Cookbooks

Cookbook Recipe: Urban Italian

Phil — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 02:38:46 GMT

In addition to our own original recipes, we like to feature recipes from some of our favorite cookbooks on The Italian Chef from time to time. Urban Italian: Simple Recipes and True Stories from a Life in Food by Andrew Carmellini and Gwen Hyman had been sitting on my bookshelf for a while before I finally cracked it open and started leafing through it this summer (it was published in Oct 2008). The book, which chronicles Carmellini's culinary journey from boyhood to becoming a top chef in New York, is very well written with great, accessible recipes that add a modern touch to classic Italian fare. The recipe we were given permission to reprint is Black Bass with Sicilian Style Pesto. In the photo above, I actually substituted some nice cod, since my local fish market did not have black bass at the time.

Recipe:

Black Bass with Sicilian Style Pesto

Puglia: A Culinary Memoir

Phil — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 02:07:16 GMT

The first book in the new Italy's Food Culture series of cookbooks, translated from the original Italian, by Oronzo Editions, Puglia: A Culinary Memoir, covers a regional cuisine that I would venture is not familiar to many Americans. Personally, I did not know much about the cooking of Puglia. Being a bread baker, I was familiar with the two famous breads from the region, Pane Pugliese and Pane di Altamura, but that was extent of my knowledge, before reading this volume. The author, Maria Pignatelli Ferrante, does a comprehensive job of chronicling what the preface refers to as "the miracle of the cooking of Puglia."

The cooking of Puglia started out as "cucina povera", or peasant cooking, but has evolved into a substantial cuisine that still retains the character of the region. Referred to as "Italy's California", the land in Puglia is bountiful, and the cooking is rooted in the crops that are grown locally. In keeping with that, there is a big emphasis in this book on vegetable dishes. If you are an eggplant fan there is a treasure trove of great eggplant recipes, such as Baked Eggplant with Olives, Eggplant "Meatballs", Eggplant Mushroom-Style, and one of the recipes we are featuring, Eggplant Rollups.

While vegetables are the star here, they are not the only reason to read this book. There are some great pasta dishes, especially for the typical pasta of the region, Orecchiette, including Oricchiette with Brocoli Rabe. Due to the prevalence of olive oil in the region, there is a large variety of fried foods in Puglia, which gives us an amazing chapter on Fritters and Turnovers.

The book is rounded out with chapters on chicken, pork and lamb as well as fish and shellfish, all interspersed with informative entries on subjects like the farmhouse, olive trees and Christmas traditions. As with most cookbooks originally written in Italian, the recipes assume some mastery of cooking in general and are not as detailed or explicit as American audiences usually expect, but in the translation Oronzo has beefed up the cooking instructions and clarified ingredient amounts.

The Italy's Food Culture series has gotten off to a great start, featuring two underappreciated regions of Italy, Puglia and Sicily. I am looking forward to the future volumes planned and seeing how they handle some of the more familiar cuisines like Florence, Venice and Reggio Emilia.

Recipes:

Orecchiete with Broccoli Rabe
Eggplant Rollups

Sicily: Culinary Crossroads

Phil — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 10:46:25 GMT

Italy's Food Culture is a series of regional Italian cookbooks, translated into English, from publisher Oronzo Editions. Two volumes have been released so far, Puglia: A Culinary Memoir and Sicily: Culinary Crossroads. The noble goal of this series is to give the American reader an unfiltered look into the rich regional culinary history and recipes of Italy, and it is off to a great start. Although Sicily by Giuseppe Coria is actually the 2nd volume in the series, my Sicilian roots attracted me to it first (nothing personal against Puglia of course). Sicily often gets the short end of the stick when discussing the cuisine of Italy, only recently here in America are chefs and cookbook authors starting to give it the attention it deserves. Coria is the perfect guide to this island's unique and robust cooking and food culture. He doesn't just present us with a list of recipes, but gives us history and context, punctuated with great stories.

The introduction gives an overview on how the history of Sicily and all of the different cultures that have occupied it over the years have contributed to molding the cuisine. The book is then broken down by region representing the provinces of Messina, Catania, Siracusa and Ragusa. All 4 of these cities are actually on the east coast of Sicily, so the original Italian title of the book, La Cucina della Sicilia Orientale (The Cooking of Eastern Sicily) might be considered more accurate. But, this is a minor quibble, because Coria's history covers the whole island and the recipes capture the spirit of Sicilian cooking in general.

Each section starts off with a brief overview of the region it covers, then the recipes are organized by category, first courses, meat dishes, fish dishes, etc. Even the typical cheeses produced in each province are discussed. The two recipes I am reprinting here, Pasta a la Norma and Mussel Soup are from Catania and Messina, respectively. There are many other excellent recipes from all 4 regions in this book, including a Holiday Ragu from Ragusa and Fish Soup Siracusa-Style. It is also a very nice looking book with great pictures of Sicily and it's ingredients.

My parents are from Francavilla di Sicilia which is right between, Catania and Messina. I showed this book to them for a quick authenticity check. My mother went straight to the Pasta al a Norma Recipe, read it and exclaimed, "They got it right!" My father after reading it had one question, "Can I have it?" Two pretty strong seals of approval. Sicily: Culinary Crossroads is a must for anybody interested in the gastronomy of Sicily.

Recipes:

Pasta a la Norma

Mussel Soup (Cozzi a Bruora)

Master Recipe: Artisan Bread in Five

Phil — Sun, 17 May 2009 14:34:27 GMT

I recently blogged about my experiences with the no knead bread recipes from the book Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day by Jeff Hertzberg and Zoe Francois. This prompted several requests for the recipe from readers. Zoe Francois has kindly given me permission to reprint the master recipe from the book:

The Master Recipe: Boule (Artisan Free-Form Loaf)

Also, please take time to visit the authors' websites:

ArtisanBreadInFive.com - For answers to questions on the techniques/recipes.
Zoe Bakes - Features baking recipes and great pictures.

Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking

Phil — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 10:47:52 GMT

Last week my cousin Sal asked me to recommend a good Italian cookbook that he could give as a birthday gift to a friend. My first reaction was to choose from the books I have featured on this site. There are some excellent ones like The Silver Spoon and Italian Family Dining. But, as I thought about it more I realized the one Italian cookbook that I would want if I could only have one was conspicuously missing, Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking by Marcella Hazan.

Published in 1992, Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking is actually two earlier works of Hazan's from the 1970s combined into one volume and updated. Essentials literally is an essential resource for anybody cooking Italian food at home, whether a beginner or expert. Hazan includes clear recipes for many great Italian dishes as well as tremendous detail on techniques for doing everything from rolling handmade pasta to cutting and pounding veal scallopine. I find myself referring to this classic time and again.

When I got home after touting the book to Sal, I took it out to leaf through and was inspired to try a recipe I hadn't tried before, Baked Crespelle with Bolognese Meat Sauce. After making these crepes stuffed with Bolognese Sauce and Béchamel, there was no doubt I made the right recommendation.