Italian

Amatriciana is an Italian dish. Simple and traditional. I am calling this American Amatriciana because the Italian version is made with guanciale or pancetta. I make mine with good ole’ American bacon. This is one of my husband’s favorite dishes. I hope you love it too.

I have seen in some restaurant menus that chefs have made pesto with walnuts, so I decided macadamia nuts must work too. Now I can attest. They not only work, it tastes great!

This is what I call cheating when I’m in a hurry. I use my favorite bottled Italian dressing as the marinade and everyone thinks I put so much effort into this really pretty dish.

When you need some serious cold weather comfort food, ratatouille hits the spot. This shortcut ratatouille-inspired recipe was submitted by dieter Angela. She Zolafied the original recipe and created a delicious ZReduction veggie sauté that can be made in less than half the time of a traditional ratatouille.

Angela says, "I love pizza, so I was looking for alternatives. I was disappointed to find cauliflower crust is not much lower in carbs than a traditional pizza crust. I came across that recipe for a meatzza crust and was pleasantly surprised. It satisfied my pizza craving, and I could have a slice of pizza without needing a fork! For those pizza cravings, here’s a recipe for a meatzza crust."

This is a classic Italian dish. The one you order at Olive Garden will have WAY more pasta than this dish will have. That’s okay. The shrimp are the real star of this dish. Plus, you’ll be better off without all that starch. 

What will take the longest with this dish is peeling and taking the shells off the shrimp. You want fresh shrimp though and I’ll teach you how to boil down the shells to make it super-tasty. A deeper flavor is the bonus.

A traditional Italian meal made the Plan Z way. My husband declared this one of his favorite meals of the year.

You’ll think you’re eating at an Italian Grandma’s house when you taste this.

This whole dinner comes together in about 15 minutes. There are just days when you can’t make everything from scratch. You need something you can get on the dinner table quickly.

Orzo is a wonderful, tiny pasta. This is the most requested side dish recipe I get from dinner guests–but watch your portion size. Enjoy!

This delicious recipe was submitted by Dieter Karen. Thanks Karen!

This tastes almost like chicken scallopini. You’ll notice the breading is missing. The capers are missing. But the taste is still there.

Once your weight has solidly stabilized you can handle something like this; just not every day.

This is a fun, colorful side dish to a plain piece of meat. This goes together so fast! You can even make it in the morning and finish assembly just before dinner.

This tastes a lot like my mom’s bean soup with the addition of tomato and zucchini.

This meal is good for breakfast, lunch or dinner. With a side salad it makes a nice brunch offering too!

This is a traditional Italian Dish that is known for spice. It’s also usually served over pasta so you’ll see that this one can be served as a stew in a bowl or over sautéed zucchini noodles.

This is super easy. A great summer entrée that comes together in a flash.

You can use the recipe as an appetizer or a brunch entrée or even a lunch or light dinner served with a salad.

This is a super easy meal to make; made even easier by doing it in your slow cooker. Simple Italian.

To make this burger taste extra special, consider topping it with a soup spoonful of spaghetti sauce. You can find one with no sugar in the spaghetti sauce aisle.

This makes cozy comfort food. You can put it together pretty fast and pop it in the oven so you can do other things while dinner finishes up. I like dishes like this because it gives me time to load the dishwasher with the cooking tools and the kitchen is cleaned except for the actual eating dishes before I even sit down for the meal. Perfect dish for a pot luck too.

Best served over ravioli; especially a pumpkin ravioli or a butternut squash ravioli.

Let cool to warm or room temperature before serving; the soup will thicken as it cools. Serve with additional grated Parmesan at the table.

Dieter Anna sent this fantastic recipe in to us that we would love to share with you! An Italian lasagna with no need for the noodles. Thank you Anna!

This sauce can be served on steak, chicken, roast beef or even a full-flavored fish like sea bass or halibut.

Dieter Emily sent us this easy to make crock pot weeknight recipe. Emily says, "when I came home from work, it smelled heavenly! This soup has so much flavor and is also quite filling!"

This dish is Italian comfort food. I curl up on sofa with a bowl of this and watch a movie. You can go totally low-carb with this one and make it without the pasta. Tastes just as good. This also makes a great casserole addition to a pot luck party.

This is a dreamy, smooth pasta dish that uses little pasta but is still big on taste. This dish can be easily doubled and baked in a 9" x 13" pan for a larger crowd.

This dish is Italian comfort food. I curl up on sofa with a bowl of this and watch a movie. You can go totally low-carb with this one and make it without the pasta. Tastes just as good. This also makes a great casserole addition to a pot luck party.

These meatballs are my take on an authentic meatball recipe from New York city. These actually have a cheesy element to them that make them super yummy. BIG YUM!

Get out the grill! This is one way the Italians do steak. I took a Food Network recipe and Zolafied it to come up with this option for a healthy steak dinner.

Normally Chicken Milano is a pasta dish. This one makes a rich, sundried tomato ‘gravy’ to go with plain chicken breasts. You’ll never miss the pasta. Promise.

I redesigned this recipe to incorporate cream to make a smooth sauce that will remind you of an old spaghetti house. Just no spaghetti.

For this recipe let's get out the grill. This pasta sauce tastes so fresh. It's really worth the effort to grill the veggies.

There's a thing called a "fresh" sauce in Italian cooking. It just means the ingredients are fresh and you never heat them up.

A simple meat sauce to serve with spaghetti. Yep, those of you who know how I feel about too many carbohydrates might be scoffing about now. Spaghetti? Yes, I say. If you serve it in the right portion.

Dieter Debbie created this fabulous recipe. Thanks Debbie!

This dish is very easy to make. All you have to do is brown the meat and then time adding the mushrooms. Walk away from your crock pot and dinner will cook itself.

This is a very thick soup. If you like your soup thinner you can add tomato juice to thin it out. I'd say a couple of cups of juice would be plenty.

Easy, fancy meal.

This recipe was submitted by Plan Z dieter Nancy. Thanks Nancy.

I got this idea from an internet recipe. I hope you love it.

This recipe was submitted by Plan Z dieter JoAnn. Thanks JoAnn!

Based on an Italian pie that is traditionally made with ricotta cheese, I’ve made it smoother and more luscious by using mascarpone.

You can use this pizza “sauce” for your pizza Zola style. Sauce is added warm after the pizza cheese portion is cooked. Make the pizza with no sauce or give this a try.

This will remind you of a No-Noodle lasagna. Perfect for an easy weeknight meal or when you want to take a casserole to an event.

Today’s recipe is a really easy version of a summer, grilled chicken parmesan; only I changed it. Everyone talks about de-constructing recipes these days.