With Fall in full swing in New York, warming meals come to mind, but I’m not quite ready for stews. I figured I could hold on to a shred of summer by combining pasta with a hearty sausage and eggplant sauce, you know, in order to make it filling and Fall friendly. When I traveled to Rome on my own in 2016, I took myself out to a lovely and memorable dinner at a small restaurant off of the Spanish Steps. Surprisingly, the spot was not touristy and the waiters spoke to me in Italian even though I, Tina Marie Theresa Corrado of Italian heritage do not speak Italian. I speak Spanish, una mala Italiana, as I often tell my friends in Mexico. From a young age, I’ve been a lover of eggplant.

dinnertina corradoOctober 18, 2024pasta, eggplant, sausage, hearty, family meals

14 Years Later, A Bolognese Recipe

I’ve been told by a good friend, and trustworthy cook, that my bolognese is the best that he has ever had. If you knew my 6’5” honest to a fault friend, you would know that these words are to be taken as a compliment of the highest order. He is tall, can fill a room with laughter or fear, is brutally candid and equally kind. There are many reasons to love him, including the fact that he almost always picks up the phone when I need his advice. When we were on the phone, some weeks ago, before I left NY, we were catching up. Shooting the breeze about colonoscopies and the weekend. He said “We had dinner at a friend’s house. It was nice. He made bolognese. But it was no Tinamarie bolognese. I’ve yet to eat a bolognese that was that good ever again.”

dinnertina corradoJuly 1, 2024bolognese, pasta, suace, fresh pasta, sunday meals

A Simple Summer Sauce (with notes on cooking + writing)

The last time I attempted to write was on May 3rd. On May 3rd I started to log all of my fire escape meals and then stopped, it was sudden. The onset likely spurred from an online dating burn, I can tend to get lost in my thoughts and in my mind. I’ll cook, create and eat - there’s always eating -

tina corradoJuly 31, 2020pasta, pastadiaries, sauce, tomatoes, summer, dinner, fresh, basil, easymeals, easyrecipes, cooking

The Pasta Diaries: Fettuccine with Mushroom Ragout

Dear Fettuccine with Mushroom Ragout, Every time I pick up my fork your long twirls make my heart skip a beat. Covered in thick heaps of mushrooms, flecked with various shades of brown, I can only imagine that if you were a woman - you’d be that long legged, wild, brunette

Lemony Egg Yolk Sauce

Are you home in the quarantine and hankering for pasta? Don’t want to socially distance from carbs? I don’t, and I’ve been watching a lot of old Nigella Bites episodes on YouTube - a suggestion from my friend Channon who introduced me to the domestic goddess many moons ago.

tina corradoApril 14, 2020lemon, pasta, fettuccine, simple, dinner, quickmeal, easymeals, easyrecipes, weeknight, vegetarian, pecorino, eggs, egg, eggyolk

An 8 Recipe Round-Up To Get You Through The Quarantine

My Dear Friends and Family - As we all sit in a giant bottomless bowl of uncertainty soup, I want to remind you that we can also access our joy at any point in the day. It’s a choice. I know we’re living in unprecedented times and it’s scary. I’m trying to find the gift of time with myself, without being afraid of myself and without thinking into the future.

tina corradoMarch 24, 2020quarantine, recipes, freezer, food, meatballs, sau, pasta, soup, beans, lentils, potatoes, breakfast, lunch, dinner, snack, hummus, dip, dips, eggs, frittata, vegetables

Pasta Patate, A Tale of Double Dinners

Double Dinner: the instance in which one eats two dinners; often times lying about having just eaten at a friends house - so another dinner can be eaten before bedtime. And, so, I spent the majority of my childhood eating double dinners as I bounced from friend’s houses to home during most weeknights.

tina corradoDecember 8, 2019pasta, potatoes, carbohydrates, carbs, sunday, dinner, vegetables, vegetarian, macaroni, cheese, provolone, pecorino, tomatoes, italy, italian, Naples, tradition

Ooey Gooey Butternut Squash Baked Ziti

Butternut squash baked ziti is a gooey, cheesy, baked faux-pasta bomb that will leave you wanting more every time. A true transformation of comfort food, you won’t miss a beat or the pasta when you immerse your entire being in the process of making and eating this spin on an old classic. And listen, I love pasta as much as the next human, and carbs are my friend,

The Best $2.49 I'll Likely Spend This Week

As a woman who loves a bargain, I’ve translated the process I have with clothes - often times bragging to my friends that my whole outfit was purchased for $27.76 on a high fashion Old Navy day - into grocery shopping. The thrill of turning the pages of a circular and glancing at signs that read FRESH LONG ISLAND CAULIFLOWER $2.49

tina corradoOctober 27, 2019cauliflower, recipe, recipes, healthyfood, roasting, cooking, greens, dinner, lunch, dip, spread, pasta, vegetarian, vegan, veggies, vegetables

Pasta Con Verdure

Growing up my grandmother, Aunt Jo and my own mother made a very special sauce. This sauce I write of was not just any sauce, you know, it was a cascade of vegetables perfectly cooked - never mushy - made with expert sauteing and an abundance of care. The classic family recipe has asparagus, mushrooms, tomato and zucchini and it is required that each vegetable is

Pasta with Peas

Lately, I feel like it’s a miracle I’m even cooking. My spirits have been struggling, my energy low, although I’m working to wear smiles on the outside. After a day of substitute teaching, I sometimes want to close my eyes and nap, but most days I confront the light, my kitchen and make peace with myself.

Butternut Squash Sauce

My grandmother used to make a sauce from Birds Eye frozen winter squash. Bright orange, garlicky, cheesy in flavor, silken in texture - I can still picture the way the thick sauce coated broken pieces of pasta in the bottomless bowls she served on a weeknight. The summer I went to live on the farm in Connecticut, I spent half the time recreating her lentils and the other half perfecting this sauce.

Tina To Table