cover image La Vera Cucina: Traditional Recipes from the Homes and Farms of Italy

La Vera Cucina: Traditional Recipes from the Homes and Farms of Italy

Carlo Middione. Simon & Schuster, $34.5 (0pp) ISBN 978-0-684-81206-9

In coaching readers to cook ""real Italian,"" Middione, author of The Food of Southern Italy and the host of Carlo Cooks Italian on the Learning Channel, offers recipes full of charm. Ingredients are few and techniques are simple, with the emphasis on high quality (even of water) and careful attention to the cooking process (garlic is cooked to a ""soft gold color""). Middione includes over 200 recipes, from antipasti through dolci. Headnotes for each provide anecdotes, information on a dish's origin or suggestions for menus or leftovers. The Antipasti section is particularly strong, featuring a number of crostini, several types of stuffed bell peppers and a variety of olive preparations such as Olive all'Arrancia (Olives with Orange Rind and Garlic). Risotto with Porcini Mushrooms and Vermicelli with Anchovies are examples of what Middione calls culi muri dishes, which could be politely translated as ""back-to-the-wall"" dishes--good food made quickly from on-hand ingredients. Other simple, authentic dishes include Swordfish with Tomatoes, Olives, and Raisins and Grilled Radicchio with Gorgonzola and Walnuts. Not surprisingly, some dishes sound better in Italian than in English: Passatelli rolls off the tongue much more easily than than Little Extrusions of Bread and Egg for Broth. Middione's concern for ingredients and techniques and his emphasis on ""eating for the sheer joy of it"" combine to create the sense of essential Italian food, la very cucina. Author tour. (June)