Skinny Italian: Eat It and Enjoy It: Live La Bella Vita and Look Great, Too! »

Eat Spaghetti and Still Fit Into Your Skinny Jeans

To many of us, "diet" is a four-letter word. And rightfully so. Starving yourself thin or keeping track of each bite like pennies in your checkbook is no way to live. So what's a girl with skinny jean dreams supposed to do?

Teresa Giudice has the answer. In fact, she was born with it. The first-generation Italian-American mom of four and svelte star of The Real Housewives of New Jersey credits her knockout figure to her Old World upbringing. And now, in her fun, encouraging, and budget-friendly cookbook, she skewers the myth that looking fabulous has to be a chore.

In Skinny Italian, she reveals how to:

• substitute tedious meal plans with simple, flavorful recipes
• choose fresh, flavorful ingredients instead of counting calories
• slow down and enjoy a faster metabolism
• replace starvation with celebration by adopting an Italian attitude to cooking, eating, and entertaining
• love food, love eating, and still love your body afterward

Teresa shows how anyone can master the cornerstones of Italian cuisine. Learn how to make six different tomato sauces from scratch, how to choose and use the right olive oil, and how to prepare over sixty Giudice family recipes straight from Salerno. From Gorgeous Garlic Shrimp to Beautiful Biscotti, you'll want to make these sumptuous recipes again and again. Discover how easy and economical wholesome, homemade cooking can be.

Skinny Italian is not a diet book. It's an "eat it and enjoy it" book. Join Teresa and discover how gorgeous can be a sumptuous side effect to living la bella vita.

Publishers Weekly

Giudice, famous for table flipping and gushing over her “juicy” husband, Joe, on Bravo's Real Housewives of New Jersey, offers a simple rundown of Italian standards like pesto and puttanesca sauces, veal piccata, steak pizzaiola, almond biscotti and the classic bellini in her authentic yet dishy look into food and family. Few recipes will surprise the seasoned Italian cook, though Giudice gets points for keeping dishes rather healthy while boosting flavor with fresh herbs, pungent garlic, and hot pepper. Coupled with family photos and sidebar comments about their friends and favorite dishes from Teresa and Joe, the book plays well to a younger, hipper home cook. With a focus on steering clear of reputation-ruining no-nos like jarred sauce and rinsing cooked pasta, Giudice dives into some deeper waters with coaching on making pizza dough and canning tomatoes. Though she tries a little too hard to make everything salacious, gorgeous, and fabulous, useful tips abound (the section on olive oil is titled “OO, VOO, EVOO, WTF?”). Take away the overblown catch phrases and effusive references to her mama, The Sopranos, and the motherland, and you're left with a solid mid-week Italian cookbook. Then again, perhaps it's the chatty Teresa and her feisty yet playful anecdotes that make this an irresistible, guilty pleasure. (May)

Contents

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS....................vii
1. SALUTE!....................2
2. THE CORNERSTONES OF ITALIAN CUISINE (OR THINGS NOT FOUND AT THE OLIVE GARDEN)....................12
3. BLESSED VIRGIN: OLIVE OIL....................22
Sexy Italian Salad Dressing....................41
4. ITALIAN SEASONINGS: WHAT'S WHAT AND WHO'S WHO....................42
T-Sizzle's Basil-Lemon Drizzle....................48
Sexy Swordfish with Capers And Lemon....................51
Gorgeous Garlic Shrimp....................54
Tempting Tomato and Oregano Chicken Soup....................57
Sin-Free Linguine with Parsley Sauce....................61
Rosemary Potatoes....................64
Pork Chops Alla Salvia....................66
Chicken Breasts with Lemony Thyme Marinade....................70
5. FRESCO E NATURALE....................72
Zucchini Spaghetti Salad....................84
Sautéed Zucchini "Spaghetti" with Pine Nuts....................86
Salsa Cruda....................87
6. AND GOD SAID, "LET THERE BE PASTA." AND THERE WAS: AND IT WAS GOOD....................88
Teresa's Favorite Tagliatelle....................106
Bucatini All'amatriciana....................109
Farfalle Con Piselli....................110
Pasta Cacio E Pepe....................112
Penne With Portobello Mushroom Sauce....................113
7. THE SECRET'S IN THE SAUCE....................114
Basic Tomato Sauce, aka "The Quickie"....................117
Milania's Marinara Sauce....................119
Gabriella's Bolognese Sauce....................120
Gia's Napoletano Sauce....................121
Danielle's Puttanesca Sauce....................123
Arrabbiata, The Angry Sauce....................125
Skinny Pasta Al Burro....................128
Audriana's Pesto....................131
8. PIZZA! PIZZA!....................134
Old World Pizza Dough....................141
Pizza Margherita....................144
Pizza Giudice....................147
Pizza With Anchovies And Garlic....................148
Pizza Napoletana....................151
Pizza Al Prosciutto....................152
Pizza With Italian Sausage....................153
9. SCRATCHING IT UP IN THE KITCHEN....................154
10. THE ART OF EATING....................164
Bellissimo Bellinis....................172
Lazy Bellinis....................174
Homemade Limoncello....................175
Dina's Virgin Mimosa....................176
Bruschetta Classica....................178
Bruschetta E Prosciutto....................180
Caponata Bruschetta....................181
Balsamic Garlic Bites....................182
Salerno Stuffed Mushrooms....................182
One-Pan Oven-Roasted Chicken Feast....................186
Papa's Steak Pizzaiola....................187
Voluptuous Veal Piccata....................189
Stuffed Flounder Florentine....................191
Mamma Antonia's Amazing Almond Cookies....................195
Lemonita Granita....................196
Beautiful Biscotti....................199
11. ITALIAN DRESSING AND DELICIOUS SHOES....................202
Fennel Salad....................214
Panzanella Salad....................214
Giardino Minestrone....................216
Pasta Umbria....................217
Skinny Snapper....................219
12. LOVE-LOVE-LOVE....................220
Spaghetti All'Ubriaco (Drunken Spaghetti)....................224
Sicilian Steak....................225
Luscious Linguine with Manila Clams....................228
Fresh Fruit with Beautiful Balsamic Glaze....................231
Fresh Strawberries and Sambuca....................232
Pizza Nutella....................232
NUTRITIONAL INFORMATION....................236
INDEX....................242