Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking

Additional Details

Description: Almost twenty years ago, with the publication of The Classic Italian Cook Book, followed by More Classic Italian Cooking, Marcella Hazan introduced Americans to a whole new world of Italian food. As Roy Andries de Groot wrote, "Marcella's book is the most authentic guide to Italian food ever written in the U.S. Where other authors failed, Marcella has brilliantly succeeded in capturing (and conveying to the reader on every page) the feel, the aromatic scent, the subtle nuances of fresh country flavors and, above all, the easy uncomplication of Italian food prepared in the Italian style." 

Now a new generation is ready to master the art of Italian cooking, and their bible will be Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking -- this new volume that combines the two books, updated and expanded throughout. Designed as a basic manual for cooks on every level -- from beginners to accomplished professionals -- it offers both an accessible and comprehensive guide to techniques and ingredients and a collection of the most delicious recipes from the Italian repertoire. 

For those who have cooked from Marcella's classic books for years (and whose copies are now splattered and worn), this integrated volume will not only be welcome but indispensable, with its 50 new recipes and important new material, which includes: 

• a revision of all the recipes to accent their primary flavors and to reduce the fat content (as much as 30 percent in many dishes); 
• a new chapter, Fundamentals, full of information about the distinctive herbs, spices, and cheeses used in an Italian kitchen, recipes for basic sauces, and details on how to select and use balsamic vinegar, bottarga, extra virgin olive oil, porcini, truffles, dried pastas, and different varieties of rice; 
• the consolidation and expansion of the pasta instructions from the earlier books to provide one of the fullest and most detailed collections of recipes for pasta dishes in print, with a chart showing what sauces go best with what shapes of pasta; 
• a reworking of the section on yeast breads, presenting new doughs for focaccia and pizza and a new recipe for one of the great Italian regional loaves, Apulia's olive bread. 

There are almost 500 recipes here, every one of them bearing Marcella's unmistakable signature. Whether you are making something as straightforward as her Tuscan Peasant Soup with Cabbage and Beans or as exacting as Crisp-Fried Whole Artichokes; or attempting a sublime dish known as Venus's jewel case, consisting of pasta wrappers filled with spinach fettuccine, porcini and ham; or braising veal shanks or pan-roasting squab in the classic ways, you are aware on every page of Marcella's indispensable guiding hand. For there is no one more gifted at teaching us just what we need to know about the taste and texture of a dish and how to achieve it, and there is no one more passionate and inspiring about authentic Italian food. 

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Condition: Good condition.