Italian

We recently moved to a larger house with a bigger kitchen. For us eating out was a nightly event. Now, I enjoy spending time in the kitchen with all my gadgets. So, when I came across a sale rack of cookbooks I couldn't help but pick one up. Previously, my cooking legacy had revolved around family favorites and recipes handover from friends. I have stacks of cookbooks that I have picked up here and there, but none of them have ever really interested me. This one on the other hand, has been great. The preparation is made easy by the page layout. The ingredients are placed above each recipe's instructions in a highlighted box. The directions are numbered step-by-step. A few small colored photos at the bottom of the page illustrate steps that might be confusing and a full page colored photo of the end dish is available on the adjacent page (to help you judge if your dish is actually eatable). The only flaw that I can find, which is easily reprimanded is the lack of ingredient definitions. Since, I am not an avid cook, and the recipes call for authentic Italian ingredients, the names of those ingredents throw me for a loop. Luckily a near by store has an excellent produce staff and when all else fails I get out my trusty Betty Crocker. Anyway, I have now made three of the recipes in this book. The first one I made was the Prosciutto-wrapped Chicken. At first, I was concerned. When I boiled the broth and wine together the smell was horrid, but once I added the chicken the gastly stench turned into a sensational aroma. The end product was delicious. My husband and I rated it 4 out of 5 stars. The second and third recipes (Pork with Lemon & Garlic / Roasted Bell Pepper Bread) were good but rated a little lower. Tonight I am planning on making my forth recipe, Chicken Lasagna. I think I am going to try the What's Cooking Mexican book next.

I am a good, experienced, but very LIMITED cook. And, as I've gotten older, I've found myself more and more interested in eating healthier. AND, I've heard over the years about the 'healthiness' of most italian food. So, since none of the cookbooks I had really had a lot of italian, I asked for a book for christmas.My mom picked this book, and I am very impressed with it. It is PACKED with recipes! After a 2-page introduction to the regions of italy, by Page 6 you're hitting recipes, and they continue ONE RECIPE PER PAGE!! until only ONE (1) page before the end of the book! By putting one recipe per page, with beautiful pictures of the final product AND pictures of selected 'steps' in the preparation, this makes for the most user-friendly cookbook I've ever seen. Very, very impressive.SO, you may ask, why not a 5-star rating? It goes back to my lack of experience cooking I mentioned at the beginning of this review. Many of these recipes call for items I simple do NOT know what they are! It may be authentic, and I can appreciate that, but I can't make a food if I don't know what I'm buying, and neither do the teenagers working at the grocery store! Arugula? red chard?fennel?porcini?prosciutto?pancetta? I'm sure I can search and find these items, but a few pages detailing WHAT these 'more-rare' items are would have been helpful.

I have two cookbooks "What's cooking..." The baking and Italian. I gonna tell You that this books are absolutely wonderful!!!Every recipe have a picture so You can see what You want to do and what to expect in result. Buy it don't wait. The price is great!I highly recomend this books!Geni from Massachusetts.

This is a wonderful cookbook. Recipes from all the regions of Italy. The ingredients can be found on your grocery store shelf. The recipes are actually simple, not complicated at all, and not a long list of ingredients. From Snacks to Dessert. Well worth the price.