This is a great book! I lost it in my recent divorce and it was one of the few books I had to go buy again. The salads and pastas stand out. It's well-written and all the recipes are really quite simple.

Being raised 1st generation Italian, I had some problems finding some of the old authentic recipes my family used to cook. Not any longer. This book brought me home. I love, love, love it and every time I have a dinner party, this is the book I turn to for a special meal that my guests rave about for weeks.

This is by far, my favorite cookbook. I am a vegan, but have no problems replacing the cheese and egg ingredients, without sacrificing the taste.

Jack Bishop is a genius.

Tina Volpe
Author, The Fast Food Craze

For medical reasons, my husband and I had to stop eating meat and we were completely lost as to what we could eat besides veggies. I stumbled across this cookbook and purchased it for a friend who's an established vegetarian. After I gave it to her, I found myself reading through it. I love it so much, I decided to purchase a copy for myself. The recipes are easy to make (and I'm a horrible cook), the selections are quite broad (especially when you're clueless as to what to fix) and the manner in which the book is organized makes it easy to follow (all the pizzas are together). I highly recommend this book regardless of your status as a vegetarian: novice or experienced.

This cookbook is amazing. Some of the recipes are so simple you think, "Wait a minute. . . this is a RECIPE? Broil asparagus and drizzle vinagrette over it?" But try it . . . and asparagus never tasted so tartly and meltingly delicious. In every single recipe, the flavor of the vegetable itself is intensified and highlighted. The tomato tart is worth buying the book for all by itself! The very simplicity means the recipes are relatively easy and fast projects, and I've yet to find one that didn't bring rave reviews from company. They're so reliable that I often try one I've never tried before for guests -- we all get to be amazed together! Totally terrific, whether you're a prinicpled vegetarian or (like me) just like vegs as part of an omnivore diet!

No one in our family is a vegetarian, but the recipes are so good that we prefer some of them as written, without meat (pancetta, sausage, prosciutto, etc) with which we usually add to "improve" vegetarian recpies. Risotto recipes are particularly outstanding! The picky, more carnivorous members who avoid anything green actually LOVE the risotto with spinach and herbs as well as the soups. They now eat their vegetables!

I've cooked five or six recipes out of the book and found them to be as advertised, simple but with delicious results.

I recently moved to Italy and decided to get this book to bring with me so as not to get stuck in a vegetarian food rut and also to be able to eat good Italian food without always having to go out to a restaurant. I have made something different almost everynight for a month so far. Not one recipe has disappointed me. They are all very easy to follow and super tasty. My boyfriend is loveing my new found love of cooking, and especially la cucina italiana! I'd also like to add that I used to be vegan so I always look at recipes from an "Is it possible to make this vegan?" standpoint. MANY MANY of these are already vegan on their own and even more of them are if you have the right soy products and a little imagination so I reccomend this book to vegans as well.

We have used many recipes out of this book and have not found a bad one. Very very tasty. My eldest daughter also bought one after trying some of the recipes while visiting us over the holidays.I recommend it to every one.

Love this book! Recipes are simple and delicious. I gave this to my daughter for Christmas, and she is loving it! I would love a photo on every recipe for the next book to entice us to try it!

Love this book! Recipes are simple and delicious. I gave this to my daughter for Christmas, and she is loving it! I would love a photo on every recipe for the next book to entice us to try it!

The recipes in this cookbook are easy, delicious and wonderful! I use this cookbook more than I use any other book and this is the only one that stays on my counter year round. Try it and you will just love it!

This book is fabulous. I love meat so had a friend not recommended it to me I would have not looked for it. She too, is a meat eater and loves the book. It has many great recipes all of which are easy to do and delicious. This is a perfect book for all people.

This book is fabulous. I love meat so had a friend not recommended it to me I would have not looked for it. She too, is a meat eater and loves the book. It has many great recipes all of which are easy to do and delicious. This is a perfect book for all people.

