Cook Like a Real N.J. Housewife

by Nicki Gostin, Posted May 13th 2010 @ 12:00PM

Teresa Giudice Photo: Mike Coppola / Getty Images

Teresa Giudice, the table-flipping star from "The Real Housewives of New Jersey," has a cookbook out called "Skinny Italian." In it she shares recipes for low-fat Italian dishes, which helps explain how the mother of four children under the age of nine maintains her svelte figure.

When did you learn how to cook?
TG: When I got married. When I was working I wouldn't get home from the city till 7:30 or 8:00 and my mom would have dinner ready for me on the table. But when I got married I would call my mom and I would say, "Ma I want to make this dish that you make" and she would tell me over the phone, and Joe, my husband, thought it was delicious.

So really this cookbook is your mom's.
TG: Well, it is my mom's recipes. There are a few that are mine, like the zucchini spaghetti and the lemon granita.

You have four daughters. Are any of them picky eaters?
TG: None of them. They eat whatever I make. My friends' kids come over and once they try my food, they're like, "Oh my God," and I tell their mothers that they ate and they're like, "What?" That's because their moms don't cook for them.

My kids love to try different foods. If I want to take a night off and order Chinese, Gia says, "No mommy I want you to cook." That makes me happy and I want to cook for them more. I think if you make good authentic Italian food, they won't be fussy eaters.

How has Italian food been ruined here in America?
TG: Everyone thinks Italian food is fattening, but it's the American way that makes it fattening. The way I cook, that's the way that Europe cooks. Here everyone loves the calzones and chicken parms, all the fattening foods. That's a misconception about Italian food that is not true.

I saw you make tomato sauce with your family in the first episode. Do you do it every year?
TG: Yes this year we made 180 jars. The most we've ever made is 300.

What else do you do that's old school?
TG: We make homemade sausages every February. Sweet and spicy. We chop the meat, season it and I know it sounds gross we stuff them in pig intestine. We make jarred eggplants, dried tomatoes and homemade pasta.

This season everyone will get to know the real me. Last season they thought I had a cook and nanny but this season they'll see the true Teresa. I take care of my family. I cook every night.

Filed Under: Books, Interviews
Tags: featured, teresa giudice, TeresaGiudice

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Reader comments (Page 1 of 1)

5-14-2010 @6:57PM Barb said... Teresa, you are a doll. I saw the show when you and your family were doing tomatoes. I will buy your book in a heart beat. Congrats on the new baby!
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5-14-2010 @7:27PM Beth said... I want to know what you put in your jars of "Red Sauce?" I really like you and Caroline. The most honest of the housewives, I truly feel. I'm just waiting for them to make "The Housewives of Farmwives in Indiana!"Gotta love it...
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5-17-2010 @1:53PM JCWoodbury said... Love you, you and Caroline are a hoot!!!!
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5-17-2010 @1:55PM JCWoodbury said... Oh, and I will be getting your cookbook!!!
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5-17-2010 @2:26PM doodoolemonque said... A dim witted publicity seeker put out a cookbook to extend her 15 minutes of fame into 30, and y'all snap it up. Why? Because she's famous? I watch the show and didn't see enough of anything to suggest that she knows more about cooking than she does about the English language, which is to say, nothing. If she put out a book on responsible child rearing, would you rush out and buy that too? Lets just hope she gets a better advice from an editor than she did about how to teach her daughters anything that might actually make them a better adult. The idea that this woman is a mother is just too scary for words.
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