Italian American

Lenticchie Brasate
This recipe is an accompaniment for Chicken Breast Valdostana with Braised Lentils.

Accompany this dish with a salad of baby lettuces and sliced sweet onion- such as Vidalia or Maui- and some seeded breadsticks. End with chocolate frozen yogurt drizzled with coffee liqueur or chocolate sauce.

Saturday night is typically pizza-making night for my family, and one of the standard features of these evenings is pizza with pesto and fresh tomatoes. I use a good store-bought pesto, and, although I once made the dough in my bread machine, I now purchase excellent dough at our local Bertucci's restaurant and keep plenty on hand in the freezer. The dinner is simple and delicious. A pizza stone is a worthwhile investment if you're partial to pizza with a crisp crust that doesn’t droop. For this recipe we used a large pizza stone (about 14 inches across). But don’t despair if you don't have one; we also achieved good results when we baked the pizza on a baking sheet.

The perfect picnic sandwich for summer.

Most self-respecting Italian-American cooks have a recipe for stuffed zucchini. It's a dish that's often hard to categorize, however. Is it an appetizer? A side dish? Can it function as a main course? This version, with veal, is a little heartier than most and can definitely be served as an entrée, but it can also function as a side dish or appetizer for a multicourse feast.

Purchased Boboli crusts make these pizzas a snap to prepare. Offer prosciutto and melon as another appetizer.

An inviting first course would be grilled or roasted vegetables tossed with olive oil and arranged on a platter with olives and spicy peppers. Buy some tiramisu for dessert.

Creating her own versions of restaurant dishes is a hobby of Christina's. This is her interpretation of a pasta she had while dining out in San Francisco.

Can be prepared in 45 minutes or less.

The deep hollow created by emptying the bread is filled with lots of goodies, and this becomes a deep-dish pizza.

A shrimp and scallop pasta dish with basil and fennel.

Good as the centerpiece of a meatless meal.