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Summary: great Italian food
Review: This is a great treasure of Neopolitan cooking. My greatgrandmother was a wonderful cook, but unfortunately no one thought to record her recipes. This book has many recipes that are similar to hers - I finally found those lost recipes. Every recipe I have tried is delicious and I use the book over and over (and you can tell by looking at it). Anyone who is interested in Campanian cooking should definitely get this book - it is a great investment.
Rating:
Summary: Buonissimo!
Review: This is my favorite, number 1 Italian cookbook. Italian cooking is a real combination of incredibly easy, effortless cooking versus labor intensive works of love. This book has it both. Being that I am slightly lazy in nature, I've pretty much tried all the easy recipes... and they have all turned out so incredibly delicious with really very minimal work and with very few ingredients. Because my family comes from the obscure city of Avella, I'm thoroughly enjoying recipes that my grandmother once cooked. I am grateful to the author for producing a book of recipes that I thought I'd never see or taste at home again. My favorite recipes are: Pasta e Lenticchie (Pasta and Lentils), Lingunie all'Amalfitana (Linguine with Walnuts and Anchovies), Vermicelli alla Campolattaro (Spaghetti with Tuna and Anchovy sauce), Frittata (flat omelet), Zucchine a Scapece (Marinated Fried Zucchini, Scialatielli (pasta), etc. etc. etc. Mangia, mangia!
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Summary: Manificent effort in capturing the great cuisine of Campania
Review: This new cookbook covers the cuisine of Naples and Campania, the cuisine which most Italian-American food is based. I am especially excited about this book because Mr. Schwartz has done a magnificent job of capturing the essence of the delicious cuisine from the Campania Region of Italy. I recognize many of the recipes from the days of watching my grandmother prepare many marvelous meals. Happily there are many recipes in the book that look outstanding with which I am not familiar. I can't wait to prepare many of these. It was especially encouraging to read many of these beautifully explained recipes that were apparently carefully researched and fully tested until the author was sure that they would "work" as intended. His explanation of "marinara sauce and genovese sauce" alone were worth the price of the book for me. It is one of the best cookbooks that I know of about the cuisine of Italy which is so highly Regionalized. Marcella Hazan's books used to be my favorites but these have been replaced with "Naples at Table". There are enough great sounding recipes to keep me busy preparing them for the next several weeks. An added bonus is that the author has done a commendable job in connecting the interesting history of the Region with its cuisine. It will be a present to many of my friends from me especially for those whose forebears came from Campania.
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Summary: Lemoncello recipe worth the price of admission
Review: Thoroughly liked this book. Not only great recipes, but written with wit and great story telling. Just the two recipes for Italian Liqueurs, strawberry, LIQUORE DI FRAGOLE and lemon, LEMONCELLO, are worth the price of the book. I was served Lemoncello in Italy last year and was so impressed with it I brought some back with me. Well! Let me tell you, Arthur's recipe, while so simple, "KNOCKS THE SOCKS" off the bottled stuff I carted back. Arthur Schwartz proves with this book that good Italian cooking doesn't require you to slave over a hot stove or in a hot kitchen all day. His BOCCONCINI DI RANA PESCATRICE ALLA MEDITERRANEAN, (Chunks of Monkfish, Mediterranean-Style) takes longer to say than to cook. And it is wonderful. I have a lot of cookbooks, and love using them. This one will be always find its way to the top of the heap.
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