For her second
cookbook,
Pasta, pizza and panini aren't exactly diet food,
even in the post-Atkins era. But the Rome-born and Cordon Bleu-trained De Laurentiis, who cheerfully slurps and tastes her way
through them all on her TV show Everyday Italian, says she thinks we
should all get back in the kitchen and start cooking realistic portions of real
food.
"Italian
culture, just like French culture: We eat everything. The French eat a ton of
cheese. Do they get fat? Italians eat pasta. Do they get fat? No. It's about
portion control. Moderation.
"The No. 1
question when I go on tour: 'How do you stay so thin?' I love to eat. What you
see me tasting is pretty much all I've eaten. At that point, I might have two
more bites after the camera goes off. I am not eating a tonne
of it. I savour every bite."
In person on her first Canadian book tour, De Laurentiis,
35, is slight and slender -- with a Hollywood-style head that's slightly out of
proportion to her body, but in that oh-so-photogenic way.
Sitting curled up
in a chair in a Toronto Four Seasons suite, she admits that genetics has been
kind to her, but that the message she's hoping to spread, through her
Pancetta-wrapped Pork Roast or her Linguine with Chicken Ragu is not a fad.
"This is the
lifestyle I lead. The only thing I have to be careful about is sugar. I adore
desserts. I watch that. If I overeat it one day, I'll under-eat it the next. That
is how it works. It's not revolutionary."
The cookbook is
divided into chapters reflecting the style of dining she recommends for each
recipe selection, such as Everyday Family Entrees and Family-Style Get-Togethers. Clearly, the dining companions are as important
as the chicken carbonara.
"We need to
spend more time with the people we love. In
The trajectory of
De Laurentiis's career reflects those priorities. A
former caterer who had worked at restaurants including Wolfgang Puck's Spago, she got into the media business through food
styling.
Food and Wine
magazine asked her to do a story on eating with her family to coincide with her
grandfather, movie producer Dino De Laurentiis,
getting his lifetime achievement award at the Oscars.
The Food Network
saw the piece in the magazine and asked De Laurentiis
to do an easy, simple Italian cooking show.
"I said
well, you have Mario [Batali], why do you need
me?"
The network
wanted someone a little less gourmet, a little more practical to showcase what
is the "No. 1 ethnic food in our country," De Laurentiis
says.
"So we came
up with this idea: Shoot in
Launched in 2003,
Everyday Italian has been such a success, its
accessible host now has a second show called Behind the Bash, which
explores the party catering biz.
De Laurentiis says her Italian readers and fans begged for one
thing in particular when she was out promoting her first book, also called Everyday
Italian: more traditional recipes. The new book's Family Feasts, which
includes classics such as Easter Pie and Easter Lamb, is the result. She says
many North Americans of Italian descent share a love of old-school dishes, but
that a new generation need recipes.
"Their
mothers or aunts or grandmothers had passed away and they hadn't written
anything down. They're longing for that tradition and identity. Italians
identify ourselves with our country and our food. No
matter where you live in the world, if you're Italian, you're tied to
that."
She does update
classics -- she adds a dash of Dijon and a cup of mascarpone cheese to Chicken Marsala, and has a butternut squash lasagna for her newly
veggie mother.
Staying on the
practical side of things, though, means none of the recipes in what is
predominantly an entertaining guide, require spending
three days in the kitchen.
"I buy
store-bought crusts, rather than make everything from scratch. I do believe in
store-bought pizza doughs, canned beans, chicken stock. If you don't have time to make your own marinara,
by all means buy your favourite jar to stock your
pantry. Just make sure the first ingredient is not sugar, it's
tomatoes.
"I tell
people it's okay to cook that way."