Italian Cooking ― Classic Recipes and Techniques

This comprehensive tome on Italian cooking offers 250 step-by-step techniques, 120 regional recipes, and links to eight video tutorials to ensure success by the home chef. Italian cuisine is one of life’s great pleasures and Italian Cooking offers the step-by-step kitchen techniques that are the secret to success. An overview of fundamental cooking methods offers expertise in preparing antipasti, pizza dough, fresh and dried pasta, risotto, polenta, sauces, seafood, and ice cream. Each method is explained in text and photographs; eight are further clarified in video tutorials. A practical guide explains the essential ingredients, kitchen utensils, regional specialties, ideal pasta and sauce pairings, and Slow Food principles that are the backbone of Italian meals. Organized by region, one hundred and twenty classic recipes—mushroom risotto, Milanese veal cutlets, tiramisu—are simplified for the home cook and provide ample inspiration for mealtime. Each recipe is graded with a three-star rating so that the home chef can gauge its complexity—and gradually expand their cooking ability through experience. A dozen recipes from Italy’s Michelin-star chefs and culinary artisans offer the ultimate challenge. Cross-references throughout to techniques, video tutorials, glossary terms, and complementary recipes make navigation easy. With a foreword by legendary Slow Food founder Carlo Petrini, this impressive volume is an essential guide for novice and established cooks alike.

Mia Mangolini has been running a cookery workshop, Cucina di Casa, since 2007, and gives private cooking lessons. Francesca Mantovani is a food photographer and portraitist; she has published several books. Carlo Petrini is the founder of the Slow Food Movement and a food critic and journalist.