The Cookbook Author's Diet

--By Francine Segan

I eat for a living---great career, not so great on the waistline. Over the years, with each cookbook I wrote, I gained a dress size. When it came time to start work on my 5th book--an Italian dessert cookbook, no less--I decided to get serious or I’d end up with a plus size wardrobe. But after a year of eating Italian desserts, I dropped four dress sizes. I'll show you how you can do it, and I'll share a couple of my terrific recipes. But first, take a look at my before and after pictures on the next couple of pages:

Before My Weight Loss Here I am (at far left in photo) moderating a panel on food with Stanley Tucci and Isabella Rossellini at the Tribeca Film Festival. Note the "comfortable" pants!

After My Weight Loss Yes, I did eat Italian desserts for twelve months, and I learned how Italians eat main dishes as well. I'm down to a size 6! And this happened despite my perpetual exposure to fabulous food. I spent one year writing and researching Dolci:Italy’s Sweets. I spent months in Italy, traveling from region to region, to gather dessert recipes. I tasted, nibbled, baked, fried, and kneaded my way through the country searching out fabulous desserts-- authentic, classic, and traditional sweets, and also those popular in contemporary Italy today. Desserts real Italians were really making and enjoying in their homes. How'd I do it? Turn the page and find out! Then you can check out two fabulous recipes from my book.

Eat Lunch For Breakfast I’d have to taste dozens of desserts each day while working on my new book so I knew I’d have to start the day with a healthy and filling breakfast. Trouble is, lots of breakfast foods are high in calories -- eggs and bacon, pancakes, and the like just aren’t diet food. So instead, I decided to have lunch for breakfast. I ate steamed veggies or a big salad and a lean protein like grilled fish or chicken. No carbs though at breakfast and nothing sugary. What’s great about this is that by eating lots of protein for breakfast you feel full for a long time. No more 11 AM donut cravings!

Avoid Foods With Hidden Sugar Lots of supposedly non-sweet foods have tons of added sugar! There’s sugar in things that even seem healthy, like yogurt. Most commercially sold salad dressings are loaded with sugar, and it’s even in some vinegars. There’s tons of sugar in ketchup, and other condiments I used to use thinking they were sort of calorie free. I started reading labels and cut out, or cut down on, all sugary products. I wanted to save ALL my sugar for dessert! Two weeks of eating just lean proteins and veggies at meals, but tasting LOTS of desserts and I still lost 2 pounds in the next 2 week.

Exercise To eat more sweets I decided to give the dreaded “e” word a try. I didn’t want to go to a gym with those brightly lit show your flaws mirrors and all those teeny tiny 20 somethings strutting about. So instead I started walking. Not a stroll, but a purposeful exercisy brisk walk first thing each morning before breakfast. I started out doing just 20 minutes, but added 10 minutes a day, until I was up to one-hour. Then I started walking faster and faster until I was up to a light jog for the hour. If it rained I went up and down the stairs in my apartment house

Eat Like An Italian To work on the book I had to spend several months in Italy. I spent each day with Italians making and eating lots of sweets. Really, really yummy stuff. How could I avoid gaining weight?! Turns out, dieting in Italy is a breeze. Just eat like an Italian! I lost 25 pounds in Italy, eating not just desserts, but pasta too. The trick---eat like an Italian. The Italians have a few foodie sayings that I especially love, “The less time you spend at the table, the more you’ll eat” and “eat standing and you’ll eat for three.” Meaning that when you rush through a meal you don’t give your body the time to realize that you’re full and you tend to overeat. So, following the lead of my Italian pals, I sat down every time I ate anything. Not only sat down, but didn’t do anything else but chat while I was eating. No sipping a latte while driving, no nibbling on an apple while working at my computer, no handful of pretzels as I passed the kitchen. Sitting down to meals, focusing just on my food and conversation with friends, made me realize how much mindless eating I had been doing.

Treat Yourself I discovered that most Italian desserts are very low in sugar and many are made with olive oil instead of butter. I found out I could enjoy a daily slice of Tuscan Apple Cake or Sweet Grape Foccacia (recipes below) and still loose weight. I didn’t feel deprived and that helped me stay on track. I was thinner and not so freaked out about going to a gym, and added weight strength exercises to my jogging. Burning more calories allowed me to drop more weight while still eating satisfying meals and even desserts. By the end of the year, the book was done, and I was a size 6! Sweet.

Recipe For Rustic Tuscan Apple Cake A classic! At first glance it may seem like a huge ratio of apple to dough and you’re going to be tempted to cut down on the apples. Don’t! It looks like a lot of apples, but they magically meld into the batter. You’ll love the result. The top half of the cake is chock full of tender apples that float over sweet moist cake. Deceptively simple, exceptional results.

2 tablespoons unsalted butter, plus more for the pan
7 ounces, about 1 1/3 cups, all-purpose flour, plus more for the pan
2/3 cup, plus 1 tablespoon, granulated sugar
2 large eggs
1/2 cup whole milk
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
Zest of 1 lemon
4 large or 5 medium apples, about 2 pounds total

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Butter and flour an 8-inch cake pan. Beat 2/3 cup of sugar and the eggs in a large bowl, using a whisk or electric handheld beater, until creamy and light yellow. Beat in the flour, milk, baking powder, baking soda and zest. Pour the mixture into the prepared pan. Peel and core each of the apples. Dice one of the apples on sprinkle the dices over the batter. Cut the remaining apples into thin slices. Spread the slices over the diced apples in the pan in a neat pattern. Scatter thin pats of butter over the apples and sprinkle with the remaining tablespoon of sugar. Bake for about 50 minutes, until dark golden and cooked through.

Recipe For Rosemary And Grape Focaccia This dessert is actually two focaccias, one baked right over the other, topped and stuffed with plump grapes. The bottom crust bakes thin and crisp while the top puffs up tender and cakey. Some of the grapes collapse a little and release pools of pretty purple juice, while others stay whole.

When you take a bite, you get the satisfying chewiness of bread, crunchy in spots, plus the warm grapes, which burst in your mouth. It’s sophisticated and rustic at the same time. Scrumptious on its own, it goes well with a dessert cheese or a glass of red wine.

10 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil, divided
2 tablespoons finely minced fresh rosemary
1 packet, 1/4 ounce, fast acting yeast
10 1/2 ounces, about 2 cups all-purpose flour
11 tablespoons granulated sugar, divided
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 pounds black seedless grapes, stems removed
2 teaspoons anise seeds

In a small saucepan, heat 4 tablespoons of the oil and rosemary until warm. Allow to cool. Reserve. Sprinkle the yeast in 1/2 cup of warm water and let rest until it bubbles, about 2 minutes. Sift the flour onto a clean work surface or in a large bowl. Make a hallow well in the center and fill with the yeast water, reserved rosemary oil, 3 tablespoons of the sugar and salt, and slowly begin to incorporate the flour into the center hallow, until dough forms. Knead the dough until smooth and rest it in a lightly oiled bowl until it doubles, about 1 hour. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Pour 2 tablespoons of the olive oil into a rectangular baking pan, about 9 by 13-inches or 14 by 10 inches.

Put the grapes into a bowl and using a large fork or potato masher, gently mash about half of the grapes, leaving half of them whole. Don’t mash them to a pulp! Just gently break the skin.

To order the author's book, "Dolci: Italy'sSweets," please visit www.amazon.com.