Websites are wonderful, and tremendously versatile, but books have an atmosphere that monitors simply lack. Here you will find reviews of books I have liked and think you will too. They are in no particular order, and though I like them all I don't pretend to rank them, as they cover different fields. If you have a book you would like me to review for inclusion here, please contact me
Pellegrino Artusi published La Scianza in Cucina e L'Arte Di Mangiar Bene in 1891, and though there are some dated aspects to it -- he was writing for people who cooked on wood-fired stoves -- the recipes are good, while his asides are fascinating, and every bit as interesting now as they were then. Perhaps even more, and as a result the book is still selling briskly today; this is my translation, which was published in 1996 by Random House.
A number of years ago I bought Antonio Piccinardi's
Dizionario della Gastronomia Italiana, and have often turned to it to answer people's questions. It's a fascinating book, but for most people in the English speaking world does have a major drawback: It's in Italian.
Gillian Riley's
Oxford Companion to Italian Food is not, and if you like Italian food, or even cooking and culture in general, I can think of few books you'll find as interesting or as informative. It's organized like an encyclopedia, with entries in alphabetical order, and as you flip through the pages you'll be impressed by both the breadth of the coverage and the depth to which the authors (Gillian did have the help of some contributors) go in their replies.
Southern cooking is tremendously varied, ranging from earthy peasant food to the refined cuisine of royalty. Carlo Middione covers it all, and very well, with information on wines and ingredients as well. A fascinating book.
There's much more to the region than the prosciutto and cheese with which the locals greeted Hannibal. Indeed, La Cucina Parmense is one of the most refined of all Italian cuisines. Camillo Sidoli presents about 150 delightfully authentic recipes: He spent considerable time in the regione Parmense, and the book is well seasoned with his comments and discussions of ingredients and techniques.
Grace Pilato is a delightful lady, whom I had the pleasure of meeting a number of years ago. She was born in Sicily and then moved to the US, where she married and settled down, working in ceramics and teaching how to cook in Central Pennsylvania. As one might expect, her lessons drew heavily from her Sicilian heritage, and her experiences as a teacher have had a profound influence on her book. Put simply, she doesn't take things for granted, but rather explains clearly, leaving nothing to chance. Therefore, even if you have no experience with the dish you've decided to make, you can be fairly certain of achieving the proper results.
Arthur first went to Naples in 1969 and has come to understand the cooking of Naples and Campania very well since then, with lively curiosity and an eye for detail that leads him to notice and remark on things a native Neapolitan might take for granted. For example, he discusses Pulcinella, the classic antihero of Neapolitan theater. And he discusses Neapolitan history as well, deftly weaving the modern and the ancient so that even those who think they know all about La Città Partenopea will come away enriched. The same care goes into his treatment of the recipes in this, which is perhaps the finest Neapolitan cookbook in English I know of.
Cucina Ebraica, Flavors of the Italian Jewish Kitchen
Joyce Goldstein's first exposure to Italian Jewish cooking in Perugia wasn't the best: "the overcooking did seem familiarly Jewish, the flavors were definitely Italian." In Rome, however, she found more and more interesting things, discovering many Italian recipes and procedures have Jewish roots. Cucina Ebriaca, Flavors of the Italian Jewish Kitchen is quite nicely done; she provides a detailed history of Italian Jewry, beginning with the Jewish traders who settled in the Peninsula long before the birth of Christ, and on through to modern times. There's also a discussion of Kosher laws and holiday meals, and then there are the recipes, which are fascinating, explaining everything and going into great detail.
Wine was one of the pilasters of the Roman economy: traders turned fabulous profits exporting the better Italian wines to the Celts and Germanic tribes, and turned equally impressive profits importing cheaper wines for the masses at home. And more: Wine supported innumerable other industries (including ship building and ceramics), and played a part in almost every aspect of daily life from religion through health care. Stuart Fleming paints a detailed picture of all this in Vinum, The Story of Roman Wine; chapters include Legions and Legalities, Changing the Flavors (preparing and doctoring wines), Drunkenness and Depravity (what it sounds like), the Medicinals (wine as a drug), and A Separate Standard (Women and wine). Fine Reading!
Matt Kramer's A Passion for Piedmont is subtitled "Italy's most Glorious Regional Table." While one could argue the word "most," Piemontese cooking is extraordinarily refined, and Mr. Kramer does a fine job of exploring its ins and outs, with interesting asides dedicated to travel, Piemontese cheeses, truffles, wines, and so on. But of course the main focus of the book is on recipes, and it's extremely entertaining, giving the background necessary to make the dishes come alive. It will make a fine gift, but don't leaf through it if you do buy a copy for a friend, lest you decide to keep it.
This book offers a nice change of pace: The recipes are frankly unusual, and though there are some tried-and-true standards, for example pasta alla carbonara, charcoal-makers spaghetti, with pancetta and egg (p. 83), most of the recipes are the sorts of things one might encounter in a modern Italian home inhabited by someone who enjoys hitting the markets and then heading home to make something that isn't exactly what her grandmother would have made. In other words, current Italian cooking, which can be delightful, but can also all to easily be overlooked in collections designed to help people recreate nonna's cooking or the meals they had in restaurants while visiting Italy. I enjoyed it.
