Romagnolis Table Cookbook

Additional Details

Description: Four hands, one stove ... 

What happens when husband and wife share the same stove? Margaret and Franco Romagnoli, who have been chopping, slicing, and sizzling together for twenty-one years, are the most irresistible culinary duo since salt and pepper. First produced and seen on WGBH, Boston, they received such acclaim that now they are shown coast to coast on PBS in every major city of the country. 

The Romagnolis' Table is their collection of over two hundred favorite recipes (including ones most often requested by fans) that show working parents -- who must keep an eye on their budget as well as their children -- how to create authentic yet refreshingly simple everyday Italian meals. But more than stimulating to the appetite, this good-humored, conversational cookbook ushers the Romagnolis right into your kitchen to preside over your burners' daily doings. Whether telling you how to prepare artichoke hearts in olive oil or how to make pasta from scratch, they give clear, easy-to-follow instructions combined with lively anecdotes about traditional Italian eating and cooking. In Naples, for instance, to determine whether the pasta was done, the cook would extract one piece from the boiling pot and fling it against the wall. If cooked just right, the pasta would stick for a count of three, then plop to the floor. If it didn't stick, it wasn't done yet. If it stuck longer, it was overcooked -- and the cook would commit suicide. (The Romagnolis warn, "This kind of testing is not recommended"!) 

Characteristic of the typical Italian family meal, these recipes for spaghetti, charcoal makers' style; yellow and green lasagna; cannelloni; chicken, devil's style; eggplant parmigiana; Italian fruit cup; zuppa inglese ("English soup" that is neither English nor soup but a delectable cake); pizza (genuine Italian, not American style, for a change), and many more exquisite treats are all as uncomplicated to make as they are to eat. 

As one enthusiastic fan exclaimed. "The Romagnolis are so delightful and compatible, they leave you with such a good feeling of well-being, it just makes you want to cook, whether you can or not." With their hook in hand, even the peanut- butter-and-jelly-sandwich "chef" will discover that Italian family cooking -- and eating -- are pleasure, pure and simple. 

Margaret, an American who has taken Italian citizenship, and Franco, an Italian who is now an American citizen, met in Rome. Franco was a radio engineer who answered Margaret's call for technical help when she worked for the Marshall Plan Radio Information Service. Because she married "a foreigner," Margaret was fired from government service; Franco came to America to pursue his interest in cinematography. He says, "Even though I grew up in Italy, where men are rarely in the kitchen, in my home in Rome, the kitchen was the heart of the house." The Romagnolis, who have lived alternately in America and Italy, now live in Watertown, Massachusetts, with their four children: and their kitchen, as it was in Rome, is still the heart of their home. 

---- 

Condition: Dust jacket has small tears. Further good condition.