Rating: 
Summary: Great recipes, awful binding
Review: I've reviewed this cookbook before from the point of view of the contents, for which I gave it 5 stars. I use this cookbook all the time and absolutely love it. Unfortunately, I use this cookbook all the time and the cheap glued binding has not held up. About half the pages have detached and I'm a few chapters away from having to pull the whole thing apart and put it in a three-ring binder. Interestingly, the same publisher used a sewn binding for the Babbo Cookbook, so I guess the gourmet recipes get the quality treatment. I would still recommend purchasing the cookbook for the wonderful preparations, but shame on the publisher for using such poor components on a book designed to be repeatedly opened and laid flat.
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Summary: Mario the Italian Wanna Be
Review: If you never grew up on Italian food or if you are not a Italian born, there's no way one can regognize the true authentic flavors of real Italian food. You can certainly try to immediate it, but its like comparing Leather to Pleather. I see Mario multi talented in his huge glossary of fancy words that describe history and perhaps description of foods in a high ranking cooking university. He is best suited somewhere in northern alps of Italy teaching Italian foods to the very elite and most sophisticated snobs who would be very interested in learning Italian Mario abstract-style and maybe paying a few hundred dollars for a fancy odd meal.
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Summary: Batali Proves He Is One Of The Best!
Review: Mario Batali's Simple Italian Food is one of my new personal favorites. As the online host for the website Italian Food Forever, and a great collector of cookbooks, this one is definately one I would recommend to anyone interested in Italian food. Batali's book is not only full of amazing recipes, it is fun to browse through with pictures and illustrations on almost every page. His pasta recipes are almost all worthy of being used while entertaining, and he adds just a few surprise ingredients here and there without spoiling the traditional simplicity of the recipes. Well worth the money!
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Summary: learn a lot AND make delicious Italian food!
Review: Mario is fabulously eloquent, not only on his TV shows, but also in his book. And the recipes are great - everyone we have tried is a winner - great bruschettas, pasta, meat and more. Hooray to Mario for including fresh, unexpected (for Americans) ways to use artichoke too. Thank goodness for Mario, who has some integrity in this new world of TV chefs who sensationalize food preparation for ratings! -- Not Mario -- he sticks to food that is wonderful, joyous, simple, and wholly enjoyable. And, he is a great teacher. This is the book we pull out when we want a great pasta dish for a weeknight, as well when planning a three or four course meal for guests. Very versatile.p.s. The information about fresh vs. dried pasta was ENLIGHTENING! i.e. with which sauces dried is best, and when fresh is best.
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Summary: It Looks Better On TV
Review: My five-year old daughter and I love watching Food TV and, whenever he makes something, she asks if WE can make it. Mario is one of our favorites! So, I went out and bought the book. I was disappointed. The ingredients are difficult to find and, yet again, another cookbook that seriously lacks the pictures that would help entice you to want to make the dish!
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Summary: Basic Pasta Dough Problem
Review: My husband and I love Mario's recipes. And we purchased his "Simple Italian Food' recipe book. Then we went out to buy a new pasta rolling machine (we bought the master mixer, to which you can attach a pasta roller). Then we tried Mario's "Basic Pasta Dough" recipe. We followed the instructions to the letter. But when the dough finally came together, it was very hard...and difficult to knead. So, we added a bit of water. It still never really seemed to work. After allowing it to rest, etc., we tried to feed it through the pasta roller. It just tore into little pieces. We worked and worked with it. And finally got some of it to come together. We've since tried this recipe two more times, with the same results. My husband and I have been avid in our cooking efforts (we attend cooking schools, eat at the top-rated restaurants in order to experience new preparations, etc.). Yet we've never had this type of trouble. So, I'm not sure what to think about such a basic recipe. Maybe someone could write a response to this review, to let us know what we're doing wrong. Kris
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Summary: Good Chef, but the ingredients are to hard to find.
Review: My husband and I love to cook, we watch the Food Network all the time. We love to try interesting food. If you have limited space in your kitchen, don't pick this one. Many of the recipes are the "once a year" type requiring too many unique ingredients. We've used the Emeril's and Naked Chef many more times, weekly. We're hoping that one of the other Mario cookbooks is a little less limiting in ingredients.
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Summary: Chef Batali's love of Italy exudes through the pages
Review: Never have I experienced such satisfaction gained through the knowledge I received from this book. First you learn about the ingredients - quality and simplicity in number utmost and foremost - then, on to the preparation - again simplicity - utmost and foremost - and finally the presentation - what you end up with is a dish of the utmost quality, prepared with the utmost simplicity - with a taste and presentation of the utmost elegance. Way to go, Mario Bravo!
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Summary: Simple Italien cooking in the country
Review: Simple referes here to a lifestyle! Reading this book takes you right into the italien kitchen. The kitchen which is shown in some of the pictures in this book.This is really what italien home cooking is like! Having said this let me tell you that I'm a german, who lives in Italy now after having lived 9 years in the states.
This is down to earth cooking. Making with joy something special out of little ingredients. Cooking because it's fun and having taken the time to make something special. It might take a few times to get something like pasta right when doing it the first time. Once managed, even pasta making can be a brise and done for dinner. Don't be afraid to try it. With only so few ingredients it's really simple. I've never had a cooking class.
I just love to feed my family well.
It is definitly not like the "everyday italien" cooking show on TV. This is life in the country not city fast food.
So good because it's so fresh and made with love. Mario clearly love this country. It just spills out of him. This is visible in the Molto Mario show and in this book. Wonderful.
Rating:
Summary: Well Worth The Effort
Review: Some of the recipes call for ingredients which are a little hard to find, even in metropolitan Seattle where I live, but the results are outstanding. It also helps to watch Mario on the FoodTV network. The way he cooks makes so much sense to me, a retired guy who only took up cooking a few years ago. Well worth the price, even if only a few recipes are used.
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