2 comments about The Fine Art of Italian Cooking: The Classic Cookbook, Updated & Expanded.

1. This book is jammed with great recipes. I highly recommend it if you want to challenge yourself in Italian cooking. We have enjoyed a few dishes and will continue to dive into this great book.



2. Northern Italian cuisine -- it's not a cookbook that's stuck on pasta! My favorite recipe is "chicken in the manner of a suckling pig."

5 comments about The Best 50 Biscotti Recipes (Best 50).

1. Both my Mom and I bought a copy of this book, because I love biscotti's. I've made them before and have always had great luck. But I made two recipes from this book. Both were so bad tasting that I threw the biscotti's and the book out. Then I called my Mom and told her she might want to throw out her book too, before she wasted her time and money making any of these recipes. I didn't even try to sell the book online because I would have felt guilty.



2. I am a great lover of biscotti, especially since I have to watch my sugar intake. Because biscotti can be expensive, I decided to make this simple cookie and have quite successfully. However, this book is not the book to buy if one wants biscotti of good texture and taste. I remade one recipe (Almond Biscotti) and tried two others (Coconut Biscotti and Milk Chocolate & Honey) to see if I made a mistake or preferred another flavor, but none of them were worth the effort. They were dry and too hard. The recipes I found on-line and in magazines were much better. I'll try another book.



3. It is so nice to have a variety of recipes available to me. I have tried some of these cookie recipe and they have been really good....



4. I love biscotti, and found this book to have the best variety of recipes. This was the book I chose to give as a gift to two fellow biscotti lovers. The recipes are easy, and the end product is delicious.



5. The recipes are simple and no photos. I recomend this book for people who enjoy baking cookies. Can't beat the price and yes you have to enjoy sugar.

No comments about Urban Italian: Simple Recipes and True Stories from a Life in Food.

3 comments about Rocco's Italian-American.

1. `Rocco's Italian American' by Rocco DiSpirito, his mother, Nicolina DiSpirito, and freelance writer Nina Lalli screams CELEBRITY CHEF Cookbook with the number of pages dedicated to current and historical snapshots of the principle authors, Rocco and Mama. This book was also almost a certainty after the featured role of Mama's meatballs in the two Mark Burnett `The Restaurant' reality shows. You just knew that there was a book in the works that featured a recipe for these meatballs.
   
   Rocco's principle premise for these recipes is that `Italian-American' cuisine is no less genuine and involves no compromises of `genuine' Italian cooking because it is not exactly the same as that done in Campagnia or Apulia or Lazio or Tuscany or the Veneto. In fact, Rocco claims to have very little knowledge of native Italian cuisine compared to Marcella Hazan or Food Network colleague Mario Batali. I really have no difficulty whatsoever accepting Rocco's position here, and, neither to a lot of respected cookbook authors, as such leading names as Lydia Bastianich and John Mariani have written important books on Italian-American cuisine.
   
   Before the book gets to the recipes, it spends the better part of seventy pages giving us brief memoirs from both Mamma and Rocco. As Nicolina can write neither English nor Italian, I am sure that one of Ms. Lalli's principle jobs was to transcribe and edit Mamma's oral history. While Mamma concentrates on the truly difficult childhood due to poverty of their family in 1930's Italy, followed by the premature death of her father, Rocco's story concentrates on his experiences and enthusiasm for food starting at a very early age. Both stories are interesting, but they lack the kind of spark that enlivens the best memoirs of childhood and the struggle to survive in difficult circumstances. Unlike tales of childhood memories of Jacques Pepin in `The Apprentice' and of Gennaro Contaldo in `Passione', there is practically no art and little intellectual interest in these stories. Rocco has done very little to repair the opinion I formed of him in the course of viewing the two `The Restaurant' shows where he was seen as a self-absorbed, inept manager who probably lied and certainly acted petty in dealings with his financial backer. Not that his backer was a model of probity, Rocco did more to create drama for the camera than he did to rescue the fate of his `Rocco's on 22nd' restaurant. He tried to play to the house like Emeril or Wolfgang without the business sense both of these men seem to maintain.
   
