Customer Reviews

Lidia's Italian Table

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I am a big fan of Lidia and she has brought be back to recognizing my Italian hertiage (I am 50 percent). The recipes in this cookbook reminds me of my mother's Italian cooking. Plain and simple. I want to thank Lidia again for 're-awaking' me to my Italian hertiage.

I am a big fan of Italian cuisine and everytime I have the opportunity, I cook for myself or my friends. I simply love the flavors of fresh basil, cheese, fresh pasta or tomatoes that give wonderful taste to whatever I cook.

For the most part of it, the book is well written. It contains a lot of details about the ingredients generally used (Lidia writes some nice "essays" about olives, Parmigiano Reggiano cheese, mushrooms, truffles).

There are enough suggestions for antipasti, soups, fresh and hard pasta, meats, fish, risotto, gnocchi. The names of the recepies are also in Italian, and so you can impress your guests with your Italian knowledge. They are not complicated, easy to do, even for someone who is not very experienced in the kitchen.

But I have to say that I saw better books on the topic. This one does not contain a very wide range of ideas for cooking and compared to the book I bought from Rome last year, it is a bit costy. It would have been even better if each receipe was accompanied by suggestions of wines to serve with the dish. Information about how difficult and expensive it is to make that dish would have made the book more valuable.

However, it is an interesting introduction to Italian cooking and it does not miss the well-known and famous recepies.

I continually go back to this book to look for meat and seafood dishes that fit with Italian-American tastes but that are new and different. The other night I made pomegranate roasted chicken with Gran Marnier, brandy, and rosemary. Also good is baked squid with potatoes and parsley, cheese and herb ravioli(ricotta, ricotta salata,parmigiano,mascarpone)that is good made with any greens and topped with a sage/light cream sauce. If you're like me and didn't know many Italian meat dishes (my Neapolitan family kind of doesn't know what to do with it), you will love it if only for what you learn about meat. You won't see the brilliance of this book until you try the recipes. Very very good for the somewhat experienced cook.

This companion to a PBS series presented by Ms. Bastianich includes over 200 authentically Italian recipes. I believe the value in purchasing this book depends a lot on how many cookbooks of Italian cuisine you already have. There is a fair amount of overlap with Ms. B's first book, 'Al Cucina di Lidia'. For example, in the PBS title, there is a recipe for rabbit, 'Coniglio al Balsamico' which features balsamic vinegar and sage, while in the earlier book, there is a similar recipe, 'Coniglio alla salvia' featuring balsamic vinegar and sage. Both are braises, cooking for about 45 minutes. Both books also include recipes for sauerkraut and pork. The overlap may be less than 10 percent and Ms. B. does cite her book as a reference, along with ten (10) other titles, about half of which are in Italian. It is just important to realize this in weighing the value of the book.

Based on the incidence of recipes for strudel, fresh pasta, polenta, and risotto, I would say the book concentrates on the cuisine of northern Italy, which is totally expected, as Ms. B was born and raised on the Istrian peninsula, east of Trieste. The chapters and number of recipes in each are:

Appetizers: 21, many of bruschetta and including prosciutto
Soups: 22, including an essay on how to make a good minestre.
Fresh Pasta: 16, including an essay on pasta making and several recipes including game meats
Dry Pasta: 14, including essay on tomatoes and sauces
Rice: 11 recipes, almost all for risotto
Gnocchi: 11 recipes, many with game meat
Polenta: 9 recipes, mostly regional specialities
Vegetables: 20, including lessons on prepping artichokes and favas
Game and Chicken: Rabbit and boar and venison, oh my
Meat: 19, including recipes for sauces
Fish and Shellfish: 17, including general tips on handling bivalves and crustaceans
Sweets: 22, including Strudel and Zabaglione.

If you have no Italian cookbooks or only cookbooks covering the hard pasta / tomato ridden Neapolitan cuisine or really need a book for game recipes, you could do no better than this volume. If you absolutely must have every cookbook by a major Italian cookbook author, this will be a worthy addition to your collection. If you have Ms. B's third book on Italian-American cuisine, this will be a very good compliment, as I expect no overlap there. If you really enjoyed the PBS series for which this book is a companion, then I highly recommend it.

