Fabulicious!

CHAPTER 1

If you bought my first, unbelievably successful New York Times best-selling cookbook, Skinny Italian, grazie, grazie, grazie from the bottom of my heart. If you didn’t, there are a few things you missed that are crucial to cooking my way (which, of course, is the right way). Since you’ll need them for this book, here are the Cliffs Notes, or Spark Notes, or whatever they call cheating in school by not reading the actual book these days . . . .

MY NAME IS . . . MY NAME IS . . .

Let’s get this out of the way right away. I know you’ve heard it pronounced “Jew-dice,” but the correct way to say my last name is like this (quickly, and with an Italian accent please): Judy Chay. Get it right. Tell your friends. (Thank you. Thank you very much!)

OLIVE OIL: THE ONLY OIL

In Skinny Italian, I dedicated an entire chapter to this healthy liquid gold (Chapter 3: Blessed Virgin Olive Oil). I told you to use it every single day. It’s a little more expensive than vegetable oil, yes, but what you’ll save in medical bills later will more than make up for it. I try to never, ever, ever use vegetable oil. Not even when I’m baking. And you’ll see in this entire book, there is not one recipe that calls for vegetable oil of any kind, including that crazy canola oil.

Of course, there are tons of different kinds of olive oil, and in my last book, I told you how to shop for it, store it, and serve it. Here’s the take-away: only use EXTRA-VIRGIN OLIVE OIL. Period. Nothing else matters. If you can, look for a bottle with olives picked and pressed in Italy, but the most important thing is the EXTRA-VIRGIN part.

SPICE GIRL

To be a great cook, you have to know a few basic things about how to cook with herbs. For the most part, use FRESH basil, garlic, parsley, rosemary, and thyme. Use DRIED oregano and sage. Most herbs can go into your cooking at any time, but you should add basil and parsley toward the end.

GARBAGE IN, GARBAGE OUT

It goes without saying that the better quality ingredients you use, the better your final dish will be. Fresh Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese cooks and tastes better than plain Parmesan, but it’s also harder to find and a bit more expensive. Get the best your budget can afford. If you want to substitute Parmesan, feel free. Your recipes will still rock, I promise. Just promise me you won’t buy anything powdered in a non-refrigerated can.

FINGER COOKIN’ GOOD

When I’m in the kitchen, I have my hands in everything. And I mean everything. Part of enjoying your food is touching it, caressing it, working it good with your hands. I do a lot of mixing with my hands. I knead with my hands. You can use fancy mixers and kitchen tools, but to me, the best cooking involves just you and the food. (You know I’m all about “cleansiness” so of course I always have clean hands when I cook.)

PLEASE SQUEEZE THE TOMATOES

One of the cornerstones of Italian cooking is a good red sauce. And you can’t get a good red sauce without breaking up the tomatoes because you need the smaller pieces to melt into the sauce. If you’re not using fresh, use whole canned tomatoes (imported Italian plum tomatoes are best). Hold the can over your pan, reach in carefully, and squish the tomatoes into chunks as they slide out through your fingers. You want the pieces to be the size of large stuffed olives. And go ahead and pour the juices from the can in there as well.

FABULICIOUS IS AS FABULICIOUS DOES

As so many of you have written me and attested—I already knew this because I have four kids and don’t work out—if you eat home-cooked, fresh, authentic Italian food, you can have your pasta and your skinny jeans, too. It’s a natural diet with lots of fresh veggies, fish, light sauces, and our friend, olive oil. But since this book is a family cookbook, and growing kids shouldn’t be on a calorie- or fat-restricted diet (and since I have a “no obsessing about your food” rule), I’m not including the complete nutritional information in this book. I try to cook as healthfully as possible, but not all of the recipes I’m giving you are meant for weight loss; some are once-in-awhile, let-loose celebration dishes.

But don’t worry, more than half of the recipes here are, in fact, “skinny.” I have marked them with this pretty icon: . And whenever I can, I give you substitutions to make a recipe “skinny,” so look for the sidebars, too!

And since so many of us are multi-tasking, working maniacs, in addition to giving you a whole chapter of quick-and-easy meals, I’ve also marked all “quick” recipes that can be on the table in 30 minutes or less with this icon: .

SAUCE-TACULAR

With a good base sauce, you can make a million variations. I gave you one—The Quickie Tomato Sauce—in Skinny Italian, and since it’s so yummy and used so many times in this book, I’m gonna give it to you again. I’m also giving you a new base sauce that’s a little hotter. The Quickie is a sweet sauce; Snappy Red Sauce is spicier. Feel free to interchange them in any of the recipes to match your mood. If you want to add more basil or oregano to either one, be my guest, but keep in mind that those flavorings are usually in the finished dish, too, so you could unintentionally reach herb overload.