I love to cook. That is probably why my waistline is not what it used to be. It' is now somewhere north of XXX pounds. Hmmm.... I seem to be having trouble writing that. No matter.

My favorite recipes are Italian. I love Italian food. I also love to write recipes that I personally have tried, made up, experimented with and generally think are the best damn easy Italian recipes ever. I have chosen HubPages as the venue for my recipes. They have an extremely helpful set of people running the site, and it looks good. So, I have compiled a brief introduction and a collection of my favorites here. Click on a photo or a link to see the entire recipe. Try them out. If you like them as much as I do, I will be happy. If you don't - I offer a full refund.

While you are over there, take a look at HubPages. It's kinda like WordPress, but with the opportunity to make some advertising money. Never a bad thing. These are in no particular order, I could never pick one recipe over another; they're all great in their own way.

Home made Pizza Napoletana

Best Lasagne recipe

Spaghetti Bolognese

Ossobucu recipe

Tomato, Basil and Mozzarella salad

Risotto alla Milanese

Home made Pizza with Mozzarella, olives and anchovies (Pizza Romana)

Baked meat and Macaroni pie

Macaroni and cheese

Best spaghetti a la carbonara recipe

Sure, you can buy a ready made Pizza, they are cheap and easy and…….well, they are cheap and easy. If you have ever eaten a home made Pizza, you know what I’m talking about. I have had many Pizza, home made, store bought, frozen, from restaurants, and the best Pizzas are the ones you make at home, no question. There are two reasons for this. One, you know what goes into it. Despite the many advertisements telling you what wonderful ingredients they use, pizza delivery companies are driven by one thing alone. The only thing I can guarantee is that they are using the cheapest ingredients they can find and if that’s your only concern, you end up with, well, a cheap pizza. Two, that extra indefinable something, the magic ingredient which is the secret to great food? YOU. You are the magic ingredient and just the very act of picking the toppings yourself, taking the trouble to make the pizza in the first place and cooking it yourself makes all the difference. Your family will be able to taste the difference. It takes a little longer, it means going shopping rather than picking up the phone, but the extra effort is absolutely worth it. The sauce mix makes more than you will need for this recipe, but freezes well.Variations include adding mushrooms, ham, salami., pepperoni. That's what's great about home made pizza - you can add anything you like. This serves 2. Continue reading.

Quitting smoking sucks. But I did manage to drag myself out of bed and write a new recipe at hubpages. On of the great things about living where I do is the fact that Italy is just a short drive away, so I get to try a bunch of Italian recipes as well as French. I give you : Ossobuco.

Home made Pizza beats a delivery Pizza any day of the week. It’s more work but definitely worth the effort. Most delivery Pizza companies, despite their advertising campaigns, put a load of garbage on their Pizza. What Papa John says is true. Better ingredients equals better Pizza. They just don’t do it. So, here is a very simple Pizza recipe to make at home. It will take more time than picking up the phone, but, in my opinion, it’s worth it. And, much, much cheaper. On top of that, you know the ingredients going onto it are better, chosen by you. And it has that magic ingredient-YOU. You know it wasn’t thrown together by some spotty teenager who couldn’t care less. You did it yourself and put a little love into it. Try it and see. Continue reading.