Quite simply my favorite cookbook. I love all Jack Bishop's cookbooks, but this one has clearly gotten the most use. The recipes are wholesome, vegetarian, and delicious--all vegetarian food should be like this.

To put this review into perspective for you, it is written by an amateur cook that has been seriously studying cooking on her own for 25 years with the last 10 years spent mostly on Italian cuisine. My favorite cookbook is "The Professional Chef" by the Culinary Institute of America.

I fell in love with Italian cooking on my first trip to Italy back in 1995. My love of Italian food continues to grow, and I enjoy adding new Italian cookbooks to my collection. Italians do not eat as much meat as we do in America. That makes an Italian Vegetarian Cookbook a natural.

This book is not a vegan cookbook. There are plenty of dairy and eggs in this book. But don't let that stop you if you are a vegan. There are many recipes in this book that are vegan or that can easily be adapted to a vegan lifestyle.

My usual complaint of Italian cookbooks is that they are not truly Italian, but usually more Italian American in origin. This book is actually Italian which I appreciate.

I love the recipe for Mashed Fava Beans and Potatoes with Arugula. The Fresh Tomato Tart with Basil-Garlic Crust is also a winner, with or without the mozzarella cheese.

This is a highly recommend for anyone that misses the food they had in Italy, or just wants to cook a little more healthy at home.

One of the very best vegetarian cookbooks we own. The recipies never disappoint.

It is clear after using this cookbook that the author is not only an accomplished chef and dedicated vegetarian, but also that he spent time living in Italy (Florence), thoroughly understands the mixture of flavorings in Italian cooking and the importance of fresh ingredients AND is a busy family man who doesn't have hours every night to spend in the kitchen! Whether you are a vegetarian (as I am) or a meat-eater who loves Italian food, this is a must have for your cookbook library. The recipes in this book are incredible and numerous - there are sections for all kinds of Italian specialties, including pizza, risottos, pasta, salads, antipasto, frittatas, legumes, panini, dolci (desserts), vegetable sides and main dishes, etc., etc. For the most part, the recipes are simple to make and not too time consuming and use easily available, fresh and healthy ingredients. Included in the Introduction to the book are suggested menus for varying occasions and seasons. All-in-all one of my favorite cookbooks in my large collection, and one I go to time and time again for delicious, healthful, Italian meals.

being both a vegetarian and italian, I was really excited when I first saw this book. The recipes in it are eay, wonderful, and truly Italian without having weird meat substitutes. Its wonderful explanation of almost all of the ingredients used in the book found at the back is SO useful. Overall, it is the best cookbook I have ever found.

`The Complete Italian Vegetarian Cookbook' by Jack Bishop is the third of Mr. Bishop's vegetable cookbooks I have reviewed and I have adopted the two earlier reviewed books as part of my regular `go to' cookbooks when I am looking for a recipe. This volume will join the others, as its recipes are excellent and its organization make it an excellent source for finding meatless dishes with an Italian accent.

However, some of the expectations created for this book by its title and dust jacket blurbs are just a bit misleading.

The term `vegetarian' in the title is probably being used in only its most liberal sense. While there is not a trace of chicken, ham, hare, or halibut in these recipes, the recipes positively drip with eggs and cheese. This is no more `vegetarian' than the collection of recipes taken from Marcella Hazan's works with all animal products removed. This also means that the gushy compliments from `Cooks Illustrated' colleague Christopher Kimball which describe the book as `a quantum leap forward in vegetarian cooking' is really going too far. Since something coming close to this book could have been produced by simply editing the works of a major writer on Italian food, this book does not give us a whole lot more than what we already have with our library full of works from Hazan, Bastianich, and Bugialli, not to mention the dozen volumes on specific Italian regional cuisines. It is also a mistake to assume that the calorie count for these recipes will be lower than normal. The recipes are really faithful to Italian cuisine in their heavy use of either olive oil or butter, so you may need to read the recipes carefully if you are looking for low fat recipes. Speaking of butter and olive oil, I did find a minor misstatement about these ingredients. In the recipe for a low fat bechamel, he states that substituting butter for olive oil will reduce the fat in a recipe. The error is that a tablespoon of olive oil is 100% fat while a tablespoon of American unsalted butter is about 80% fat by law. While olive oil may be a healthier, mono-unsaturated fat, gram for gram, it has more fat calories than butter. And, you may be loosing some emulsifying properties of butter if you substitute olive oil for butter. This has no reflection on the quality of Mr. Bishop's recipes. If you can afford the fat calories, go for whatever turns you on.

