Recipes for Relaxed Italian Eating

Another entry in the casual Italian category, this volume is filled with easy-eating staples like Tortellini in Broth, Calzone with Tomato Sauce and Roasted Chicken with Black Olives. Harris, however, is a stickler for doing things the old-fashioned way, so those tortellini are hand-rolled, the calzone dough is hand-mixed, and that roasted chicken has a hand-ground garlic and herb paste slipped between its skin and flesh. What makes this book unique, however, are several British variations on Italian cuisine sprinkled throughout. Stuffed Potatoes, an English office-lunch favorite, are here Italianized with garlic, parmesan and Luganega sausage. Semolina Gnocchi with Smoked Salmon, meanwhile, tastes more of Glasgow than Florence. Most unusual of all, Kedgeree All'Italiana turns an English breakfast classic into a curious version of salade nicoise filled with olives, tuna and hard-boiled eggs. Finally, the dessert selections betray that famous English sweet tooth; listed under the heading ""puddings,"" several recipes call for thick custard sauces or layers of cream. One is unlikely to find these selections on a visit to, say, Sorrento, which doesn't mean they're not delicious-just a bit of a surprise.