01:00 AM EDT on Wednesday, May 11, 2005

BY CANDY SAGON
The Washington Post

WASHINGTON -- The line snaked around the Williams-Sonoma store and spilled out the door. Eventually, nearly 500 people would wait for up to two hours on a recent Sunday afternoon to see the woman inside, signing cookbooks.

The author they were waiting for in Washington, D.C., was Giada (pronounced JAH-da) De Laurentis, granddaughter of the famed movie director Dino De Laurentis and the Food Network's new "It" Girl. The 34-year-old former caterer has a popular television cooking show called Everyday Italian, a new cookbook that's sold a quarter of a million copies in less than two months, and a look that has nearly every man in line wanting to have his photo taken with her.

Darrell Landon of Washington says he watched her show just once and knew he wanted to see her in person. "I saw her make this broccoli rabe and pasta dish. The food seemed so easy and quick."

Lisa Lindberg, a mother of three from Columbia, Md., said she and her children watch De Laurentiis every afternoon: "I like her personality. She seems like someone you'd like to have over to your home."

Like her fellow Food Network stars Rachael Ray and Ina Garten, De Laurentiis' appeal is her reassuring demeanor and her easy, homey recipes.

It's all part of the Food Network's shift toward practical home cooking, said Susan Stockton, vice president for culinary productions. "We were very chef-y in the beginning, but viewers told us they wanted one-stop grocery store recipes they could make every day."

De Laurentiis clearly taps into that desire. She also is the latest Food Network star to use her television popularity to drive cookbook sales.

De Laurentiis' wild ride as a food celebrity began last September, she said, when her three-year-old cooking show went from being aired twice a week to twice a day. "Viewership exploded," she said.

When it was announced that an Everyday Italian cookbook was being published in February, Amazon.com and BarnesandNoble.com were flooded with pre-orders. Although her contract with Clarkson Potter called for an initial 30,000-copy printing, the book has sold 250,000 copies in seven weeks, De Laurentiis said.

She said she's still stunned by her sudden success. She has been touring the country, doing cooking demonstrations and book signings in cities from Atlanta to Los Angeles, with big crowds showing up at nearly every stop. "Every time I go into a new market, I'm amazed," she says.

On this afternoon, she's wearing fashionable jeans, a dark brown top and a peach knit scarf. She has a wide smile and blue eyes. Her long hair, usually worn pulled back on her show, is down. Although she's been up since well before dawn to catch a flight from Orlando, she's still energetic, with a sharp sense of humor.

Yet she worries -- about taking on too many projects, about becoming overexposed. She already has a second cookbook planned for next year (family-style entertaining, including holiday recipes) and a second, more travel-oriented show in the works.

De Laurentiis was born in Rome but moved to southern California when she was 7. Her large, extended family would gather every Sunday at her grandfather's house in Beverly Hills for a day of cooking and eating. She was always given dessert duty, a passion that continues today.

After graduating from UCLA in 1996 with a degree in social anthropology, she spent a year at Le Cordon Bleu in Paris, studying pastry and cuisine.

She returned to California and worked in the kitchens of the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Marina del Rey and at Spago in Beverly Hills but decided the restaurant business was too grueling. Instead, she started her own catering company.

Three years ago, a friend at Food & Wine magazine asked her to do a story on her large Italian family and the food they loved. The article led to a call from the Food Network, who was looking for an Italian-style home cooking show. She shot a demo video (making a peanut butter and jelly sandwich) and was hired, much to her surprise.

"I'm a shy person," she says. "My husband says he always knew I had it in me. But in the beginning, I wasn't sure I could do it. The show has helped me come out of my shell. It's helped me blossom."

As for how television is reshaping the cookbook market, at least one publisher feels that food shows encourage more non-cooks to buy cookbooks.

"The Food Network is growing and expanding the market for cookbooks," says Pam Krauss, editorial director at Clarkson Potter, publishers of De Laurentiis, Ray and Garten. "What they have done is get people who never cook, cooking."

Hosts like De Laurentiis also represent a new generation of cooking shows, Krauss says, "because they cook in real time. There are no swap-outs and all that 'wink, wink, through the magic of television, here's the finished dish.' People watch her and feel empowered. They think, 'I can do that.' "

Spaghetti is bound together with eggs and cheese in this versatile dish (it literally means "cake made of pasta") that tastes great at room temperature. It can be served in wedges for a meatless dinner or in small squares as an appetizer or finger food. Either way, it's a good reason to make extra spaghetti and use the leftovers the next day in this recipe.

