Italian Pizzas and Hearth Brea

Romer (The Tuscan Year) uses her subject as a focus, producing ""a personal view of a small part of the great Italian culinary heritage.'' That engaging view ranges from the Eleusian Mysteries of classical Greece to ``apizza'' in 1950s Brooklyn. It encompasses practical information on cheese as easily as a quote from Goethe's Italian Journey. Although limited to Italian pizza and hearth breads, Romer's repertoire is varied and abundant. Pizza is made with eggplant and mozzarella, onion and egg, hot spiced salami and provolone, seafood and even white truffles. Hearth bread can be sampled plain, seasoned with tomato, or flavored with fresh grapes. There are calzones, fried dough, chicken liver tart and a rustic pie called schiacciata. Romer's lovely color illustrations are included. A drawback to this otherwise splendid volume: ingredients appear in a continuous, cluttered paragraph rather than as a list. (January)