and baked. Then I got my head screwed on straight and realized that no one would make this dessert if it meant making your own génoise. The fat-laden original was transformed into something even an Italian grandma would love.

When you think about adding flavor to foods in the most healthful way possible, you think about the most intense flavor vehicles you can find. That’s why this recipe calls for vanilla bean. The tiny seeds inside pack a wallop of this most delicate and beloved taste. If you can’t find good strawberries, try whole raspberries or small slices of ripe peach.

Typical pesto can be more than 50 percent pure fat, and even though a little goes a long way, that’s just too many calories. This is a re-invention of the classic pesto alla genovese. The garlic, pine nuts, basil, and Parmigiano-Reggiano are all still there, but low-fat sour cream stands in for the olive oil. It may not be 100 percent authentic, but you’ll love what it does for your dress size.

Toss this creamy sauce with hot cooked pasta, or drizzle it over steamed broccoli or roasted Brussels sprouts.