The Timeless Art of Italian Cuisine

Rating:
Summary: Real Italian Cuisine
Review: In this book one can finally find the real, homemade Italian cuisine. I was glad to find an author that finally gives back to Italian cuisine what is eminently its own: Simplicity. Here the reader will find no complicated, thousand-ingredients, overly rich sauces and flavours, but the simple tastes of the staples of Italian cuisine, such as olive oil, tomatoes and basil.
As an added bonus, the recipes are simple, easy to follow and generally not too time consuming.
This book is also fun to read when not cooking (even though you are eventually going to get so hungry you will get up and start cooking), since the author has recorded many difficult to find anecdotes recounting the origins of Italian dishes, recipes, etc.

Rating:
Summary: First Rate
Review: Who better to learn about Italian cuisine than from a native of that country! Anna Maria Volpi takes us on a culinary journey through her native Italy and teaches us about each region's history of food, cooking, its influences and offers delicious recipes.

Anna Maria Volpi began cooking in her native Italy while still a youngster. She learned how to prepare wonderful dishes from fresh ingredients. Her heritage is mainly Roman and Sicilian, but learning about cooking opened her up to a new world, where food would become her passion. After migrating to the United States, she became an accomplished teacher in the field of cooking traditional Italian food from fresh ingredients, prepared in the simplest ways. She frequently is a guest instructor at Williams-Sonoma.

With the aid of her husband, Pietro, who did a lot of research for the history portion of the book, "The Timeless Art of Italian Cuisine" takes us on a culinary journey. The chapters in this book are for each region in Italy. The history of that region is explained, as well as any outside influences, which may have affected the food at the time. Then, recipes from that region are offered. She also explains how some of Americans' favorite Italian dishes are merely American adaptations. For example: spaghetti and meatballs, macaroni and cheese, pepperoni, veal parmigiana and pasta primavera. Each recipe is easy to prepare and not very time consuming. The measurements are in imperial and in metric, which is useful for anyone who typically needs to make metric conversions for their cookbook. Some of excellent recipes contained in this book are: how to make fresh pasta, polenta, biscotti, focaccia, lasagna, cannoli, pizza and many more, making a total of 170 scrumptious recipes!

I truly enjoyed this book. I would strongly recommend this book for all Italian food lovers, as well as anyone interested in learning the art of Italian cuisine. The book is easy to read, and the recipes are simple to prepare. The food is delicious. The history of Italy is daunting with how long their history is in contrast to America. With the holiday season approaching, pick up a couple of copies of this book. One for yourself, and one for a friend.

Special Note:
This cookbook won the "Special Jury Award" of the 2003 Gourmand World Cookbook in English. Chosen out of 3500 books entrants from 60 countries, the book will be competing against winners in the same category in other languages. It is now a finalist for the "Best in the World" Award in this category, which will be handed over during the gala dinner in Barcelona (Spain), on Feb. 27, 2004.

The Gourmand World Food Cookbook Awards were created by Edouard Cointreau in 1995, and focuses on the best food and wine books. It is considered the "Oscar" of cookbooks. The Best in the World Gala Dinner for food and wine books of 2003 takes place in February 2004, during the congress and bookfair in Barcelona on February 26-29, 2004.