Launch price $19 this week
300fixes for when
it goes wrong
The cookbook from Angelo's kitchen

Your grandmother's cooking was never hard. She just never wrote it down.

100 Italian-American recipes from thirty years at my mother's stove in Bensonhurst. Sunday gravy, cutlets, lasagna, Friday fish. Each one comes with the one old trick that makes it work, so it comes out right the first time.

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What the jar doesn't tell you

They made Italian cooking look complicated, so you'd keep buying it.

The jar

Tomatoes, salt, a little oil and a lot of sugar, cooked flat and sold back to you for five times what a can of whole peeled costs.

The tray

A tray of chicken parm from the place on the avenue is a few chicken breasts, a pot of sauce and somebody else's hour.

The myth

That you need a fryer, a pasta machine or a grandmother from the old country standing behind you. You need a few old tricks.

If your eggplant came out greasy or your cutlets went soft on the plate, that was never your fault. Nobody showed you the old way.

A letter from Angelo

My mother never wrote a word of it down. So I did.

I was eight when my family came to Brooklyn from a little village in the hills outside Avellino. My mother Filomena opened a small place in Bensonhurst, and I started at nine, peeling garlic on a milk crate by the back door.

Thirty years later I am still at that stove. And in thirty years I never once saw her measure anything. How much salt the water takes, when the gravy has cooked long enough, which bread is stale enough for meatballs. It lived in her hands, and nowhere else.

I am not a chef, and I never pretend to be one. What I learned is simpler: the old way is almost always the easier way. She did less than you think, and she did it in the right order.

So I wrote it all down. Her dishes, the ones from my videos, and every small trick that makes them work. Learn the tricks, and the recipes become yours.

Angelo
Angelo Ferrara in his white cook's jacket, leaning on the counter of his Brooklyn kitchen
Brooklyn, in the kitchen
One trick in every recipe

What they told you, and what my mother did.

Six of the 100 tricks inside, one in every recipe.

Fry the eggplant in half a bottle of oil

Salt the slices and press them under a plate and a can of tomatoes for an hour. Then two spoonfuls of oil, brushed on.

Eggplant, the old way
Pour the sauce over the pasta

Pull the pasta a minute early and finish it in the pan with the sauce and a mug of its cloudy water.

Spaghetti al pomodoro
Boil the lasagna noodles first

Soak regular dry noodles in the hottest water from the tap for 25 minutes. Rest the pan 30 minutes before you cut.

Christmas lasagna
Drain cutlets on paper towels

Bread them, rest them on a rack in the fridge for 20 minutes, and drain them on that same rack.

Chicken cutlets
Fry the meatballs before the sauce

Stale bread soaked in milk, and the meatballs go in raw, straight into the simmering gravy for an hour.

Sunday meatballs
A spoon of sugar for sour sauce

Cook it longer. If it still bites, a pinch of baking soda, an eighth of a teaspoon, and stir.

Sunday gravy
Made for the kitchen counter

Open to any page and you can cook.

Every recipe is two pages: the finished dish first, then the whole recipe on one page. No flipping back and forth with floury hands.

1

The finished dish, first

You see exactly what you're making before you start.

2

Filomena's pantry, pictured

The twelve things always in her cupboard, what to buy and what to skip.

3

Short, numbered steps

With the cues to watch for: the sizzle, the color, the smell of the garlic.

4

Angelo's trick

The one thing my mother did that makes the dish, and why it works.

5

If it goes wrong

What you're seeing, why it happened, and how to save dinner.

6

Monday's lunch

What the leftovers become. Nothing wasted, the way we were raised.

100recipes in 10 chapters
300pages
10stories from my mother's kitchen
300"if it goes wrong" fixes
What you'll cook

From Tuesday pasta to the Sunday table.

Total value$150
You pay today$19
Get every recipe
Look inside

This is what a recipe looks like.

The eggplant from the video everybody asked about, written out in full.

Baked eggplant layered with tomato sauce and mozzarella

Eggplant, the old way

Salted, pressed, brushed, never fried. Serves 4 · 1 hour pressing · 25 minutes in the oven

You need

2 young eggplants, heavy for their size1 tbsp coarse salt 3 tbsp olive oil1 can (28 oz / 800 g) whole peeled tomatoes, for the weight ½ lemonBasil, a few leaves

Do this

  1. Slice into rounds as thick as your finger, about ½ in / 1.5 cm. Leave the skin on.
  2. Salt both sides, layer in a colander, and put a plate on top with the can of tomatoes on the plate. One hour.
  3. Oven to 425°F / 220°C with the empty tray inside. Wipe every slice dry with a towel.
  4. Brush the oil on the eggplant, not the tray. One layer on the hot tray, no slice touching.
  5. 20 to 25 minutes, turning once, until deep gold. Lemon and salt only at the end.

