Tomato

Pappa al Pomodoro is Tuscan stale bread soup. It is a favorite of my mom, Elsa. When we are both tired this is a good go-to recipe: pappa for my mama. Use a vegetable peeler to curl off nice big shavings of Parmigiano-Reggiano to float on top of the soup.

Anchovies work magic here. Once they melt they will not taste fishy; they’ll taste more like salted nuts, really. Plus, anchovies in any seafood sauce I serve are the secret ingredient that makes the eaters go “Hmm, what is that?” (Don’t tell anyone my secret, k?)

This one is a B, L, D: good for breakfast, lunch, or dinner. It’s easy to adjust to make a single serving; I often opt for eggs if I am cooking for just myself. Migas in soft tortillas is a favorite dish in Austin, Texas, and now it’s a favorite of mine. When I am home alone I put Bob Schneider, my favorite Austin musician, on my stereo and invite him to sit down to share my migas. I end up eating his, since my imaginary boyfriends eat light!

Recently I went with some close girlfriends to Nova Scotia. There’s a lot more than lox going on up there! At the Normaway Inn on Cape Breton Island our favorite meal was brunch; this is my version of their Eggs Benedict. It’s good for B, L, or D—breakfast, lunch, or dinner!

Ceci are chickpeas. This is a classic, simple Italian dinner. Thousands of tired Romans will be eating it tonight; how about we join them? Greens dressed with vinegar and oil would make a good side dish.

Take a pizza Margerita, make it on a tortilla, then fold it like a quesadilla and you get a pizza-dilla!

I make this dinner every Christmas. I have included it in other books, but I cannot finish any year without it. I have made some small improvements in the recipe over the years, so it’s faster and easier to make than ever. You can eat it all year long as do I. For Italians, after all those fishes on Christmas Eve, this dish, with four different meats in it, is especially nice on Christmas night. This is the greatest gift I can give to myself and those I love: a big bowl of pasta with the works. Have a great year! Serve with tomato, basil, and mozzarella salad (the colors of the season and the Italian flag).

This one is good for B, L, D: brunches, lunches, or dinners.

Caponata is an eggplant dish normally served as a relish or appetizer, but I am so fond of it that I keep reinventing ways to add it to each cookbook I write. I’ve topped polenta with it, tossed it with pasta, packed it into sub sandwiches, and now, here we go again . . .

Serve with steamed broccoli or asparagus.

This is a B, L, or D: Breakfast, Lunch, or Dinner recipe.

Another B, L, or D meal: good for Breakfast, Lunch, or Dinner.