Review: Disappointing and Actually Misleading
Rating: 2 out of 5
Date: 03 20, 2012
The authors say they are from Argentina, and the introduction does seem to indicate that English is not their first language with the title "Creaks, smells good and tastes better even ... The Pizza," (creaks?!) and the somewhat confusing text "the biggest difference in the preparation of Pizzas in Italy might be in the base, as in some regions it is eaten soft and crispy in others; as with every meal, they suit all tastes."The cover says "7 Italian bread recipes and special tips."  The book itself refers to "grandma's recipes" which are nothing more than 4 variations on making bread with pizza dough leftovers.  I could not find "7 Italian bread recipes."  The book refers to "7 pro tips," one of which says the oven must be "really hot" before placing the first pizza in, but no temperature suggestions are ever made.  The tips also include how to spread sauce and cheese; I don't know about anyone else, but I would expect more from a "special tip"This is essentially one recipe for dough and one for sauce repeated throughout with variations on toppings.  The dough recipe calls for "fresh compressed yeast" without giving any information as to how someone might substitute another type of yeast.  The recipe also always calls for 4 cups of dough, without indicating that flour used in yeast doughs can vary in amount.  The instructions say to add the water gradually "until it becomes a soft bun."  This is an uncommon way of describing dough, at least to this American.The language of the book also reflects some language differences, calling for a "pizza mould."  The sauce recipe calls for "1 tin tomato puree" without indicating a quantity.  Several recipes also call for "1 tin" of various ingredients, such as "1 tin pineapple," "tinned peppers," "1 tin sliced mushrooms."Most of the "recipes" are fairly standard, including pepperoni (and another for pepperoni and peppers), bacon and mushroom (called "carbonara"), although I admit a ham and banana pizza is unusual.  I don't know that I can bring myself to try it, though.  It is unusual, to me at least, to place sauce on dough and bake it before adding toppings, but that's something I might try.However, some recipes raise some questions and doubts in my mind.  The first recipe says to "sprinkle with the rocket" and I have no idea what that means.  The chicken pizza recipe (grilled chicken, cheese, tomatoes) does not have any kind of a sauce at all, and seems to be using sliced tomatoes instead.  One pizza calls for the pizza dough to be sauced, baked for 10 minutes, then add cheese and "baste" with olive oil and bake for 10 minutes more, then add ham and arugula, "baste" with olive oil again and serve.  Another recipe calls for green beans but the ingredient list does not specify fresh, frozen, cooked, etc.  The chicken stuffed pizza has only chicken, onions, and olives in the stuffing; I would be reluctant to try it because it seems to me that it has the potential to be very dry.  The picture almost looks like there is some type of sauce, but it's hard to say for sure.  The spinach pizza calls for a bechamel sauce as an ingredient with no instructions on how to make it.Most of the pictures are appealing, at least on the Kindle for PC.  However, the four cheese pizza looks quite greasy, and the fish on the sardine pizza look absolutely huge and not something I'd want to bite into.All in all, I wouldn't recommend this one.