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| Antipasto Platter
No longer need shoppers hunt down a salumeria or pork store in the Italian part of town to find meats for a good antipasto platter. Such once-exotic salamis and sausages are found in many good supermarket deli cases. Of course the best meats are still found behind the counter of true Italian butchers.
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| Antipasto Salad
Chicago likes big salads, especially big salads that have lots of ingredients not normally found in a typical bowl of rabbit-food greens. This one includes virtually all the meats and even cheese from an antipasto platter, plus greens. Make sure all the ingredients are diced very fine. Your goal should be to have nearly some of everything on every forkful.
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| Beef Carpaccio with Porcini Mushroom Relish
Beef carpaccio was first served in Venice at Harry’s Bar, which is also birthplace of the Bellini (white peach nectar and sparkling wine). This elegant recipe is from Harry Caray's in Chicago.
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| Calamari Fritto
Gaetano Carbone discovered fried calamari at Leon's restaurant in New Haven, Connecticut. In order to get the recipe for his own restaurant from Leon's chef, Guy swapped him his recipe for eggplant. It remains a huge favorite at Carbone's in Hartford.
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| Crab Cakes
The secret of great crab cakes is to use the most amount of crab and as little binder as you can get away with to hold the cake together. Of course, the quality of the crab meat crucial. Fresh-picked Chesapeake Bay crab or Dungeness crab is best.
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| Garlic Mozzarella Bread
Chef Sissy Hicks of Vermont's Dorset Inn described this extra-luxurious garlic bread as "everybody's favorite." It's a good side dish for all sorts of meals or, with soup and a salad, a wonderful lunch
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| Muffaletta
The name "muffaletta" once referred only to the bread, a chewy round loaf turned out by Italian bakeries. New Orleans grocery stores that sold the bread got the fine idea to slice it horizontally and stuff it, and the muffuletta sandwich was born. It has become a signature dish of The Big Easy, but, like the po boy, has become known nationwide. It depends on good bread and cold cuts, but the soul of a muffaletta is its olive salad. This is the recipe used at the wonderful All-Star Sandwich Bar in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
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| Potato and Onion Soup
Cooking potatoes in beef stock gives the starchy vegetable a savor that all carnivores will appreciate. A sprinkle of Parmesan on each serving adds just the right zip.
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| Roasted Garlic Soup
When roasted, even ferocious garlic develops a pussycat personality. With potatoes and cream, six whole bulbs here become the foundation of a mellow soup.
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| Tomato Basil Soup
Tomato and basil: from soup to sorbet (yes, sorbet!), these are the most-paired ingredients in the Italian kitchen. Onions and carrots add a deep vegetable sweetness.
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| Tostada Grande de Tucson
Also known as Mexican pizza or cheese crisp, the tostada grande is a staple of the Sonoran cooking so prevalent in Tucson. This recipe, from the venerable El Charro, is very basic and easy to eat without spillage; but it is common to add cebolitas (grilled green onions) on top. You might also consider salsa, grilled vegetables or shredded beef -- all of which make it pretty messy.
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| Tuscan Sausage and Bean Soup
The silk-smooth texture of cannelini sings excellent harmony with rugged sausage in this recipe from Chicago's Harry Caray's
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