   Since there are several important books out on the `Italian-American' cuisine, it is very easy to evaluate Rocco and Mama's recipes against an independent standard. The obvious place to start is with Mamma's meatballs. But, to make this recipe, you need `Mamma's sauce' made primarily with Red Pack tomato puree, sugar, chicken stock, garlic, onions, and tomato paste. I confess I find this sauce a weak entry compared to Mario Batali's basic sauce which uses whole tomatoes, carrots instead of sugar, and no stock, and can be completed in about half the time, 45 instead of 90 minutes. Mamma's meatballs themselves are very similar to my favorite recipe in `Italian Classics' by `Cooks Illustrated' except that instead of chicken stock, it uses buttermilk or yogurt and instead of bread crumbs, it uses torn white bread. Against this standard, I find nothing special in Mamma's recipe. Rocco's Puttanesca recipe is also nothing special when measured against `Cooks Illustrated' and other models I've seen. It's weakest point is that Rocco requires that you use 2 cups of Mama's Marinara which takes 90 minutes to make plus 20 minutes of cooking for the Puttanesca itself. All other recipes are self-contained, starting from pantry ingredients and often taking little more than 15 minutes from prep to finish instead of Rocco's 20 minutes of cooking. Rocco's spaghetti Carbonara is an odd mixture of influences. He is cooking Italian-AMERICAN, but he is insisting on pancetta that I suspect was hard to get even by most poor Italian-Americans in a Queens Latino neighborhood. On the other hand, this is a Roman dish and Rocco is using Parmigiano-Reggiano instead of including the more traditional Pecorino Romano.
   
   On the other hand, Rocco's recipe for Caesar Salad is about as true to tradition as you can get with raw egg and anchovies and all. I especially liked Rocco's recipe for Mama's everyday bread prepared using the well technique in much the same way as one may make fresh pasta. This yeast recipe is both very simple and economical with the use of yeast, unlike Jamie Oliver's recipe using three packets of yeast. Both are good, Rocco's is simpler.
   
   Rocco and his designers at publisher Hyperion have chosen a very odd arrangement for the color pictures depicting various cooking techniques, in that they have put them all together in a single `rotogravure' section in the back of the book. I'm sure this was done to maintain a very nicely modest list price, but it doesn't help the cook who is trying to follow a procedure and must switch back and forth to make any sense of the text and the pictures together.
   
   The final section on `The Italian-American Pantry' is pretty good. I did find it odd that there are no stock recipes in the book, and no comment about using canned stock. Especially missing is a recipe for a mushroom stock, although several recipes call for this ingredient and I have never seen this ingredient in my local megamart.
   
   Aside from the inconvenient picture layout, this is a very good autobiographical cookbook by a very talented professional chef, but if I were to want a reference on `Italian-American' cuisine, I might prefer Lydia Bastianich's much larger and more professional offering on the subject. If I wanted Italian home cooking, I think `Eleanora's Kitchen' by Eleanora Scarpetta may be just as good.
   
   Interesting and worthwhile if you don't already own a lot of Italian cookbooks.



2. I just bought the book and haven't tried the recipes yet. I'm sure they're good, because they look like the Italian home cooking I was raised on. To be fair, those holding it up to the standard set by "Taste" are comparing cutting edge restaurant recipes to "just like mama used to make." That's apples and oranges.
   
   I find one glaring shortcoming in the book already though, which is that it seems to have been poorly edited (sloppily or hastily assembled). Some recipes list the same ingredients twice. Some names are almost comically misspelled. The dust cover lists Classic Tiramisu - its not in the book. The fish section says "a dozen recipes" - there are only ten. And on and on. They probably wanted this one on the shelves for the holidays, but if I could find these errors in a half-hour, how hard could it have been for them to pick up on the fact that featured recipes aren't there?