But, there is a lot of value in this book. If you are a vegetarian who eats eggs and milk products, and you like Italian food, then you simply cannot find a better cookbook for your lifestyle. This is especially true since the Italian cuisines have done an especially good job of creating a really broad range of vegetable dishes. The `complete' in the title may be a stretch, as I simply refuse to believe that a complete cookbook is possible for any cooking subject as big as Italian cooking, even Italian cooking which excludes fish, fowl, meat, and game. But, this book gives the objective an honest treatment.

One's first impression upon looking at the Table of Contents is that there are a lot of subjects which do not sound like vegetable dishes, such as pastas, breads, risottos, polenta, frittatas (Italian omelets), Crespelle (Italian crepes), and desserts. This is all part of the complete treatment to which Bishop strives. And, although I recommend you run to Hazan or Bastianich or Batalli if you want good instructions on making fresh pasta and to Reinhart or Beranbaum or Ortiz or Field if you want to make Italian bread, Bishop has a lot of sound ideas about making some classic Italian preparations such as polenta and risotto.

The thing I liked best about this book aside were the large number of egg, gnocchi, risotto, and panini recipes plus the very nice collection of salads and vegetable side dishes. (One symptom of the mistaken `complete' in the title is that the book does not include a recipe for a Caprese salad (basil, mozzarella, and tomato)). While I have close to a hundred books loaded with recipes for fresh and dried pastas, there are few good collections which include Crespelle or as big a selection of frittatas. And, the selections of meatless sandwich recipes (Panini) are a real find.

This may seem like a small thing, but I also give Mr. Bishop and his publisher high marks for the book's layout, with each recipe typically taking a single page. I am also very fond of his recipe for a vegetable stock, as it reduces the simmer time to a very convenient hour by chopping the vegetables rather than by simply halving them and simmering for three or more hours. The other pantry recipes are similarly first rate, although I think I would replace his quick sauce with my favorite basic sauce from Mario Batali that is sweetened with carrot and leaves out the parsley or basil.

I have mixed feelings about the photographs in this book. They are well done, but for a 550 page book costing over $37, the number is a bit thin and the placement in a single rotogravure section is more typical of less expensive volumes.

If you want meatless Italian recipes, this is the book for you. At the very least, it will save you from sorting through recipes in other books that may be heavy with pancetta, salami, Parma ham, and anchovies. Mr. Bishop gives us real Italian without giving us the feeling that something has been left out.

Every recipe from this book that I have made has turned out excellent! I also appreciate the layout: each section lists all the recipes at the beginning so it's easy to plan a menu (author also has included many of his own menu suggestions) and to find recipes using ingredients that one already has on hand. The contents/sections are broken up into several different catagories ranging from antipasto, to polenta, to vegetable main courses and even vegetable side dishes, again making it easy to find just the recipe that you are looking for. The recipes are very clear, simple and easy to follow. Not very many photos, if that's important.

My mom's side ofthe family is Italian (not vegetarian mind you) and last year I convinced them to come to our house for Christmas dinner....they were skeptical but we pulled it off and this cookbook was a great help! There are so many delicious recipes, all very gourmet in flavor and taste yet mostly not too tough to make. We had rvilois as the main dish (my grandmother's secret recipe) but then I pulled in the rest almost all from here. We had a great sauteed zucchini with lemon and mint, cannellini beans with tomatoes, sage and garlic. There are all sorts of other great recipes too - pasta dishes, beans, salads, soups, etc. Everything I've tried has been good and has been true to itlian flavors. I love to use Balsamic vinegar and there is a great (easy) recipe for penne with tomoatoes, rosemary and balsamic vinegar. I love thus book - really glad to have it on hand.

