Erica De Mane

Purposeful exercise, Italian-style. I haven’t lost much weight from exercise, at least not from the type of routine I’ve fallen into lately, twenty minutes once of week on one of those hamster wheels. I think to really make a dent in your load you need to exercise a lot, every day, running in circles or [...]

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A perfect dish; hot, crispy, cool, and refreshing. Recipe: Pork Scallopine with Parsley and Grape Tomato Salad Whenever I go to an Italian restaurant and crave something luxurious but still want to stick to my low-carb, vegetable-heavy diet, I order scallopine topped with salad. Many restaurants in New York serve versions of it, especially places [...]

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Swiss chard gets a quick sauté to heighten its flavor. Recipes: Cauliflower with Capers and Brown Butter Swiss Chard with Yellow Raisins, Pine Nuts, and Marsala Escarole with Anchovies, Cumin Seeds, and Garlic When I began cutting back on the carbohydrates, I didn’t fill the void with big amounts of protein, as I assumed I [...]

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My idea of a fine runway model. A bill now working its way through the French Parliament would ban websites that promote eating disorders through “thinspiration” and starvation tips. I’m sure, since it’s a French bill, it was partly inspired by all the somewhat unappealing bony models who walk the Parisian catwalks, particularly that one [...]

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Crispy salmon with Sicilian flavors. Recipe: Oven-Seared Salmon with Orange and Fennel Whole Wheat Couscous Salmon, it’s a wonder food, right? Isn’t it the diet Dr. Perricone insists on? If you eat nothing but salmon and broccoli, you’ll be smooth-skinned, sleek, and gorgeous? Salmon is a lovely fish, but it’s a rich one, almost too [...]

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Creative alternatives to the itsy-bitsy. The truth is, no matter how thin I am, and I’m pretty thin at the moment, I’m not going to look seventeen in a bathing suit anytime again soon. But that’s not a problem for me. I’ve always found those underwire tops that look just like bras a little trashy, [...]

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A bottle of Aperol and my new faux zebra throw pillow. In my ongoing effort to rid myself of the habit of drinking red wine as an aperitivo, something that for starters is not very Italian, but more important just makes me want to consume large platters of mortadella before dinner, I’m always experimenting to [...]

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La bella figura in Amarcord. Montasio melts onto asparagus straight from the hot oven. Recipes: Roasted Asparagus with Montasio and Lemon Zest Calamari and Watercress Salad with Chives and Pistachios You’re not fat, so why are you dieting? I hear this all the time, but the truth is I used to gain a few pounds [...]

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Dino and the Duke. The pasta is probably not whole wheat. The recipe below is whole wheat. Recipe: Whole Wheat Spaghetti with Cockles, Roasted Tomatoes, and Dandelion I now eat pasta only about once a week, and I want each pasta dish I cook to be perfect. But I’m also conscious of the amount I [...]

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