I made this as written, except that I added an extra clove of garlic. This is one of those recipes where the flavor doesn't penetrate the meat, so you definitely need the sauce/juice served with the meat. It was only okay in taste - nothing spectacular. Be careful not to overcook the chops. I had half inch chops that I only cooked in the white wine for about 5-7 minutes after browning.

Reviewed On: Aug. 25, 2009

This was okay. I'm a sauce person, which makes me a bit biased, as my biggest complaint about this dish was that it doesn't make a lot of sauce. When made as written, the sauce is the kind that clings to each specific piece of pasta rather than the type of sauce that leaves remains that you could sop up with bread :) If you make the recipe correctly (add the pasta to the sauce and heat through), the sauce is definitely not runny. In fact, for someone who loves saucy pasta dishes, this dish could be accused of being too dry. To try to lighten it up a bit, I used half and half in place of the heavy cream. I used petite diced tomatoes with Italian seasoning in place of the Italian plum tomatoes. I left out the red pepper flakes and used penne instead of bow tie pasta. I used smoked sausage instead of sweet Italian sausage.

Reviewed On: Jul. 9, 2009

I used chicken broth instead of water, and I used raw ham, which I just let cook along with the potatoes in the chicken broth. I used skim milk and left out the celery because I didn't have any. I substituted a bit of celery salt instead. Even with skim milk, this soup was rich and delicious.

Reviewed On: Jul. 9, 2009