"Four Menus, Four Festive Meals."
This is a compendium of distinctive recipes designed for four holidays, from Christmas eve through to New years day in elegant Italian style. The recipes make use of seasonal ingredients & shows a modest cross section of the regional variety of Italian cooking traditions. But, it is on the whole a book on the region of Campania. It includes color pictures of the food itself that are both more numerous & of finer quality than in his other books. Like many Asians, Italians truly revel in small portions of several types of dishes.
This is cooking from scratch, no breezy shortcuts here. But, the instructions are direct & the results are very worthwhile. The sixty recipes are adaptable so that they can be mixed & matched for any occasion one wishes. From the Christmas day turkey breast stuffed with Prunes & Chesnuts to the vibrant Tangerine juice Aperitivo, you will find all these recipes mouth watering. Lastly, the wine suggestions helped in the celebratory enjoyment that is the "heart & soul of Italian cuisine."
A Treasure!
I just re-ordered this book as I lost the first one I bought. Contrary to what some other reviews have said, I like the fact that it is a small book with special or holiday recipes. I have several other Italian cookbooks, including the Silver Spoon and Essentials of Italian Cooking, and while I really like those books, the volume of recipes is often overwhelming when I am looking for a special holiday dish. So far I have made the broccoli saffriti, spaghetti all cozze (spicy spaghetti with mussels), Strangulapreti all sorrentina (Gnocchi with tomato sauce and Mozzella) and the pizzelles and they have all been great! Since I haven't made the other dishes I can not say how they will turn out, but so far I have not been disappointed. As for the book itself, it is truly beautiful and I enjoy looking at the pictures and reading about Mario's personal holiday experiences.
Based on my experience with this book, I am eager to buy Mario's other cookbooks.
Excellent as always
While we ultimately didn't have the opportunity to make any of these recipes for the holidays, my wife and I read through most of them and they look wonderful. We own every cookbook Mario's written and we've eaten in two of his NYC restaurants, so we're very familiar with his style and the quality of his work. In fact, the "Feast of the Seven Fishes" in the book is very much like his Christmas Eve menu at Lupa, his place on Thompson St. in the Village.
Very high recommendation from real Italian "foodies" (we spent 3 weeks in Italy last year....)
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