Pasta

  2 hours. Serves 6 2 cups chicken broth 2 cups water 2 cloves garlic, sliced 1 1/2 to 2 ounces rinds from Parmigiano-Reggiano Herb trimmings Salt 2 dozen asparagus tips 1/2 pound sugar snap peas Goat cheese ravioli or fresh pasta squares 2 tablespoons chopped chives 1 ounce freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano 1. In a soup pot, simmer the chicken broth, water, garlic, Parmesan rinds and herb...

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"Mamma says don't punch it," Carlo Montioni says, translating for his mother in heavily accented English. "You're always too heavy-handed!" my own mother says, piling on. "Let me show you," my daughter Sofia says, sighing and shoving me aside. PHOTOS: Cooking lessons in Italy I am in the middle of a cooking lesson in our rented Umbrian villa, and "Mamma," or Caterina Felici, is trying to save my forsaken kitchen soul. We are making pasta. Apparently, one must not pound on pasta dough because that makes it chewy.

  2 hours. Serves 6 2 cups chicken broth 2 cups water 2 cloves garlic, sliced 1 1/2 to 2 ounces rinds from Parmigiano-Reggiano Herb trimmings Salt 2 dozen asparagus tips 1/2 pound sugar snap peas Goat cheese ravioli or fresh pasta squares 2 tablespoons chopped chives 1 ounce freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano 1. In a soup pot, simmer the chicken broth, water, garlic, Parmesan rinds and herb...

In Venice, Italy, friends who've met in the street will go off to drink un ombra , slang for a small glass of wine. That's the name of a new Italian restaurant that opened quietly a few months ago in Studio City. Chef-owner Michael J. Young is crazy enough about wine that he's taken courses at UCLA to learn more about it. He also picked up a lot about Italian wine working as sous chef under Angelo Auriana at Valentino way back when and with Celestino Drago at Drago Santa Monica.

The oldest European word for noodle is itrion . In ancient Greece, itrion was a kind of tortilla flavored with sesame and honey, but some time before the 5th century, it evidently occurred to somebody that instead of frying your itrion in expensive sesame oil, you could boil it in plain water. This early sort of noodle was not eaten with sauce, like Italian pasta. Basically it was an extender for soups and bean dishes, though sometimes it was sweetened to make a cheap dessert.

Whenever Italian friends come to stay, I've noticed they can go at most three, maybe four days before they can't stand it anymore: They have to have some pasta. If that means cooking it at a campground or beside the road, so be it. This is comfort food at its most basic. And if there's nothing much in the cupboard, well then that's why aglio olio (garlic and olive oil) was invented. Or for that matter cacio e pepe (Pecorino Romano and lots of black pepper). Here are three places to get that pasta fix. Gusto Chef/owner Vic Casanova grew up in an Italian American neighborhood in the Bronx, cooked his way around New York and then headed west, where he launched the contemporary Italian restaurant Culina at the Four Seasons.

Total time: 1 1/2 hours Servings: 6 to 8 Note: Canned piquillo peppers can be found at Spanish markets or specialty stores. 2 pounds fresh spinach, tough stems removed 1 pound hot Italian sausage Salt 1 pound penne, shells or other hollow pasta 1/4 cup ( 1/2 stick) butter, plus more for pan 2 cloves garlic, minced Freshly grated nutmeg, to taste 1 cup chicken stock 2 cups heavy whipping cream 1/3 cup diced piquillo peppers (about 6)

Your shared observations and my resultant laughter over your editorial (April 27), "Food for the Gods," deserves warm thanks. Mixing pasta, cats and love must have stirred a tremendous response, probably mostly in disagreement over your comment that cats are too dumb to appreciate pasta, preferring "foul-smelling cat food" instead. Our Abby, a little chubby, puts aside his characteristic musical meow and usual menu of "people-food aroma" diet, for a bellowing banter until he, too, shares in his human friend's pasta passion.

In November, a front-page story in the Wall Street Journal announced it had gained cachet. Last month, Cook's magazine called it "The Pasta of the '90s." This isn't some boutique farmer's neat new invention. This is rice--you've heard of it. Most of the world has been hip to it for some time. In China, the Rice Measure symbolizes justice, mercy and virtue. In Hong Kong, social workers ferret out welfare cheats by snooping in applicants' rice bins to check the quality of rice stocked.