TORTA DI PASTA

8 ounces dried spaghetti

1/2 cup drained, oil-packed sun-dried tomatoes, chopped

4 large eggs

3/4 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese

3/4 cup freshly grated fontina or other mild cheese

1 teaspoon salt, or to taste

1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper, or to taste

1 tablespoon unsalted butter

1 tablespoon olive oil

Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Add the spaghetti and cook, stirring occasionally, until tender but still firm to the bite, about 8 minutes, and drain. In a large bowl, toss the spaghetti with the sun-dried tomatoes, then set aside to cool.

In a medium bowl, whisk the eggs, Parmesan and fontina cheeses, salt and pepper to blend. Add the egg mixture to the cooked spaghetti and toss to coat.

Preheat the broiler. In a medium ovenproof skillet over medium heat, heat the butter and olive oil. Transfer the spaghetti mixture to the skillet, pressing to form an even layer. Cook until the bottom is golden brown, about 3 minutes. Transfer the skillet to the oven and broil until the top is golden brown, about 5 minutes. Let the torta cool in the skillet to room temperature, then invert onto a platter. Cut the torta into wedges or small squares and serve at room temperature.

Makes four main-course servings or six appetizer servings.

Per serving: 553 calories, 28 grams protein, 47 g carbohydrates, 26 g fat, 264 milligrams cholesterol, 13 g saturated fat, 721 mg sodium, 2 g dietary fiber.

A favorite with viewers of De Laurentiis' show on the Food Network, this pasta recipe doesn't use a tomato sauce to give it flavor.

Broccoli rabe is a leafy variety of broccoli with a slightly bitter flavor, like arugula. It has slim stalks and small florets and is sold in bunches in many supermarket produce sections. In this dish, it tastes best with an assertively flavored sausage.

ORECCHIETTE

WITH SPICY SAUSAGE

AND BROCCOLI RABE

2 small bunches or 1 large bunch (about 12 ounces) broccoli rabe, stalks trimmed and quartered crosswise

12 ounces dried orecchiette or other small pasta shapes, such as farfalle or penne

3 tablespoons olive oil

1 pound spicy pork sausage, casings removed

3 garlic cloves, finely chopped

Pinch of dried red pepper flakes

1/4 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese, or more to taste

Salt and freshly ground pepper

Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Add the broccoli rabe and cook it about 1 minute. Remove the broccoli rabe and set aside, reserving all the cooking liquid. Cook the orecchiette in the same pot of boiling salted water until tender but still firm to the bite, stirring occasionally, about 8 minutes. Drain, reserving 1 cup of the cooking liquid.

Meanwhile, in a large skillet over medium heat, heat the oil. Add the sausage and cook, breaking up any large chunks with a spoon, until the sausage is brown and juices form, about 8 minutes.

Add the garlic and red pepper flakes and saute until fragrant, about 30 seconds, then the broccoli rabe and toss to coat. Add the pasta and enough reserved cooking liquid, 1/4 cup at a time, to moisten. Stir in the Parmesan cheese, salt and pepper to taste. Transfer to pasta bowls and serve either hot or at room temperature.

Makes four servings.

Per serving: 934 calories, 29 grams protein, 70 g carbohydrates, 59 g fat, 82 milligrams cholesterol, 19 g saturated fat, 902 mg sodium, 5 g dietary fiber.

De Laurentiis says this Italian-American dish is a favorite of her husband's -- and just about every man who watches her show or uses her cookbook, judging by the comments she gets at her book-signing appearances.

In her original version, the marinara and vodka are simmered for 20 minutes, which diminishes the flavor of the alcohol. In this adapted recipe, the simmering time is reduced somewhat so that more vodka flavor remains to cut through the richness of the cream. Serve with rigatoni or penne.

VODKA SAUCE

3 cups marinara sauce

1 cup vodka

1/2 cup heavy cream, at room temperature

1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese

1/2 teaspoon salt, or to taste

1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper, or to taste

In a heavy skillet over medium-low heat, simmer the marinara sauce and vodka. Stir often until the mixture reduces slightly, about 10 minutes. Stir in the cream and continue to simmer over low heat until the sauce is heated through. Remove from the heat and stir in the Parmesan cheese, salt and pepper. Adjust seasoning as necessary.

Makes about a quart or four servings.

Per serving: 336 calories, 9 grams protein, 10 g carbohydrates, 15 g fat, 51 milligrams cholesterol, 9 g saturated fat, 351 mg sodium, 3 g dietary fiber.