I bought this cookbook because I had some money, and watching Molto Mario on Food TV had made very interested in Italian cuisine. One of my regular dinner guests is a vegetarin, and I often think I'l like to swing more towards vegetarianism as well, so I went ahead and ordered this book sight unseen. It was a great purchase. I got the hardback, which is always nicer than the paperback. The recipes are well formatted, and always start at the top of a page. I've only cooked a handful of things from this so far, but they were all easy recipes to follow and I didn't encounter and snags. It is also packed with enough recipes that there is a chance for lots of diversity.

This is a terrific book. I cannot say enough great things about it. I originally purchased it from a store bookshelf after comparing it to many other Italian cookbooks a few years ago. I've since bought copies for relatives who love it too. By the way, none of us are vegetarians.
My first favorite thing about it is that it can be read like a book, because it has wonderful intros to each of the sections and interesting notes about each recipe. I learned alot about Italian cooking and a deeper appreciation for the amazing creation of vegetables and how to celebrate them! Jack Bishop's attitude reminds me of my Dad's who is also of Italian heritage and loved to cook too.
Jack Bishop's complete step-by-step instructions and chapter set up provide the cook with a freedom to improvise and change ingredients with confidence; to go off and make a creation of their own from his "basic" recipe. Yet, he also provides specific recipes, so if you're not in the mood to be creative, you have full recipes to pick from also. It's far more than just an accumulation of recipes here. I wish every cookbook was set up this way! I learned so much from this book!!!!

For several months we have using this book to create countless meals, all delicious, simple to prepare, and healthy. I kept thinking I should get around to writing my first amazon review - I have been that impressed with this book. Come to find, legions of other reader/cooks have said it all. So I can only concur with the raves of everyone else here.

Although we are not strict vegetarians in our house, we do try to maintain a healthy diet. Still, enjoyment of great food is something of a passion, and the pleasures of family, friends and a great meal are well nigh to sacred for us. This book, with its numerous ideas and recipes, does it all - great food, which just happens to match fairly closely what I think are are very sensible dietary guidelines. (check out Andrew Weil's book on diet and nutrition - he knows healthy eating but also clearly loves good food. Weil had better get this book if he doesn't alkready own it.)

We've scarcely eaten anything else outside this book for months, and we still haven't got through all the ideas, cause we keep going back to try favourites again and again. Very, very difficult to imagine anyone not being delighted with this book.

Well done Jack Bishop!

I use this cookbook all the time. It has a wide array of easy to follow recipes which just happen to call for the types of ingredients that I have on hand. There are even recipes that use cabbage and squash, mystery vegetables to me. I ordered this book and Vegetarian Fast Food. Vegetarian Fast Food was useless, but I use The Complete Italian Vegetarian Cookbook at least 3 or 4 times a week, with equally fast results.

A book has to really, really "WOW" me (or thoroughly disgust me) before I am willing to write a review. This cookbook obviously falls into the former category since I gave it five stars, and although it has all of the glowing reports it needs, I feel compelled to add my raves to the rest. I bought this book after my teenage daughter turned vegetarian in the hopes of finding a cookbook that would inspire me to make food that the whole family would enjoy. That means delicious enough that my non-vegetarin kids would eat it, gourmet enough that it satisfies my husband's soul as well as his tastebuds, and simple enough that I don't go off the deep end trying to prepare dinner while simultaneously helping kids with homework night after night. This book fits the bill. The food is authentic, simple, elegant, generally kid-friendly (ok, so I don't make the recipes with mushrooms or eggplant and expect my kids to fall all over themselves vying for seconds), and deliciously soul-satisfying. It is everything I look for in a cookbook and (sadly) very seldom find.