Rating: 
Summary: Good but Not Practical
Review: I bought this on a whim. I do not have cable television so I had never heard of Mario Batali's cooking show. I like the way this book is laid out and all of the recipes sounded wonderful! But I am not in the position to make my own pasta - I don't own a machine. I did make a chicken recipe that was stuffed with cheese, pine-nuts and nutmeg and it was great. I would like to try more in this book but I know I will not be able to find some of the ingredients; thus my question of its practicality for those of us that don't live near food-savvy locales (ie. NYC, LA, etc.)
Rating: 
Summary: A Professional Chef and Successful Communicator
Review: I find it hard to be entirely objective about this book, as Mario Batali is my number one culinary hero. Through his show 'Molto Mario' on the Food Network, he exposed me for the first time to Italian regional and microregional cuisines and the 'if it grows together, it goes together' doctrine. This is called 'terroir by the fans of cooking from 'the F country', which Mario loves to hate. This also brought into full light the doctrine of 'buy the very best of what is fresh today and that will determine what you cook tonight.' Mario does not give you the cerebral approach of someone like Paul Bertolli or Tom Colicchio or, ultimately, like Thomas Keller, but Mario gets all the important stuff right, in a way we can appreciate and use.I love the way Mario quite honestly confesses to having lifted most of his recipes from Italian grandmothers, as he believes that the best Italian cooking is done in the home and not in the Restaurante. In spite of his heart being with Italian cuisine, he is never disrespectful of American food and produce, especially when the American product is superior to the Italian. This book is comprised of recipes primarily from the extended three-year stage he served in a little trattoria in Emilia-Romagna, a stones throw from the border with Toscana. But, it does contain several recipes from other parts of Emilia-Romagna, Toscana, Lazio (Rome) and even Sicily. His two 'villages' are Porretta Terme in Italy and Greenwich Village in Manhattan. The book has six chapters of recipes, these being: Antipasti, 43 recipes including crostini, bruschetta, polenta, pickled vegetables, mushrooms, and cured fish.
Primi (pasta or rice), 49 recipes including recipes for fresh pastas, gnocchi, couscous, and risottos.
Seconde (main dish)
Pesce (fish), 27 recipes including scallops, calamari, prawns, crabs, lobster, snapper, and even frogs' legs.
Carne (meat), 32 recipes including rabbit, pheasant, lamb, veal, beef, sausage, liver, and sweetmeats.
Contorni (side dishes) 26 recipes including polenta, many vegetable dishes, grilled, fried, and pickled.
Formaggi & Dolce (cheese and sweets) 27 recipes including fruit and confections with funny names. Each section includes pantry recipes for sauces and dressings not included in this count. I would recommend this book primarily for the reading of Mario's unvarnished enthusiasm for food and the Italian dedication to (relative) simplicity of method and freshness of your 'prima materia'. I would also highly recommend his basic tomato sauce (I make it all the time) and his recipes using fresh pasta. As he points out, there is a big difference between the fresh pasta of the north and the dry pasta of the south both in the way they are made, in the types of flour used, and in the sauces appropriate to each. Mario's recommendations on making and dressing pasta are worth the price of admission. The black and white or sepia photographs of Mario and his colleagues at the trattoria lend a warm 'gemutlichkeit' (sorry, I don't know the Italian word) to the proceedings. The color photos are better than average, in that the photographer succeeds in getting the entire dish in focus. I highly recommend the book for the authenticity of the recipes and his introduction into a deeper appreciation of Italian food. It is not a complete presentation of Italian dishes, but it is a great partner to a broader treatment done by Marcella Hazan, Lydia Bastianich, Giuliano Bugialli, or the Cooks Illustrated volume on Classic Italian recipes. I agree with those who warn that the book is not for novices, but is the sort of book which can show the way from innocence to experience.
