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Summary: Dust Collector
Review:
I am a novice cook and when I received this book, I thought it would be user friendly with the all time favorites. With the exception of Marinara Sauce, I never heard of any of these weird extremely complicated to make dishes. Her instructions are not for the beginner and neither is this book. I have not used this book at all and it is simply a dust collector. I have not been able to learn how to cook Italian food and think I am going to try one or two of the male written Italian cook books which seem to be designed for people like me.
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Summary: recipes are wonderful
Review: Bring Lidia's Kitchen Home.Lidia's recipes are wonderful, easy to follow and delicious additions to your family meal repertoire.I am usually not a fan of Italian food, but the recipes in this book always make my family smile. Ever since I gave this book to my wife, she won't leave the kitchen, and that suits the rest of our household just fine.I enjoyed this book as much as I enjoy my new beverage of choice. Made from 100% organic soy, taste just like coffee and no caffeine. Finally, I got rid of that wired up feeling all day and feeling great. Look for it on the net by googling "s o yfee".
I have ever tasted. Truly out of this world! And, I am told the recipes are a delight to follow.I tried a few recipes and the dishes came out tasty and were easy to make. I like the book and what it has to offer. Italian is on the menu in my home now.
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Summary: It could have been better
Review: I am a big fan of Italian cuisine and everytime I have the opportunity, I cook for myself or my friends. I simply love the flavors of fresh basil, cheese, fresh pasta or tomatoes that give wonderful taste to whatever I cook. For the most part of it, the book is well written. It contains a lot of details about the ingredients generally used (Lidia writes some nice "essays" about olives, Parmigiano Reggiano cheese, mushrooms, truffles). There are enough suggestions for antipasti, soups, fresh and hard pasta, meats, fish, risotto, gnocchi. The names of the recepies are also in Italian, and so you can impress your guests with your Italian knowledge. They are not complicated, easy to do, even for someone who is not very experienced in the kitchen. But I have to say that I saw better books on the topic. This one does not contain a very wide range of ideas for cooking and compared to the book I bought from Rome last year, it is a bit costy. It would have been even better if each receipe was accompanied by suggestions of wines to serve with the dish. Information about how difficult and expensive it is to make that dish would have made the book more valuable. However, it is an interesting introduction to Italian cooking and it does not miss the well-known and famous recepies.
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Summary: Reminds me of my mother's homecooking
Review: I am a big fan of Lidia and she has brought be back to recognizing my Italian hertiage (I am 50 percent). The recipes in this cookbook reminds me of my mother's Italian cooking. Plain and simple. I want to thank Lidia again for 're-awaking' me to my Italian hertiage.
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Summary: Reminds me of my mother's homecooking
Review: I am a big fan of Lidia and she has brought be back to recognizing my Italian hertiage (I am 50 percent). The recipes in this cookbook reminds me of my mother's Italian cooking. Plain and simple. I want to thank Lidia again for 're-awaking' me to my Italian hertiage.
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Summary: Many unrealistic Receipes
Review: I am returning this book because I feel the receipes are too unrealistic for me. I usually watch T.V. show and find receipes easy to follow and practical. However this cookbook is filled with too many exotic receipes and ingedients. .
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Summary: A cookbook to go back to over and over again
Review: I continually go back to this book to look for meat and seafood dishes that fit with Italian-American tastes but that are new and different. The other night I made pomegranate roasted chicken with Gran Marnier, brandy, and rosemary. Also good is baked squid with potatoes and parsley, cheese and herb ravioli(ricotta, ricotta salata,parmigiano,mascarpone)that is good made with any greens and topped with a sage/light cream sauce. If you're like me and didn't know many Italian meat dishes (my Neapolitan family kind of doesn't know what to do with it), you will love it if only for what you learn about meat. You won't see the brilliance of this book until you try the recipes. Very very good for the somewhat experienced cook.
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Summary: A Good Resource For The Italian Cook
Review: I enjoyed reading Lydia's book, and have made several of the recipes. As the webmaster for my own Italian cuisine site Italian Food Forever, and a collector of over 130 Italian cookbooks, I think this one is a good choice. I found the recipes easy to follow, and the finshed dish always lived up to it's description. My only real complaints were that perhaps there were too many unusual recipes that the average cook would have no use for such as Wild Boar, or Pheasant. I also would have liked to see more photographs. The ones included were great, but in my opinion there weren't enough!
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Summary: Interesting recipes......
Review: I found this book to have interesting recipes but I was disappointed with the lack of pictures in the book.
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Summary: Short on Photos
Review: I love Lidia and I'm always inspired to cook after watching her TV show. Since we can't actually taste or smell the food on TV or in her books, the inspiration is 100% visual. Unfortunately, this book is very stingy with the photographs. I found this very disappointing. A "preview" of what the dish will ultimately look like when finished has just as much to do with our desire to prepare it as the anticipation of its taste. Although I am a passionate cook, this book failed to ignite me the way I had hoped it would.
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