3. The book is like a treasure,it has all the italian dishes that my family has made for years, but never wrote down.All are very easily explained and simple to follow,I am no where a good cook but these receipes sure make me appear to be a professional.Thanks Mama and Rocco for taking the time to put these together. And,the stories make me feel closer to both of you, thanks again for sharing your family memories.This is a definite, for all who love italian cooking. Cynthia M.

5 comments about The Wise Guy Cookbook: My Favorite Recipes From My Life as a Goodfella to Cooking on the Run.

1. A colorfull presentation of some excellent recipes, I truely value this book, in my collection. Try his shrimp receipe for the grill, excellent, my guests loved it and I the simplicity.



2. Hill's book is extremely insightful. It's very descriptive and chocked full of authentic Italian recipes and stories from Hill's gangster life. The recipes range from very simple to somewhat complicated, depending on the reader's preference. I highly recommend it to anyone wanting to learn about the real-life, but old style of Italian cuisine.



3. I've made a few of the meals in here, and they were very good. Not all that different from the way I cook anyway, but a few differences made the meals better. No problem with the recipes.
   
   My problem is with the marketing of gangster life. This isn't a merely an Italian cookbook-- this is promoted as a MAFIA cookbook ("cooking on the run"?). His life stories are told in euphamistic and humourous fashion, but the reality is very different. The end of the book is almost enraging-- Henry says he he sees pierced and tattoo'd kids eating dinner at McDonald's, and wonders where their parent are-- they ought to be having a nice family dinner at home.
   
   PUHLEEEEZE!!! Read his childrens' book-- "On the Run--A Mafia Childhood". Years of drinking and drug related abuse, not coming home for days at a time, turning his home into a drug and sex den, both before and after his bust-- and much worse stuff-- if you find yourself getting amused by his engagingly told tales of gangster glory or if you find his stories of his Broolyn childhood endearing, then you need to read his childrens' book for balance. See the link below.
   
   Buy this book used. I wouldn't put a dime in Hill's pocket.
   
   
   On the Run: A Mafia Childhood



4. This had some great old school recipes. However, if you are an Italian American you do not need this book. Had stuff my Great Grandmother and Grandmother have passed down.



5. It was as addvertised, well written and interesting, there are many good recipes in the book, well worth the money

2 comments about Fantastico: Little Italian Plates and Antipasti from Rick Tramonto's Kitchen.

1. So many are so easy to make and you don`t need fancy stuff, which is sometimes hard to get



2. "The only hard-and-fast rule for these small taste treats is that the ingredients be the best you can find." Award-winning Chicago chef Tramonto ("Amuse-Bouche") celebrates small doses of assertive, fresh Italian flavor in which a mouthful or two is enough. Dishes are arranged within chapters so they move forward from spring to winter using seasonal ingredients; the photos are gorgeous and wine advice accompanies each recipe.
   
   He begins with assagio (a morsel), intense little dishes like Marinated White Anchovy and Dandelion Salad or the Italian pickled vegetables Giardiniera, then moves on to crudo (raw, salted and marinated) - Oysters with Red Wine Vinaigrette; Crusted Ahi Tuna with Pomegranate Vinaigrette - and bocconcini (small simple plates) like Baby Artichokes with Lemon-Garlic Bread Crumbs.
   
   There are chapters for bruschetta with "robust" toppings like Fennel and Green Olives and crostini with "refined" toppings like pureed Chicken Livers and Balsamic. Then comes panini - Truffled Scrambled Egg and Bacon - and cicchetti (mini Venetian-style sandwiches) - Fresh Ricotta and Sun-Dried Tomato.
   
   And finally the antipasti (little plates before the pasta) - Creamy Soft Polenta with Meat Ragu; Abruzzi Swordfish Roll-Ups - and the cheese course - Scamorza with Arugula and Oranges.
   
   What all the dishes have in common is a mouthwatering attention to detail, by which I mean the finest ingredients and no shortcuts. The Taleggio (cheese) with Quince Paste and Marcona Almonds, for instance, requires you to make the quince paste. If you have ever tried this, you will know what I mean by laborious, if you have not, well, the directions are clear and brazen.
   
