December 2009

Fast food doesn't have to mean bad food. This quick pasta dish combines a can of chickpeas, sometimes called ceci beans, with tiny pasta to create a hearty and satisfying meal. It's one of many regional variations of the Italian comfort food pasta e fagioli (known as pasta fazool). This particular recipe traveled from the Basilicata region of Italy to America with my maternal grandfather, George Fanelli. My grandmother, an Irish woman with the moniker Nelly Kelly Fanelli, mastered the dish that my mother, thankfully, recorded for posterity.

This rich, satisfying vegetable stew celebrates the first vegetables of spring—artichokes, leeks, carrots and peas. For a truly indulgent flair, omit the butter at the end and drizzle each serving with a little truffle oil.

Peeling spring's fleeting fresh fava beans takes some time, but the results are well worth the effort. You can blanch and peel the beans a day ahead.

This cheesy baked dish, packed with spinach and flavored with tasty sun-dried tomatoes, is a great alternative to traditional pizza.

Eggplant takes on a delicious, slightly smoky flavor when roasted in a hot oven. Sprinkled with fresh lemon juice and salt, this version is great match for any fish dish. Try it with the Italian-Style Tofu Bake recipe.

Perfect for those in South Beach Diet Phase 1. In later phases, you can add cooked soba noodles. Substitute chopped scallions if you don't like cilantro. 

Cod, sole, or flounder may be substituted for the orange roughy.

This recipe is based on a South Beach Diet cookbook recipe. The introduction states, "Yogurt and buttermilk add creaminess to this chunky chowder. Dill, bay leaf, and tarragon lend the perfect flavor accents." Additionally, Dr. Oz, in his You, the Owner's Manual book, states that "The best fish (those with the least mercury and PCBs [polychlorinated biphenl]) are wild, line-caught salmon (almost all canned salmon is wild, healthful salmon), mahi mahi, catfish, flounder (sole), tilapia, and whitefish."

Cacciatore means “hunter-style.”