When I was at school I had a housemate who, every night for dinner, would eat spaghetti in tomato sauce. Perhaps if he had owned this book, and realized that there are myriad ways that pasta can be prepared, he wouldn't have been so crazy and gone and gotten married just to break his housing contract. Carol Field may not possess the most Italian sounding name of any cookbook author, but once you've sampled some of the recipes from her many cookbooks, you'll learn to overlook this minor detail. The Italian Baker - If you like to bake, then you'll like Carol Field, and you'll want to pick up a copy of the Italian Baker. If you don't like to bake, but like to eat really good baked items, then you'll want to buy a copy for a friend who likes to bake.
Every ethic cuisine needs one voice to emerge and explain how things are done.
For Italian food, Marcella Hazan is that voice. If you have a good, conscientious cheese dealer, ask to be notified when a fresh wheel of gorgonzola arrives from Italy. Once cut, the cheese does not improve, it becomes dry, crumbly, and yellowish. When it is at its peak, it is a warm, white color, creamily soft and even runny. The first 40 pages deal with the fundamental elements of Italian cooking, and then there are 600 pages of great recipes and insights.