Biba's Taste of Italy: Recipes from the Homes, Trattorie and Restaurants of Emilia-Romagna [Hardcover]

Ms. Caggiano is a native of Bologna and still has a substantial family living in and around the city, so her recipes have a certain cachet, which may be missing from the average Italian cookbook. Her chapter subjects are very traditional, being:

Antipasti
Savory Breads and Savory Fritters
Soups
Pasta
Risotto, Gnocchi, and Polenta
Seafood
Poultry and Meat
Vegetables
Salads
Cakes, Tarts, Fritters, Biscotti, Ice Cream, and Fruit Desserts

While it may not be an entirely fair comparison, I matched this volume to Lydia Bastianich's book 'Lydia's Italian Kitchen'. Although Ms. Bastianich is covering all of Italy, her strength is in northern Italy, as is Ms. Caggiano. Both books have about 400 pages at $30 for Ms. Lydia and $38 for Ms. Biba. The indexes for both books are friendly to both Italian impaired and those who know and relish all the lovely Italian names for recipes. Ms. Bastianich takes the slightly more scholarly approach of having complete duplicate listings with separate listings, for example, of 'frico con ripieno di patate e funghi' and 'potato and mushroom filling for frico'. Ms. Caggiano gives the Italian name with a reference to the English translation, as in 'cacciatora, see hunter-style'.

The two books give almost identical coverage to major topics such as gnocchi. I would give a slight edge to Ms. Lydia for her gnocchi, although I will concede that differences in recipes may be due to regional differences. For some reason, Ms. Lydia includes egg in her potato gnocchi and Ms. Biba does not. To break the tie, I referred to Waverly Root's book on Italian cuisine. He says a very little egg is typically included. Mario Batali's book on Emilia-Romagna gives a potato recipe almost identical to that of Ms. Lydia. Ms. Biba does have some recipes such as cacciatora style dishes, ragu Bolognese, and baccala (salt cod) that are not in Ms. Lydia's book.

In general, I believe Ms. Lydia gives more complete instructions on general topics such as artichokes, although their treatments of fresh pasta seem comparable. I would really like to have both available, as it is clear that both know what they are doing.

Sidebars and headnotes in the two books are equally entertaining, with no overlap. If Ms. Biba's book were the only one available on the cuisine of Emilia-Romagna, I would welcome both books on my bookshelf. At the moment, I know of no other book, which claims to cover the whole province. Mario's book, 'Simple Italian Food' only covers recipes from a single trattoria on the boundary of Toscana and Emilia-Romagna. To those without any Italian cookbook, I would recommend Ms. Lydia's book, as it claims to cover the whole country. To those with a good general Italian cookbook, Ms. Biba provides a delightful supplement.

My main regret is that I didn't make more sauce, as I could have eaten twice as much of it. When not devouring the halibut, we were both frantically scooping any extra sauce onto the slices of rustic loaf Italian bread I baked earlier in the day - but that's another recipe.

The only additional item I would like to have seen is a wine pairing suggestion. But, I'm perfectly capable of figuring that out for myself, and rather enjoy the challenge. I chose a high quality light Red Zinfandel (1999 Fiddletown Lot 1 Red Zinfandel from Sobon Estate). Ordinarily it might be considered a little heavy for fish, but it balanced well with the glorious sauce in this recipe.

Biba Rocks!