Nothing specifically 'Italian' about this except that I got it out of Marcella Hazan's "Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking"--it's a delicious roast chicken with lemons, nearly foolproof. If you can find a free range bird for this, do so; but even with ordinary supermarket poultry it's very good. Roast Chicken with Lemons from Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking by Marcella Hazan Knopf, 1995 If this were a still life its title could be "Chicken with Two Lemons." That is all that there is in it. No fat to cook with, no basting to do, no stuffing to prepare, no condiments except for salt and pepper. After you put the chicken in the oven you turn it just once. The bird, its two lemons, and the oven do all the rest. Again and again, through the years, I met people who come up to me to say, "I have made your chicken with two lemons and it is the most amazingly simple recipe, the juiciest, best-tasting chicken I have ever had." And you know, it is perfectly true. For 4 servings Ingredients # A 3- to 4-pound chicken # Salt # Black pepper, ground fresh from the mill # 2 rather small lemons Directions 1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. 2. Wash the chicken thoroughly in cold water, both inside and out. Remove all the bits of fat hanging loose. Let the bird sit for about 10 minutes on a slightly tilted plate to let all the water drain out of it. Pat it thoroughly dry all over with cloth or paper towels. 3. Sprinkle a generous amount of salt and black pepper on the chicken, rubbing it with your fingers over all its body and into its cavity. 4. Wash the lemons in cold water and dry them with a towel. Soften each lemon by placing it on a counter and rolling it back and forth as you put firm downward pressure on it with the palm of your hand. Puncture the lemons in at least 20 places each, using a sturdy round toothpick, a trussing needle, a sharp-pointed fork, or similar implement. 5. Place both lemons in the birds cavity. Close up the opening with toothpicks or with trussing needle and string. Close it well, but dont make an absolutely airtight job of it because the chicken may burst. Run kitchen string from one leg to the other, tying it at both knuckle ends. Leave the legs in their natural position without pulling them tight. If the skin is unbroken, the chicken will puff up as it cooks, and the string serves only to keep the thighs from spreading apart and splitting the skin. 6. Put the chicken into a roasting pan, breast facing down. Do not add cooking fat of any kind. This bird is self-basting, so you need not fear it will stick to the pan. Place it in the upper third of the preheated oven. After 30 minutes, turn the chicken over to have the breast face up. When turning it, try not to puncture the skin. If kept intact, the chicken will swell like a balloon, which makes for an arresting presentation at the table later. Do not worry too much about it, however, because even if it fails to swell, the flavor will not be affected. 7. Cook for another 30 to 35 minutes, then turn the oven thermostat up to 400 degrees, and cook for an additional 20 minutes. Calculate between 20 and 25 minutes total cooking time for each pound. There is no need to turn the chicken again. 8. Whether your bird has puffed up or not, bring it to the table whole and leave the lemons inside until it is carved and opened. The juices that run out are perfectly delicious. Be sure to spoon them over the chicken slices. The lemons will have shriveled up, but they still contain some juice; do not squeeze them, they may squirt. Ahead-of-time note: If you want to eat it while it is warm, plan to have it the moment it comes out of the oven. If there are leftovers, they will be very tasty cold, kept moist with some of the cooking juices and eaten not straight out of the refrigerator, but at room temperature.

Pretty common around here. But it's one of those things you don't use a recipe for. You just combine some cooked ziti, sauce, meat (cooked ground beef or Italian sausage) if you want, some riccotta cheese, parm, and a few handfuls of mozzarella. Top with more mozzarella and bake until heated through. It's sort of a sub for lasagna, I guess. And one of those things people always show up with when there's a death in the family (it's SO comforting and so easy to have a big pan of something like that in the fridge when you don't feel like either cooking or eating.)

More good stuff. Thank you everyone. Blizlady, Not sure what the origins of this salad is but my beloved Mom made it for as far back as I can remember; I think my my Grandmother made it too. This is a very basic recipe that highlights the freshness of the ingredients. You may be disappointed to learn that it doesn't call for mayo, but I urge you to give it a try. The flavors are fresh and bright. It is not Christmas Eve without it and everyone looks forward to it. The measurements are only a guess, it really is done to taste. Mom's Shrimp Salad 3-4 lbs jumbo boiled shrimp*, cut into 4 pieces crosswise. 4-5 stalks celery, sliced about 1/4" thick (on a slight bias). Cut the wider part of the stalk into two pieces lengthwise before slicing. 2-3 garlic cloves, minced (I used a garlic press) Juice of 1 - 1 1/2 lemons Good quality extra virgin olive oil Kosher salt Toss shrimp, celery, garlic together. Add lemon juice and drizzle a few tablespoons olive oil. Lightly salt,toss. Serve chilled or room temp. *I buy the 4lb bags of shrimo at Costco, the ones that are by the fresh fish and sometimes sold at the kiosk. They are already deveined and cleaned; one only has to defrost (I defrost them in cool water) and remove the shells. To a pot of water I add lemon slices, pepper corns, bayleaf, and any other herb or spice I feel like including (coriander is good too). Once at a boil, I add some salt. Add shrimp and wait until pot returns to a boil. Check for doneness every so often. Once done, drain in colander and rinse with cold water. To trim shrimp, remove the 'beard' (its the overcooked flap of overcooked shrimp where the head was), and pull off the strips that looked ragged along each side of the slit. The cats are treated to these scraps. Sue

I read a treatise from (I think) J. Kenji López-Alt on purging the water from eggplant. He suggests this: I placed a layer of eggplant slices sandwiched between paper towels on a large plate, placing a second large plate on top. By stacking another layer of eggplants and a third plate on top of that, I was able to fit a full eggplant's worth of slices in the microwave at the same time. I zapped them for 3 minutes and checked the results. Even better than in the oven. A microwave works by causing water molecules to rapidly flip back and forth. The resultant friction cooks your food. Microwaves can penetrate deeply into solid matter much faster than heat can (which is why microwaved foods cook so much faster), but in general, the denser and thicker the food, the less penetration a microwave will get. Dense, relatively dry items, take a long time to heat up. On the other hand, porous and moist slices of eggplant are microwave gold, cooking evenly and rapidly. In under ten minutes, I had all three eggplants I needed to fill my casserole dish fully purged, pressed, and ready-to-bread. PRESSING: It's an pretty simple operation: I just take a clean kitchen towel or paper towel (to protect my hand from hot water vapor), and press down directly on each eggplant slice until it's completely flat. The result is a meaty, tender, and fully intact slice.