Fancy a quick Bolognese? Passionate about pesto? Or just looking for great but simple ways to eat fresh authentic food? Italian is one of those cuisines that even an amateur can cook successfully. It’s usually more a case of fabulous ingredients than fancy techniques. Here are 10 tasty Italian cookbooks, to release your inner Italian mamma.
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1. Buonissimo
Exuberant Italian chef Gino di Campo, covers 'Romantico' recipes for two using sexy, sensual ingredients, 'Salute' which brings together food for sharing such as generous party food, appetisers and barbecues, and 'Fast Food' where you’ll find Gino's versions of takeaway favourites. This tasty Italian cookbook also features 'Quick & Easy Suppers' while 'Per me’ is a collection of recipes specially designed for just one.
2. The Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking
Doyenne of Italian cooking Marcella Hazan revises many of her classic recipes to reduce fat content, while providing great new ones. In this tasty Italian cookbook, she also advises on shopping for the proper ingredients, and makes an expansive survey of pasta types and the various sauces which work best with each. If you want authentic, well-organized, and delicious instructions to prepare great Italian food, this is for you.
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3. Jamie’s Italy
Chef Jamie Oliver has always had a serious passion for Italian food. Now, he’s travelled this famously gastronomic country paying homage to the classic dishes of each region and searching for new ideas to bring home. The result is Jamie’s Italy - a truly tasty Italian cookbook, filled with sensational recipes, old and new, which will transport you to Italy or at least bring Italy home to you.
4. My Italian Family Cookbook
Here’s an interesting one – a tasty Italian cookbook compiled by a rugby player. But not just any rugby player, former England rugby captain Lawrence Dallaglio. He and his father, Vincenzo, share their passion for real Italian food and this book contains the recipes they cook together for their extended family. In My Italian Family Cookbook, they provide dishes for all occasions; dishes that capture the traditional Italian way of eating and enjoying food.
5. Fat-Free Italian Cooking
Anne Sheasby presents 160 recipes for those who love Italian food but need to watch calories and cholesterol. Anyone who thinks cutting out fat means losing taste will think again, as this tasty Italian cookbook goes through traditional ingredients, classic recipes, cooking methods and equipment and offers advice as to how to identify and use them for maximum impact and minimum fat content.
6. Carluccio’s Complete Italian Food
The ever-popular Antonio and his wife, Priscilla distill a lifetime of knowledge of Italian cooking into one tasty Italian cookbook. Each of the 11 chapters discusses a group of ingredients and the traditional methods of preparation and production. There’s an A-Z reference section, a selection of recipes, and even guidance on Italian wines to suit every dish and occasion.
7. Cook Italy
Over many years of teaching cookery, Giancarlo and Katie Caldesi have amassed a huge number of authentic recipes and a treasure trove of lesser-known regional recipes, invariably unknown to non-Italians. Italy’s 20 regions all have their own signature flavours and dishes shaped by the particular terrain and climate. Cook Italy, by Katie Caldesi includes 12 chapters of masterclass techniques and with over 425 recipes, this tasty Italian cookbook has it all.
8. The Silver Spoon for Children
Do you want your child to cook like an Italian? Then this book by Amanda Grant is the best way to start. From Pizza Margherita to Tuscan Minestrone Soup, Rigatoni with Meatballs, Fruits of the Forest Ice Cream and lots more, the recipes and techniques have been adapted just for children from Italy’s best-selling culinary bible. It’s a tasty Italian cookbook which is safe, imaginative, and great fun to use.
9. Passione
Full of colourful and modern recipes that evoke Italian life at its most enticing, Passione is the first cookbook from Gennaro Contaldo. As the title suggests, this is a tasty Italian cookbook filled with passion and shared with the energy for which Gennaro is famous. Beautifully illustrated, Passione reveals secrets recipes and well as some of the best-loved dishes from his restaurant.
10. River Café Classic Italian Cookery
Rose Gray and Ruth Rogers learnt from Italians by cooking side by side with them. With River Cafe Classic Italian Cookery you get to do the same. It’s a celebration of the real, classic food of Italy; the traditional, regional food they love to eat when they’re in Italy, and the food they love to cook. This is a tasty Italian cookbook which combines precious well-known recipes with regional and traditional dishes which are rare even in Italy.
Some of these names may not be familiar to you but they are very familiar to European audiences. I’m sure you’ll be just as impressed by these Tasty Italian Cookbooks as we are in the UK.
Inspired to reach for the basil and tomatoes? Dive in and celebrate all that’s great about Italian food, and let us know how you get on.
Top Photo Credit: Bonnie Matthews
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