The Frugal Gourmet Cooks Italian: Recipes from the New and Old Worlds, Simplified for the American Kitchen
by By Smith, Jeff
Category: Cooking , Methods , Gourmet

Jeff Smith fell in love with Italy as a college student. And in the course of nearly three hundred and twenty televised cooking shows and nine cookbooks, he has given us many Italian recipes. In one of them, The Frugal Gourmet Cooks Three Ancient Cuisines, a whole section described the cooking of Rome. But this is the first time he has devoted a single volume to a country where food has been a sustaining passion and is taken as seriously as religion, art, and politics.Companion to a brand-new two-year 40-part Public Television series of the same name, The Frugal Gourmet Cooks Italian shows us how Italians really prepare and enjoy their cuisines. That's right, cuisines. For in Italy, the "Frug" tells us, recipes vary from house to house, from town to town. In his fabulous new cookbook, Jeff tells us how Florentine sausages differ from those found in Naples, how Northern Italy has turned the mushroom into an icon, how sandwiches change their shape from city to city. He even shows us how the roots of Italian cooking have flourished when transplanted to the soil of Boston, Philadelphia, and New York.Packed with more than 350 recipes encompassing every course, from a scrumptious antipasto of Carpaccio with Lemon Olive Oil Mustard Sauce to a not-to-be-missed Tiramisu, this is the cookbook we've all been waiting for - here just in time to satisfy our hunger for the regional food of Italy.In these pages you'll discover: an unusual pasta soup made with a spaetzle press; the marriage of two great Italian specialties in artichokes stuffed with caponata, the Sicilian eggplant relish; more than a dozen recipes for polenta, the delicious and versatile cornmeal dish, an Italian staple whose charms are unknown to many Americans; an elegant seafood risotto, both light and hearty; and scores of vegetable recipes - like Asparagus Milanese and a spectacular dish of Fried Radicchio Filled with Cheese.There are also dozens of splendid new pasta recipes, including a stunning version with pesto sauce (this one has green beans and potatoes with penne), and Pasta with Walnuts, a recipe lovingly given to Jeff by a priest in New Jersey. Plus lots of fun breads, pizzas, focaccias (including one stuffed with sausage from Manhattan's Little Italy), and a recipe for cheese breadsticks that's a snap to make. There are of course recipes for meat lovers, among them a Roast Pork with Black Olive Paste that is so good it may bring you to tears and scores of chicken and fish dishes, starring a fabulous Venetian fish soup.It would not be a cookbook by Jeff Smith if he didn't give us: a useful glossary of cooking terms; an invaluable section on Italian wines; and informative essays on the ingredients essential to the Italian kitchen. Olive oil, prosciutto di Parma, Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese, and balsamic vinegar are only a few of the foods Jeff discusses. Throughout this delightful cookbook, America's most beloved cooking personality acts as your generous tour guide, furnishing helpful suggestions on regional markets and humorous anecdotes about everything from Neapolitan taxi drivers to Venetian cats. The Frugal Gourmet Cooks Italian is a cookbook that captures us the way the tastes and sounds of Italy cast their spell over the American visitor. Jeff shows us, once again, that food is more than eating and cooking - it's history and something we each invariably take part in whenever we sit down at table. So, mangia, with the "Frug."