Customer Reviews

Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking

5 star:		(68)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I have been using this cookbook for more than 10 years. Marcella Hazan writes about food and cooking with absolute authority, and the results are always delicious. I don't just refer to this book when I want to cook "Italian food." I'll often use it for ideas when it's close to dinner time and I'm not sure what to do with a bunch of broccoli, or a fish filet.

The book is also beautifully made and printed. You can't go wrong with this one.

I have used this book for many years and it tells you everything you want to know about preparing your favorite Italian dish. The ingredients are suitable for a North American market, the instructions are clear, and Marcella offers much useful comment and information as well. It really is the "Classic Italian Cookbook"

Marcella Hazan is to Italian what Julia Child is to French: The person who introduced American cooks to a cuisine, and in so doing changed how we ate. This book is essential: both essential to anyone who wants to cook authentic Italian, and essentially Marcella.

This book has many virtues. It's very thorough -- a comprehensive survey of the various courses and food groups. There are dedicated chapters for pasta and risotto, for example, where many books treat those together. And in addition to the obvious meats, such as veal, lamb, beef, pork, etc., she also tackles subjects such as rabbit and variety meats. (Use Amazon's "Look inside" feature to see the table of contents.)

Another virtue is the trouble she takes to explain ingredients, be they classic italian ingredients or simply the italian perspective on something. After reading through the Fundamentals chapter, you'll never shop for italian-style ingredients quite the same way ever again. In short, very accessible paragraphs, she goes through the history, regional origins, and uses for the major herbs, cheeses, meats, etc. She covers what to look for when buying an ingredient -- what's fresh, what packaging makes for the best product.

The recipies are very workable and give generally excellent results. The techniques are accessible to anyone who can saute on a stovetop -- anyone who's beyond the stage of rank beginner. The instructions are very clear and strike the right balance, with enough information to give clarity without drowning the reader in detail. (There are few things more infuriating than standing over a cookbook, dripping spoon in hand, reading through War and Peace to figure out what to do next.)

Last, but not least, the results are delicious, with subtle flavors that will please you and yours. Two of my favorites will give you a taste. The Pasta with Peas, Bacon, and Ricotta combines very simple ingredients -- pancetta, mild, smooth, ricotta cheese, parmesan, and fresh peas, into a sublime dish that you can throw together for summer dinners in half an hour from start to finish. On the other hand, the Stewed Pork with Porcini Mushrooms and Juniper makes a wonderful winter meal, as the wild tastes of the porcini and the bite of juniper berries combine wonderfully to flavor the pork. This is one I catch my husband eating cold out of the fridge late at night!

Brava Marcella!

Important note: This edition is not a brand-new book. Instead, it combines two previous books, The Classic Italian Cook Book (1973) and More Classic Italian Cooking (1976), into one volume. There are a couple dozen new recipies, and the older recipies are updated to reduce fats. If you own those, you may want this one. If you are new to Marcella and are accumulating her books, this one book enables you to skip the two older ones.

This is the first cookbook that I have read cover to cover...the first +40 pages are worth the price of the book! And the Introduction forms the bases for the recepies that follow. So much makes sense after reading thru each section...not skimming...reading! Once you own this book, you do not need another Italian cookbook.Buy two...one for your kitchen and one with clean pages to read and reread.

I think it is a very good cook book. It is more advanced. But nothing too hard to read (I am Chinese, so if it is not hard for me, any of you should not have problem)

It also teaches how to make pasta and which pasta to use for which sauce, which is great!

This is the one book to have in order to know all the essentials about Italian cuisine. It's not only a receipe book but a great "How to" reference book.

I hate to be guilty of gushing hyperbole, but it would not surprise me if this great book became as well known a name as, say, Larousse Gastronomique: The World's Greatest Culinary Encyclopedia, Completely Revised and Updated, or The French Chef Cookbook. I very much tend to rate cookbooks depending on the quality of accompanying illustrations but this book is very limited in that regard but still shines as hugely useful and important work. While the book does contain recipes, of course, the focus is on technique and the included recipes serve as as a non-graphic illustration of each technique. I refer to it constantly.

John Thompson

Marcella hazan is the best when it comes to Italian cooking. I have cooked from another of her books and the results are always excellent. Get this book and find out that she is the Julia Child of Italian cuisine, exceot Italian recipes are often very simple and focus on quality ingredients without a lot of tedious and time consuming processes.

This is a top notch book! My son , age 16, received it for a xmas present and hasnt stopped cooking! Each recipie is flavorful and beautiful. Good tasting, lovely food. He now buys micheline star cook books. This has given him a love of good quality food!

This is the best Italian cookbook out there, bar none, and one of the very best cookbooks written. The instructions are straightforward and detailed - sometimes maddeningly detailed. The results are superior from the ver first recipe - a person with no experience in the kitchen at all will know exactly what to do.