But, if you already own a few of the other hundreds of Italian cookbooks, I suggest you at least browse the book before signing up. There may be more overlap than is worth you money. I will still give it the highest rating, because on its own merits, it is a very good book.

This book is perfect for italian-americans who already know the basics of real italian/italian-american food: garlic, olive oil, parsley and often a little pepperoncino. Another reviewer complained that there were few pictures in the book -- well the audience that this book best serves already knows exactly what a kale bruschetta looks like; the beauty of the book being that it's inspirational, and a little different than Southern-Italian cooking. Lidia's from the northeast of Italy, but this is not austrian nor croatian food -- take what you know and use it to make "gnocchi with butternut squash sauce,""garganelli with pheasant in guazzetto," and panna cotta. Lidia's recipes are extremely easy to follow and are well-organized. They look like a well-educated female italian relative wrote out her best stuff for you. Expand your reportoire in a way that's easy and suitable for your cooking style -- buy this book.

This book is perfect for italian-americans who already know the basics of real italian/italian-american food: garlic, olive oil, parsley and often a little pepperoncino. Another reviewer complained that there were few pictures in the book -- well the audience that this book best serves already knows exactly what a kale bruschetta looks like; the beauty of the book being that it's inspirational, and a little different than Southern-Italian cooking. Lidia's from the northeast of Italy, but this is not austrian nor croatian food -- take what you know and use it to make "gnocchi with butternut squash sauce,""garganelli with pheasant in guazzetto," and panna cotta. Lidia's recipes are extremely easy to follow and are well-organized. They look like a well-educated female italian relative wrote out her best stuff for you. Expand your reportoire in a way that's easy and suitable for your cooking style -- buy this book.

I love Lidia and I'm always inspired to cook after watching her TV show. Since we can't actually taste or smell the food on TV or in her books, the inspiration is 100% visual. Unfortunately, this book is very stingy with the photographs. I found this very disappointing. A "preview" of what the dish will ultimately look like when finished has just as much to do with our desire to prepare it as the anticipation of its taste. Although I am a passionate cook, this book failed to ignite me the way I had hoped it would.

While some of the recipes here were superb, there were others that were wild and wonderful but not practical. In addition, some of the ingredients contained in these recipes were impossible to find in my little corner of the world. You can substitute some ingredients for others that are available but the end result will not likely be the same. Another disappointment was the lack of photography. After all, from a strong marketing perspective it only makes common sense to show what you are selling - in this case the recipes. People like to see the end result and presentation is half the enjoyment of the meal! While this book did not rate at the top of my list, the author's newest book, "Lidia's Italian-American Kitchen" did. It contains absolutely delicious recipes and the ingredients are not as difficult to find.

I purchased this book about 2 years ago. The first recipe I made was "Pasta With Pancetta, Tomato and Onion". It was such a hit, I just continued on recipe after recipe. It is the most used cookbook in my home (I have at least 100 books). All the dishes are so flavorful and simple. She uses fresh ingredients that are easily attainable, the recipes are clear, concise and though I have been cooking for 30 years, I keep learning from her through her books. Lidia is my food mentor, she embraces food, is a wonderful teacher and the recipes in this book are excellent.

the recipes in this book are fabulous - my fourteen year old son wishes lidia were his grandmother and could cook for him ALL the time, but mom using lidia's book runs a close second - my vegetarian daughter is in love with swiss chard and potatoes/green beans and potatoes/all things with homemade pasta as long as there are no dreaded animal products in the pasta- and frankly, my husband just sits blissfully and eats - my only problem is that after low-fat cooking for about ten years, i find myself instinctively cringing at the fat content(and i don't mean olive oil, i mean butter & cheese) at which one can only guess since there is no nutritional information- therefore, i have made my own revisions to the recipes, only using her ingredients in their original amounts if we're really treating ourselves- and i have made the wonderful discovery that even with modifications, her stuff just tastes good- so all to the table and eat!!