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Add the rigatoni to the boiling water and cook it until al dente, about 10 minutes. Drain the pasta from the water and add to the sauce. Toss the pasta to combine it with the sauce and bring it back just to a simmer.

Be careful heating cream. When it comes to a boil it will quickly climb the sides of the pot and boil over. If you’re not careful your stove will be a mess and you won’t have enough cream in your pot, so pay attention during the initial heating of the cream.

RISOTTO WITH BAY SCALLOPS

I used to serve risotto at Lola—and then I got smart. It’s got to be done all at once, and you’ve got to stir constantly. For these reasons, it doesn’t make sense for me to do it at a restaurant unless I want to cook it to order, which just isn’t practical for us.

But I do love to cook risotto at home; that’s where I give it the attention it deserves. It’s so soul-satisfying to make and to serve and to eat. And it’s really easy. It does take patience, however. But, again, this is why I love it: it’s a commitment dish. It’s not like you can just throw it in a pan and walk away. The key is stirring the rice to release all the starch that makes it creamy and delicious. Keep it simple: sweat garlic and onion in olive oil, add the rice and toast it, then add your wine, cook it down, add some stock, cook it down, add more stock, stirring pretty much continuously until it’s just tender, and finish it with some cheese and a little butter. That’s it. I do think it’s a preparation that requires fresh stock. Water just doesn’t have the flavor or body, and inferior canned broths reduce, thereby intensifying their inferior flavor.

Serves 4

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 medium yellow onion, minced

2 garlic cloves, minced

½ cup diced prosciutto

1 cup Arborio rice

1 generous pinch of saffron

½ cup dry white wine

3 to 4 cups Chicken Stock, warmed

½ pound bay scallops, or ½ pound sea scallops cut into ½-inch pieces

¼ cup sliced fresh flat-leaf parsley leaves

1 tablespoon unsalted butter

2 tablespoons grated Parmesan

Heat the olive oil in a 4-quart saucepan over medium heat. Add the onion and sweat it for 2 minutes. Add the garlic and sweat it for 2 minutes more. Add the prosciutto and cook it until it crisps, about 1 minute. Add the rice and let it toast slightly in the hot fat, about 1 minute, stirring with a wooden spoon.

Reduce the heat to low, add the saffron and wine, and stir continuously until most of the wine has cooked off. Add 1 cup of the stock and stir continuously until the liquid has cooked off, about 3 minutes. Add another cup of stock and repeat the process. Taste the rice. Continue to add stock in ¼-cup increments until the rice is tender and the risotto is creamy.

Add the scallops and continue to stir for 2 minutes, or until the scallops are heated through. Remove the pan from the heat and stir in the parsley, butter, and cheese and serve immediately.

CRISPY GNOCCHI WITH MORELS AND SPRING PEAS

After the endless winter in Cleveland, nothing is more exciting for us than spring and all the food that begins to grow. Local morel mushrooms and fresh English peas start to pop up at markets. And that’s when I make these flour-and-ricotta gnocchi. We make and serve potato gnocchi at the restaurants, but I prefer potato gnocchi with meat and fish or heavy ragùs, and I love these with vegetables.

I first had these gnocchi at Jonathan Waxman’s restaurant Barbuto in New York City and they were so good that I asked him how he had made them. He said, “You’re welcome to steal them from me, but you gotta figure out how to make them yourself!” So I came back and played around with the dough until I came up with this. The dough is actually not the thing—I’d made tons of ricotta gnocchi before. But I’d always boiled them, so they came out soft. When you sauté them in brown butter instead, they crisp up and become a completely different food. (Remember that you need to drain your ricotta for at