Real Italy/Real Food!
Written: Jan 25 '07
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Product Rating:
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Pros: excellent recipes using everyday ingredients, beautiful photograpy, entertaining text
Cons: some photographs particularly of butchering are graphic
The Bottom Line: This book will teach you to cook genuine, italian food with delicious results. The photographs compliment the text beautifully.
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| mollymom48's Full Review: Jamie Oliver - Jamie's Italy |
This book meets every one of my criteria for "cookbooks as entertainment" : beautiful photography, interesting recipes within the reach of a your average cook or foodie, insightful and often amusing anecdotes from the writer. Anyone with an interest in Italy and italian food would be well advised to add this book to their collection.
This book is the culmination of Oliver's odyssey of travel and discovery in Italy. He set out to find the "real food and ingredients", prepared by everyday people, in the small villages and towns, not the typical tourist fare offered in the bigger destinations.
As with most cookbooks, it is organized by "course" - antipasti, primi, secondi, insalate,contorni and dolci - or appetizer, first and second courses, salads, side dishes and desserts. Each section has an entertaining introduction, often reflecting on the people and places that are the reader will meet in the following pages. I find the recipes are easily do-able by anyone with moderate cooking experience, and even interested beginners would achieve good results with many, due to his clear instructions. Most of the ingredients are easily obtainable at a good supermarket, and others will lead you to seek out some specialty shops. Be prepared to buy a lot of wine and other spirits such as vermouth.
Almost every recipe contains a preamble explaining where he found it, who taught it to him, the ingredients particular to the region of origin. Oliver makes recommendations as to which are the best choice of ingredients: for example, parmesan cheese can be anything from a vile powder in a shaker can, or a better north american product that you shave, or the best imported. You have to decide for yourself however, if the quality of ingredients is important to you. Oliver's distinctive "tone" - self-deprecating, humourous, but also very knowledgeable and encouraging is present throughout the text. He introduces us to the cooks, bakers, butchers, farmers he worked with while preparing for this book.
I particularly enjoyed the photography in the book. Each recipe has a photograph and there are a multitude of other photos, of the people and places Oliver visited on his journey. It is a mini-travelogue in its own way and makes me long to pack a bag and get going on my own off-the beaten path journey through a country I love.
I thoroughly enjoy this book and am very glad I asked for it on my Christmas wish list. I have tried several of the recipes with wonderful results. This is "REAL" italian food, not our north american watered down pale relatives.
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
mollymom48
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Location: Sarnia, Ontario Canada
Reviews written: 14
Trusted by: 1 member
About Me:
-special education teacher, pet and home owner, -gardener, handywoman,
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