Food Network's Michael Chiarello Says Authentic Italian Dining At Home Is Easy

Food Network Host Michael Chiarello stopped by to talk about teaming up with Marie Callender's to prove just how simple it can be to create a full, authentic Italian dining experience at home.

APPETIZER
Family-style antipasti on oversized rustic platters add to the flavor of the experience around your table and are a great and easy appetizer to start a meal. For classic and simple antipasti platters, start with a variety of easy-to-find cured meats, Italian cheeses, marinated vegetables & olives, and tomato steaks.

Serve your bread hot and crispy from the oven, topped with olive oil, sea salt, and a mixture of ground Parmesan cheese and dried herbs. Your guests will be munching away as you prepare the next course.

SALAD
One of the tricks of the chef trade is to cook for all the senses. For an easy-to-prepare salad, I put together sweet orange slices with salty cheese, and warm olives with a cool salad. The olives can be sautéed hours in advance and the vinaigrette can be made up to 2 weeks in advance. That leaves only two quick tasks to the last minute - cutting the oranges and tossing them with the spinach.

PASTA
The best pasta dishes match the shape of the pasta to the texture of the sauce. A smooth sauce is great with long, thin noodles and chunkier sauces, like the roasted garlic sauce in Penne Garlic Chicken, are perfect with a hollow noodle, like penne, rigatoni or ziti.

If you're really in a hurry to get a good meal on the table, choose a high-quality, finished pasta meal like Marie Callender's Pasta al Dente. Pair it with a fresh summer salad that you make from bountiful garden produce, for a complete meal in less than 10 minutes.)

DESSERT
The “bi” in biscotti refers to baking the cookies twice. Like a lot of people these days, I barely have time to cook something once, let alone twice, so I developed this approach. It makes soft, warm cookies, not to mention a story that begs to be told and retold.

To cut down your prep time, prepare the dough ahead of time and then wrap it in plastic wrap and place it in the freezer. Then just slice and bake the cookies as you need them. Bake the cookies for 20 - 25 minutes - ONLY ONCE! - and while your guests are digging into their meal by the end of it, you will have warm biscotti ready to serve and it only took you a few minutes to prepare.

WINE
Chill and serve white wine to 58-62 degrees F. Just take the bottle out of the refrigerator 20-30 minutes before serving and you'll be set. A $10 bottle of wine served at the correct temperature tastes twice as good as a $50 bottle served too warm or even too cold.

For more on Marie Callender's Pasta al Dente and Chiarello's entertaining tips, visit www.madewithloveandcare.com. For more on Chiarello, visit www.michaelchiarello.com.