Pellegrino Artusi
quite enjoyed this little excerpt book, It's a mix of recipes, anecdotes and stories of the food and cooking of the different regions of Italy.
Artusi was only writing a few decades after Italy had become unified, so there is still and I suppose there is still is not that I'm an expert in Italy a very strong regional identity.
There are some interesting recipes and ideas, . . I'd never thought of mixing eggs into soup, unless they're just lobbed in to be poached straight away parmasan is in everything health biscuits apparently his cookies will help you live a long life! I admire his optimism and just random little asides and comments.
I like his easy, friendly writing style, As soon as I found these Penguin Great Foods books, I knew that I had to read all of them.
The first one I had the pleasure of reading is Exciting Food for Southern Types which is all about Italian cooking.
Not only are there recipes in this book but also little anecdotes about some food dishes and people's experiences with them.
I just found them really nice to read about as the stories were really funny, This book is definitely worth a read,
I thought it was quite interesting reading this book in its historical context with how it
talks about not preparing a certain type of bird in the summer because it won't preserve properly, and all of the cooking is done over a flame or in a dutch oven which, is just interesting to read about how food was prepared in the late's.
I also just feel the need to mention the design of the book, The cover is textured and the pattern on the cover actually feels a bit like a pattern on a dinner plate, which I thought was just the coolest thing.
While a lot of the recipes are things I would probably never try and some contain birds I haven't really heard of, there were a couple of recipes that sounded really good.
I especially liked the sound of a sponge cake recipe which wouldn't be too bad to try and make.
As a first introduction to the Penguin Great Reads books, I'm quite impressed and looking forward to reading all of the other books in the series to just learn more about different styles of cooking and different foods from different countries and different time periods.
I found this at the Brooklyn Public Library my last BPL library rental before the move! after seeing it in a bookshoploved the title and the cover art.
Turns out it's more of a cookbook than a book of essays, but the context is interesting.
Pellegrino compiled recipes from all over Italy shortly after its unification, something that apparently had not really been done before.
and although the book is mostly comprised of recipes, he fills it with fascinating and funny anecdotes about the people who taught him how to cook these dishes, little history lessons about regions of Italy and the progression of cuisine, and more.
It's quite the anthropological text, actually,
Also, even though it was written over a century ago, it reads as a very contemporary text, that is, until you get to cooking instructions about placing your pot or pan on the open fire that apparently was in every kitchen.
Thinking about how to convert instructionssuch as those about keeping a pot near embers but not over an open flameto work on contemporary stoves was also a fun exercise while reading.
'The fountainhead of modern Italian cookery' Gastronomica
Artusi was only writing a few decades after Italy had become unified, so there is still and I suppose there is still is not that I'm an expert in Italy a very strong regional identity.
There are some interesting recipes and ideas, . . I'd never thought of mixing eggs into soup, unless they're just lobbed in to be poached straight away parmasan is in everything health biscuits apparently his cookies will help you live a long life! I admire his optimism and just random little asides and comments.
I like his easy, friendly writing style, As soon as I found these Penguin Great Foods books, I knew that I had to read all of them.
The first one I had the pleasure of reading is Exciting Food for Southern Types which is all about Italian cooking.
Not only are there recipes in this book but also little anecdotes about some food dishes and people's experiences with them.
I just found them really nice to read about as the stories were really funny, This book is definitely worth a read,
I thought it was quite interesting reading this book in its historical context with how it
talks about not preparing a certain type of bird in the summer because it won't preserve properly, and all of the cooking is done over a flame or in a dutch oven which, is just interesting to read about how food was prepared in the late's.
I also just feel the need to mention the design of the book, The cover is textured and the pattern on the cover actually feels a bit like a pattern on a dinner plate, which I thought was just the coolest thing.
While a lot of the recipes are things I would probably never try and some contain birds I haven't really heard of, there were a couple of recipes that sounded really good.
I especially liked the sound of a sponge cake recipe which wouldn't be too bad to try and make.
As a first introduction to the Penguin Great Reads books, I'm quite impressed and looking forward to reading all of the other books in the series to just learn more about different styles of cooking and different foods from different countries and different time periods.
I found this at the Brooklyn Public Library my last BPL library rental before the move! after seeing it in a bookshoploved the title and the cover art.
Turns out it's more of a cookbook than a book of essays, but the context is interesting.
Pellegrino compiled recipes from all over Italy shortly after its unification, something that apparently had not really been done before.
and although the book is mostly comprised of recipes, he fills it with fascinating and funny anecdotes about the people who taught him how to cook these dishes, little history lessons about regions of Italy and the progression of cuisine, and more.
It's quite the anthropological text, actually,
Also, even though it was written over a century ago, it reads as a very contemporary text, that is, until you get to cooking instructions about placing your pot or pan on the open fire that apparently was in every kitchen.
Thinking about how to convert instructionssuch as those about keeping a pot near embers but not over an open flameto work on contemporary stoves was also a fun exercise while reading.
'The fountainhead of modern Italian cookery' Gastronomica
Pellegrino Artusi is the original icon of Italian cookery, whose legendarybook Science in the Kitchen and the Art of Eating Well defined its national cuisine and is still a bestseller today.
He was also a passionate gastronome, renowned host and brilliant raconteur, who filled his books with tasty recipes and rambunctious anecdotes.
From a proud defense of the humble meat loaf, to digressions on the unusual history of icecream, the sideeffects of cabbage and the Florentines' weak constitutions, these writings brim with gossip, good cheer and an inexhaustible zest for life.