Angelo's trick

The weight. Eggplant is a honeycomb full of air, and the air is what drinks the oil. Press the air out and a sponge stops being a sponge.

If it goes wrong

Pale and soft? The slices were crowded and steamed. Use two trays next time, and never cover them.

p. 30

Sample layout. Every recipe in the book follows this two-page format.

From the comments

What viewers say about Angelo's videos.

Real comments from the YouTube channel, quoted word for word. They're about the videos; the book is brand new.

ABSOLUTELY BRILLIANT THANK YOU. JUST LIKE MY MA MADE. GRAZIE MILLIONI

@fiorenzaattanasio4796 · eggplant video

I'll listen to your tutorials any time. Thank you, from a very frustrated egg plant cook.

@k.dickey2772 · eggplant video

Hello from Salerno. Know Avellino well. We do exactly the same thing.

@JofromItaly · eggplant video

I watched the whole thing and loved everything you said and did. Thank you so much and God bless your Mama

@kikialexandratou1724 · eggplant video

Now I know how to choose one, to cut them evenly, to salt and weigh them, to wait and dry them…

@sergefrechette8995 · eggplant video

Great advice! … You opened the secret why eggplants so “greedy” … Thank you very much!

@naramcneal1949 · eggplant video
Angelo
"I always salted & pressed eggplant (for the bitterness)… I didn't know exactly why I still did it - but now I do."@patriciacortese4917 · eggplant video

That is the whole book, Patricia. Every trick, and the reason it works, so you never have to wonder again.

This book is for you if…

  • You've paid for a tray of chicken parm and thought, "I could make this."
  • Your sauce still tastes like the jar.
  • You remember your grandmother's cooking and never got the recipes.
  • You want real dinners that are cheap and on the table in 30 minutes.
  • You cook for people you love and want them asking for seconds.

Skip it if…

  • You want tweezers and restaurant plating.
  • You think Sunday gravy should come from a can.
  • You never plan to turn on the stove.
Regular price $34
$19
less than one tray from the pizzeria
Get the book now Instant download · lifetime updates
Nobody Measured

Everything you need to cook it tonight.

  • The 300-page ebook, instant PDF download
  • 100 recipes in 10 chapters, each with Angelo's trick
  • 100 full-page photos, one for every dish
  • 300 fixes for when something goes wrong, indexed, plus a what's-in-the-fridge index
  • Filomena's pantry: the 12 things always in the cupboard
  • Cups and grams, °F and °C, on every recipe
  • Lifetime access to every future update, free
7DAYS

Cook from it for 7 days. If it doesn't change how you cook, write to us and you get every cent back. No questions.

Questions

Before you cook.

Anything else, ask me in the comments under any video. I read every one.

What exactly do I get?

A 300-page PDF cookbook with 100 recipes, Filomena's pantry, Sunday menus, and an index of every "if it goes wrong" fix. You download it right after you pay, and you get every future update for free.

Is this a printed book?

No. It's a digital PDF you can read on your phone, tablet or computer, or print the pages you want to keep by the stove.

I'm not a confident cook. Is this for me?

That's who I wrote it for. Every step tells you what to look for and smell for, and every recipe has a section for when something goes wrong.

Can I find the ingredients?

Yes. Everything is in a normal supermarket. Where an Italian deli makes a difference, I tell you, and I tell you what to buy if you don't have one.

Are the recipes from the videos in here?

Every one of them, written out in full, in steps, with the numbers. The first chapter is nothing but the video recipes.

Cups or grams?

Both, on every recipe, with °F and °C.

What about food safety?

Every meat and fish recipe gives the safe internal temperature, and the leftover notes tell you how long things keep in the fridge.

What if I don't like it?

Write to us within 7 days and you get a full refund. No questions.

Sunday dinner could be the one they talk about.

My mother never wrote it down. I did. All you have to do is cook.

Get the book · $34 $19

Instant download · lifetime access · 7-day money-back guarantee