Rating:
Summary: A Professional Chef and Successful Communicator
Review: I find it hard to be entirely objective about this book, as Mario Batali is my number one culinary hero. Through his show `Molto Mario' on the Food Network, he exposed me for the first time to Italian regional and microregional cuisines and the `if it grows together, it goes together' doctrine. This is called `terroir by the fans of cooking from `the F country', which Mario loves to hate. This also brought into full light the doctrine of `buy the very best of what is fresh today and that will determine what you cook tonight.' Mario does not give you the cerebral approach of someone like Paul Bertolli or Tom Colicchio or, ultimately, like Thomas Keller, but Mario gets all the important stuff right, in a way we can appreciate and use. I love the way Mario quite honestly confesses to having lifted most of his recipes from Italian grandmothers, as he believes that the best Italian cooking is done in the home and not in the Restaurante. In spite of his heart being with Italian cuisine, he is never disrespectful of American food and produce, especially when the American product is superior to the Italian. This book is comprised of recipes primarily from the extended three-year stage he served in a little trattoria in Emilia-Romagna, a stones throw from the border with Toscana. But, it does contain several recipes from other parts of Emilia-Romagna, Toscana, Lazio (Rome) and even Sicily. His two `villages' are Porretta Terme in Italy and Greenwich Village in Manhattan. The book has six chapters of recipes, these being: Antipasti, 43 recipes including crostini, bruschetta, polenta, pickled vegetables, mushrooms, and cured fish.
Primi (pasta or rice), 49 recipes including recipes for fresh pastas, gnocchi, couscous, and risottos.
Seconde (main dish)
Pesce (fish), 27 recipes including scallops, calamari, prawns, crabs, lobster, snapper, and even frogs' legs.
Carne (meat), 32 recipes including rabbit, pheasant, lamb, veal, beef, sausage, liver, and sweetmeats.
Contorni (side dishes) 26 recipes including polenta, many vegetable dishes, grilled, fried, and pickled.
Formaggi & Dolce (cheese and sweets) 27 recipes including fruit and confections with funny names. Each section includes pantry recipes for sauces and dressings not included in this count. I would recommend this book primarily for the reading of Mario's unvarnished enthusiasm for food and the Italian dedication to (relative) simplicity of method and freshness of your `prima materia'. I would also highly recommend his basic tomato sauce (I make it all the time) and his recipes using fresh pasta. As he points out, there is a big difference between the fresh pasta of the north and the dry pasta of the south both in the way they are made, in the types of flour used, and in the sauces appropriate to each. Mario's recommendations on making and dressing pasta are worth the price of admission. The black and white or sepia photographs of Mario and his colleagues at the trattoria lend a warm `gemutlichkeit' (sorry, I don't know the Italian word) to the proceedings. The color photos are better than average, in that the photographer succeeds in getting the entire dish in focus. I highly recommend the book for the authenticity of the recipes and his introduction into a deeper appreciation of Italian food. It is not a complete presentation of Italian dishes, but it is a great partner to a broader treatment done by Marcella Hazan, Lydia Bastianich, Giuliano Bugialli, or the Cooks Illustrated volume on Classic Italian recipes. I agree with those who warn that the book is not for novices, but is the sort of book which can show the way from innocence to experience.
Rating:
Summary: Great recipes, abomidable design
Review: I love Mario Batali but rarely have I seen such an ill-designed, hard-to-read cookbook where the layout of the text and pictures actually interferes with understanding the recipes. Mario deserves much better. A chef of his caliber should be paired with book designers of equal talent.
Rating: 
Summary: Ingredients hard to find? That's missing the point.
Review: I think the reviewers who say that some of the ingredients are hard to find are missing the point. One of the themes of this book, which Batali also mentions almost daily on his FoodTV shows, is that great Italian cooking uses ingredients that are as fresh as can be and are native to each region. The happy result of this is that dishes taste bright, intense, and more flavorful. So go find great dishes in YOUR region and see what new things they help you discover in your cooking! If the reviewers that can't easily find boar -- and who can nowadays :o) -- they probably could find a similar flavored cut of pork, or maybe an easier-to-find game meat like venison or buffalo, and give it the same treatment. Cornish game hens, or even a small-ish chicken, could stand in for pheasant. No goat cheese in your town? No problem, use a soft farmers cheese or even a feta instead. I've tried some of these substitutions and they work just fine. Maybe the taste won't be identical to wild boar, but if you still like it, who cares? Personally, I find these recipes inspire me to try new things when I'm cooking, but once I've learned a new trick, I don't stick to them word for word like a magic formula. Now my only bone to pick with this book is that I would like to see more vegetarian main courses. My wife is vegetarian, and while many of the pastas in the book work very well for her as a main course, it means I'm the only one who gets to taste the great pheasent, er, chicken dishes. Oh, and by the way, if you can't find saffron (or other spices and dried herbs) where you live, check out the Penzey's spices catalog or Penzeys.com. They can send it, reasonably priced, right to your door.
