Sicilian American Pasta: 99 Recipes You Can't Refuse

Rating:
Summary: Worth the price used
Review: After a brief but helpful introduction, the authors provide 99 recipes in three main sections: vegetables (55), meat (18) and fish (26). The sections are further divided by ingredients, so you get three cauliflower recipes in a row, and, later, two with scallops, and so on. I'm personally appreciative of the number of bean/legume recipes (10), and there are several good ideas for pesto and lasgane sprinkled throughout.

The recipes range from very easy to mildly challenging, but the authors do not cut corners with ingredients. There's no garlic powder or canned crushed tomatoes here (canned peeled are okay). The illustrations by Miriam Dougens are nice, but I always prefer photos. This book will not lie open and flat on its own.


Rating:
Summary: An outstanding cookbook overall.
Review: Coming from Long Island, New York, I grew up on southern Italian cooking and I am still a great fan of it. I brought "Sician American Pasta:99 Recipes You Can't Refuse" a few years ago and it turned out to be one of my best buys in cook books. This is because there are so many excellent recipes packed in one cook book that I have used and have turned out great. John Penza & Tony Corsi have written a little gem in the area of cooking in general and it is more than worth the price you pay.

Rating:
Summary: An outstanding cookbook overall.
Review: Coming from Long Island, New York, I grew up on southern Italian cooking and I am still a great fan of it. I brought "Sician American Pasta:99 Recipes You Can't Refuse" a few years ago and it turned out to be one of my best buys in cook books. This is because there are so many excellent recipes packed in one cook book that I have used and have turned out great. John Penza & Tony Corsi have written a little gem in the area of cooking in general and it is more than worth the price you pay.

Rating:
Summary: Friendly, Fun, and Really Good
Review: Out of a selection of nearly a dozen books on Italian cooking, Penza & Corsi's book steps forward with a friendly smile and warm handshake. No airs, no yuppie insistance on unknown ingredients rise up to cow the cook. If some ingredients aren't always available, Penza & Corsi tell you what to do instead. They make new recipes easy in every respect--not because they're overly simple, but because the authors make them seem so. The results are delicious. By all means, try it!

Rating:
Summary: Friendly, Fun, and Really Good
Review: Out of a selection of nearly a dozen books on Italian cooking, Penza & Corsi's book steps forward with a friendly smile and warm handshake. No airs, no yuppie insistance on unknown ingredients rise up to cow the cook. If some ingredients aren't always available, Penza & Corsi tell you what to do instead. They make new recipes easy in every respect--not because they're overly simple, but because the authors make them seem so. The results are delicious. By all means, try it!

Rating:
Summary: Fabulous cookbook
Review: This is a first-rate cookbook. It satisfies two essential requirements: (1) nearly all of the recipes are amazingly simple; and (2) the results are fabulous, tasting far more complex than the simplicity of the recipes would lead one to expect. The artwork is colorful and pleasing, and the authors' many anecdotes about about their eccentric Italian-American relatives are amusing. This is, quite simply, the best cookbook I own.

Rating:
Summary: Fabulous cookbook
Review: This is a first-rate cookbook. It satisfies two essential requirements: (1) nearly all of the recipes are amazingly simple; and (2) the results are fabulous, tasting far more complex than the simplicity of the recipes would lead one to expect. The artwork is colorful and pleasing, and the authors' many anecdotes about about their eccentric Italian-American relatives are amusing. This is, quite simply, the best cookbook I own.