   Many dishes, however, are quite simple, though never slapdash and often requiring several steps. This is a book for those who like to cook, not just get food on the table.

5 comments about Living in a Foreign Language: A Memoir of Food, Wine, and Love in Italy.

1. If you are at all a sensualist, particularly with regard to food, this is a must read. There are other enjoyable aspects to the book - the relationship between Mr. Tucker and his wife, reflections on friendship and celebrity, with a nod to learning to become "unfamous".
   
   But the core of the book is an epicurean approach to life. The story serves, really, as illustration of a way of seeing food, wine and even love.
   
   Nice work. I can't wait for the next book.



2. Basically this book is a diary of Michael Tucker's time in Umbria and the things they ate while they were there. While it is midly entertaining - it's definately not the best travelogue I've ever read. Also I thought author came off as condesending which was a real turn off to read.



3. Michael Tucker is a great story teller and this story will make you want to pack your bag. As with most TV actors you feel you know Tucker and his wife Jill Eikenberry (LA Law). The story of finding and remodeling an italian farm house is every traveler's dream. Tucker's description of the house, the village, and becoming part of the community is engaging. The only problem is the story ends too soon!



4. This is a fun escape into a new venture. The author takes the reader along to the new life he and his wife are experiencing as they share the beauty and excitement of living among the Italian olive groves and fig trees with a few sips of wine and great pasta! Learning the language as they live it is as delightful as it is challenging.



5. I have not yet been fortunate to physically travel to Italy but I can say with certainty that while reading Mr. Tucker's book, I made an intellectual journey to Italy. What a read! I felt as if I was seeing, smelling, touching, tasting every bit that Italy has to offer through the words of Mr. Tucker. Thank you, Mr. Tucker, for taking me along with you. I hope that in the near future my family and I will have the privilege of experiencing this wonderful country.

5 comments about Trattoria Cooking: More than 200 authentic recipes from Italy's family-style restaurants.

1. "Trattoria Cooking" inspires and delights. The recipes are accompanied by stories of their origins, alternative serving suggestions, wines hints...all in all, an approach to the cooking experience that let's the reader feel comfortable. Great flavors abound inside the cover.

   A small word of caution needs to be offered. Beware those of you who are calorie conscious. This book is not moderate in its results. Your grandmother's grandmother would be proud of these recipes. You will want to eat more of this wonderful stuff.




2. It's hard to forgive a person who once co-authored a cookbook with Leo Bascaglia, but Biba does well here. Recipes range from antipasti to desserts, and include basics such as chicken and meat broth, homemade pasta and gnocchi, and pizza dough. Some recipes are a bit involved, but they don't require difficult techniques or equipment (Caggiano always instructs us to run tomatoes through a food mill to remove seeds, but I ignore this). My favorites include Fried Veal Meatballs, Risotto with Smoked Mozzarella, and Frozen Zabaglione.
   
   This is a nice big hardcover, but no pictures.



3. I won't lie to you. I don't cook very much but I picked this book up at a yard sale and I donated it to my school library for our culinary shop students. It's very informative and detailed in explaining the process of cooking. I recommend it to anybody who loves Italian cooking.



4. I have an extensive collection of Italian cookbooks and this is a good one. I recommend it to anyone interested in learning a few new Italian food dishes to whip up at the next family gathering.



5. There are many very good recipes in this book. It is a bit on the edge for the average cook. If you love Italian food, I am sure you will find things you will enjoy cooking.
   These are not spaghetti and meatball recipes. Plan on getting involed
   DOC

5 comments about Food To Die For: Secrets From Kay Scarpetta's Kitchen.

1. This is a great cook book and really does make my mouth water just thinking about it. I really enjoyed the Crab cakes and would recommend them to anyone. Most of her recipies are pretty simple and they are all delicious. I say... Dive in!



