13 Mario Batali Recipes Rated

• porcini salad w/ arugula A-   I substituted other wild mushrooms for the fresh porcini but it came out pretty well.  The earthy shrooms served as a good foil against the bitter greens.
  
• penne w/ cauliflower A+   You can pretty much use any non-leafy vegetable in this recipe (brussell sprouts, asparagus, broccoli).  The key is BACON!
• linguine w/ crab meat, radicchio & garlic C-   Not sure why this one fell flat, too much radicchio maybe?  And you can only do so much w/ canned crab meat, it's hard to avoid that tinny flavor.
• spaghetti w/ garlic, onions & guanciale A   Despite not having actual guanciale (hog jowl bacon) at the time, this dish is so simple, it's nearly foolproof.  Though I won't make this dish again, it was the one that turned me onto bacon in pasta.
• tagliatelle w/ sausage, basil & sun-dried tomatoes A   There's nothing like the taste of fresh pasta.  The sauce was also amazing, tart w/ bites of sweet Italian sausage.  Woulda been an A+ if not for the irregular sizes of the pasta (my first attempt at fresh pasta).  Nevertheless, the current reigning champion of all pastas.
• fettuccine w/ oyster mushrooms, sweet garlic & arugula A-   I can't remember if I substituted a shorter pasta for the fettuccine but it was dried, not fresh pasta regardless.  I've made variations w/ different mushrooms & pastas, all pretty successful.  A swish of cream doesn't hurt either to add a little more moisture to the dish.
• tortelloni w/ sage butter B+   Between all the kneading, rolling, cutting, filling & folding of the pasta, I'm not all that sure it was worth it.  Could also be that I was missing a meat filling.  I added a little cream to cut through the greasiness of the butter sauce but it didn't quite come together.  Sloppy looking but still tasty.
• Neapolitan meatballs A   These were delicious in or out of the homemade tomato sauce.  I may try mini versions for an appetizer.
• jump shrimp marsala housewife-style B   Substituting much smaller shrimp definitely took away from this dish.
• chicken w/ "cooked wine" B+   I think my biggest complaint was the quality of the chicken I used.  I may have to save this recipe for some local farm-raised fowl.  Nice sweet & savory flavor profile and not terribly hard to make either.
• chicken in the style of Canzano B- My execution was pretty dead on, I just think the flavors weren't as strong as they could've been.  I think I'll stick w/ the cooked wine recipe instead.
• beef birds B-   I've made them twice now, once w/ top sirloin & the other w/ strip steak (the recipe calls for skirt steak) but I find all the options a little too lean.  I did enjoy the natural saltiness of the prosciutto & pancetta.
• broccoli sauteed in wine & garlic B+   This recipe steered me away from my habit of blanching the broccoli first (and for the better) though I didn't care for the bitterness of the lemon zest.