Linda Dano's Ten Minute Tomato Sauce

Perhaps in this day and age of celebrity chefs, cookbooks by old-fashioned celebrities are met with a yawn. Mario Batali, Gordan Ramsey, Nigella Lawson, Jamie Oliver -- yes, they're all fine and good. But, really, can they compare to Linda Dano?



Linda Dano was the renaissance woman of late 20th Century daytime television. Many might remember her for her role as Fanny Grady St. George Lindquist Blake Castigliano Radzinsky (aka Felicia Gallant) in the classic soap Another World; she appeared from 1982 until the show's final episode in 1999 (thanks, IMDB!). But if you were like me and spent a lot of time in front of the television at a young and impressionable age, then perhaps you remember a little gem of a show on Lifetime called Attitudes? The hour long program was hosted by Linda Dano and Nancy Glass, but (as subsequent Glass replacements can attest) it was Dano who stole the show. A combination of talk show, gossip rag, and woman's issue program, Attitudes was the trifecta for an eleven year old girl like myself.

While I'm not generally a huge fan of kitsch cookbooks, I grew uncharacteristically aflutter when I saw Miss Dano's headshot and knew immediately the book deserved a good poring over. Here is her simple and quick tomato sauce recipe from Soaps On!

(click to enlarge)

Other celebs in Soap's On! include Diedre Hall (Scallops & Capellini), Michele Lee (Double Chocolate Surprise Muffins), and Heather Locklear (Hamburger Melba: beef, oatmeal, milk, ketchup, mustard, salt, pepper, MSG, and peach halves. Whoa.)

Enjoy this clip from Attitudes where Linda and Nancy offer another installment in their "I Hate to Cook" series. They "recycle" turkey six different ways!

You're welcome.