2. I checked the book out from the library because I am a huge Dr. Scarpetta fan. I was hesitant to make the recipies due to the lengthy list of ingredients in most of them, but the 4 recipies I have tried were amazing! I just made one of them tonight and I am still drooling over it. The fresh pasta is the BEST recipie I have tried (and I have tried a lot), and it makes a HUGE difference! The stew was soooo good, granted, it took a while, but it was worth it!!! I love this book, I plan to buy it. Worth the investment for the cook who loves great recipies!



3. Anything Patricia Cornwell writes is excellent. I have tried most of the recipes in this book and all are fantastic.



4. Havving read all the Patricia Cornwell 'Scarpetta' novels, I was intrigued to find a related cook book. I was delighted to be able to find a copy at Amazon, and with the usual prompt service, it wasn't long before my book arrived.
   I must admit, the food sounded very tempting even though the cases involved in the novels are horrendous!
   The recipes are relatively simple, the only drawback being that in England,some ingredients are unavailable. Improvisation doesn't spoil the end results though and my husband and son are thoroughly enjoying the new menus!
   If you enjoy having fun cooking, I recommend Food To Die For.
   By the way, the Jack Daniels Chocolate Pecan Pie nearly started a riot on New Years Eve...I had to bake two more!



5. This cookbook is great for the Kay Scarpetta fan or even your everyday Italian foodie. Beautiful pictures and amazing receipes.

3 comments about Ciao Italia Pronto!: 30-Minute Recipes from an Italian Kitchen.

1. a nice addition to the library but not as essential as her other books.
   
   Recipes are very easy to follow and to prepare in limited time.



2. "Ciao Italia Pronto!" is a better cookbook in theory than in practice.
   
   Italian food? Check! Thirty minute meals? Check! Sounds like just the thing to make a nice meal and still have some time between getting home from work and bedtime. That would be a false assumption.
   
   American kitchens are certainly more sophisticated since the days when Chef-Boy-Ar-Dee owned the Italian cooking franchise. However, many of the ingredients called for in these recipes are still on the exotic side in my corner grocery. Sure, we have farmers markets, Whole Foods, Trader Joe's, even an Italian specialty market or two but, if I have to fight traffic gridlock after work to go destination shopping for ingredients, it defeats the purpose of the Thirty Minute meal. The author recognizes this problem and provides a four page directory of mail order houses to obtain some of the required ingredients. This immediately makes about 40 percent of these recipes more trouble than they're worth.
   
   If you do manage to find the ingredients, know that these recipes are neither simple, nor fast.
   
   The recipe for "Lazy Lasagne" requires eight ingredients, and bakes for 30-35 minutes. That's cooking time only, and does NOT include prep time. Oh, and the tomato sauce for the lasagne is a recipe on a separate page. The sauce requires an additional eight ingredients and 20 minutes of cooking time.
   
   Another main dish, "Fresh Tuna with Artichoke, Capers and Chickpeas," requires 12 ingredient and we're advised to make it early in the day, or a day ahead.
   
   Some of the dishes are unfamiliar and pictures of the prepared food would have been a big help. There are only eight full page color pictures located in the center of the book, one appetizer, one soup, two main dishes, two salads, and two desserts.
   
   If you're interested in this book for quick, convenient recipes, look elsewhere. This is far more complicated and time consuming than the advertised "....30 Minute Recipes from an Italian Kitchen." Not recommended.



3. I subscribe to a few cooking magazines...and very much look forward to curling up on the couch and browsing for new recipe ideas. I have a dear friend who is an accomplished cook and loves authentic Italian food. After her husband was in a tragic accident, I purchsed this book in hopes of finding ideas for easy italian meals that I could bring to her family. But, I guess I just took for granted that this cookbook would live up to its name. I saw the television show, and they made it look so easy! It would help a lot if there were pictures in the book to give you some idea of what the final product should look like. The meals are neither quick, nor easy. I was very disappointed in this purchase. This book will not last long in my kitchen. Sorry!