When I was just getting started cooking, fresh pasta was my thing. I mean, really my thing. To an extent I now regard as utterly ridiculous (finally agreeing with what my wife was saying 30 years ago). I'd make fresh pasta almost every night for dinner and had actually gotten the process down to the point that I could turn out fettuccine from scratch in 30 minutes. Blitz some flour and a couple eggs in the food processor to make a dough (standard 3/4 cup flour for every egg, per my bible at the time “ The Romagnoli's Table ”)

Cloudy day, just a little damp. Of course, I had to make pasta fagioli for lunch. This time, I opted not to puree the beans, so I had a wonderful broth studded with pancetta, fat brown beans, and bits of carrot, celery and tomato. For the pasta, I used some Rustichella d'Abruzzo dried fettucine I had in the pantry, broken into short lengths. Garnished with freshly ground black pepper, a swirl of Tuscan olive oil and a sparse grating of Parmigiano, a bowl of pasta fagioli makes a wonderful lunch with a glass of Barbera.

I was 45 minutes late to our first date at Osteria Mozza when the Cute Gardener took one look at me over the rim of his glasses, pushed a menu toward me and asked if I would mind if we just ordered a bunch of plates to share. Flustered from my driving experience -- it took me nearly two hours to get from Venice Beach to Melrose Avenue on the windiest night of the year -- I sputtered: "Yes, you can have bites of all my stuff. " "I can have bites of your stuff?" he asked, in a deep and sexy voice that I have come to love.

If you'd like to try our cooking class at your own home, here's an outline of how to go about it. Of course, feel free to improvise. Roast Chicken: Remove the chicken from the refrigerator at least 30 minutes before roasting. Rinse it well and pat it thoroughly dry. Sprinkle with salt (about 1 tablespoon for every 5 pounds of weight), and rub it with softened butter (about 1 tablespoon). Season generously with freshly ground black pepper. Place the chicken in a roasting pan or cast-iron skillet and scatter wedges of fennel and onion around it. Roast in a 400-degree oven.

Meghan and Carter are getting married. Like so many friends of my daughter, they are bright, funny and, sometimes, almost preternaturally serious. A couple of weeks ago, they asked my wife if we would talk to them about how to stay married - and about how to cook. The first, I'll leave to Kathy; after almost 34 years, it's still a mystery to me. But the cooking part is right up my alley, and, even better, I figured it would give me a chance to try out some of the ideas I've been on a soapbox about for the last couple of years.

Chef Mark McDonald of Old Vine Cafe in Costa Mesa will be leading his third annual culinary tour of southern Italy in March. McDonald will be teaming up with Italian Culinary Institute master chef John Nocita for a 10-day tour of Calabria and Sicily, exploring the southern region's history, culture and cuisine. From March 14 to 23, the “ Splendors of South Italy ” trip will visit sustainable farms and winemakers throughout the region and include hands-on cooking classes such as a pasta course showing participants how to prepare more than 50 different types of pasta.

Perhaps because they felt themselves to be on the outskirts of civilization, medieval Turkish nomads were thrilled to learn that Alexander the Great had done some conquering in Central Asia. Although Alexander never actually reached the steppes where the medieval Turks roamed, they started telling legends about him.

Over on Third Street, the people who run Zucchero have solved the problem of distinguishing their restaurant from all the other Italian places by emphasizing a regional cuisine that has yet to really be discovered here: Sardinian food. The name (it means "sugar") and the blaring orange exterior would lead you to believe that Zucchero is yet another loud pizza and pasta cafe.

Bruno Serato strolls down the middle of a narrow street, his signature white chef's coat illuminated by the headlights of a cargo van. A light rain falls as he yells into the boxy homes that line the road at the Golden Skies Mobile Home Park in Anaheim. He stops each passing person - a man driving home from work, a woman pushing a child in a stroller. "Turkey," he calls out, the Italian in his voice still thick. "Turkey!" The van is loaded with 12- and 13-pound turkeys, and the 56-year-old owner of the Anaheim White House restaurant is on another mission to help Orange County's neediest.

The oldest European word for noodle is itrion . In ancient Greece, itrion was a kind of tortilla flavored with sesame and honey, but some time before the 5th century, it evidently occurred to somebody that instead of frying your itrion in expensive sesame oil, you could boil it in plain water. This early sort of noodle was not eaten with sauce, like Italian pasta. Basically it was an extender for soups and bean dishes, though sometimes it was sweetened to make a cheap dessert.