Rating:
Summary: Must have cook book.
Review: I'm a bit of a loss to read the less than stellar reviews of this book by Mario Batali. Yes, Mario uses some not-so-common ingredients... but if you want not-so-common food, you try your best to find those ingredients (hint: you can find hard-to-find ingredients pretty damn easy over the Web)... besides, there's
a common alternative to practically every ingredient that Mario uses. So far I've tried about a dozen recipes... *all* with stellar results. The artichoke/pasta and the calamari recipes are particular favorites. And while I was skeptical about the quick tomato sauce that he describes early on (hey... its *so* different than Marcella's quick sauce), when I tried it, it was amazingly good, especially for a 30-minute sauce. And... yeah... it does take a little practice to make your own fresh pasta. Overkneading/overrolling can make fresh pasta pretty tough. If you can't... you can always stick to Sicilian dishes. Sicilians prefer dried pasta. :) This is a good book (unlike other junk like Emeril's book... Emeril is a circus clown not a cook). Besides the simple (they *are* simple) recipes, you really learn quite a bit about simple Italian cooking that you can leverage in your other dishes.
Rating:
Summary: Must have cook book.
Review: I'm a bit of a loss to read the less than stellar reviews of this book by Mario Batali. Yes, Mario uses some not-so-common ingredients... but if you want not-so-common food, you try your best to find those ingredients (hint: you can find hard-to-find ingredients pretty damn easy over the Web)... besides, there's
a common alternative to practically every ingredient that Mario uses. So far I've tried about a dozen recipes... *all* with stellar results. The artichoke/pasta and the calamari recipes are particular favorites. And while I was skeptical about the quick tomato sauce that he describes early on (hey... its *so* different than Marcella's quick sauce), when I tried it, it was amazingly good, especially for a 30-minute sauce. And... yeah... it does take a little practice to make your own fresh pasta. Overkneading/overrolling can make fresh pasta pretty tough. If you can't... you can always stick to Sicilian dishes. Sicilians prefer dried pasta. :) This is a good book (unlike other junk like Emeril's book... Emeril is a circus clown not a cook). Besides the simple (they *are* simple) recipes, you really learn quite a bit about simple Italian cooking that you can leverage in your other dishes.
Rating:
Summary: Great recipes, great ideas
Review: I've begun working my way through this cookbook and I've been extremely happy with the results of every recipe I've tried. (The chicken thighs with saffron, green olives and mint are outstanding.) I particularly appreciate Batali's combination of tradition and innovation and his presentation of recipes that highlight the freshness and focused simplicity of Italian cooking. This cookbook may be more valuable for those who enjoy experimentation in the kitchen and don't worry overmuch about following recipes to the letter. If you don't have boar (and who does?), try pork. No ramps? I used scallions. This cookbook is a lot of fun!
Rating:
Summary: Great recipes, great ideas
Review: I've begun working my way through this cookbook and I've been extremely happy with the results of every recipe I've tried. (The chicken thighs with saffron, green olives and mint are outstanding.) I particularly appreciate Batali's combination of tradition and innovation and his presentation of recipes that highlight the freshness and focused simplicity of Italian cooking. This cookbook may be more valuable for those who enjoy experimentation in the kitchen and don't worry overmuch about following recipes to the letter. If you don't have boar (and who does?), try pork. No ramps? I used scallions. This cookbook is a lot of fun!
Rating:
Summary: One of the best Italian culinary cook book for your home!
Review: I've bought and read so many culinary cook books but I find this book an excellent choice for Italian food lovers! Although Italian cooking consists in using simple ingredients, Mario Batali enhanced the simplicity to a delicacy by his way of using his ingredients. Its true that some of his ingredients seem exotic, but by replacing the ingredient with something similar, it will still do the trick. I am sure that others will enjoy his recipies. This book is the perfect choice for your culinary library!
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