Mario Batali Simple Italian Food: Recipes from My Two Villages
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| Mario Batali Simple Italian Food: Recipes from My Two Villages | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Perfectly pristine ingredients, combined sensibly and cooked properly, are the unmistakable hallmarks of the best Italian food. Chef Mario Batali, known to fans far and wide as "Molto Mario" from his appearances on television's Food Network and as chef of New York's much-loved Pó restaurant, has elevated these simple principles to fine art, creating innovative new fare that pays tribute to traditional Italian home cooking in a distinctly modern way. Now, for the first time, more than 200 of his irresistible recipes for fresh pastas, sprightly salads, grilled dishes, savory ragus, and many others are gathered in Simple Italian Food, a celebration of the flavors and spirit of Italy.
Mario draws inspiration for his distinctive dishes from the two "villages" that have left their stamps on his cuisine: Borgo Capanne, the tiny hillside village in Northern Italy where he lived and cooked for several years, and New York's Greenwich Village, where he has ready access to bountiful produce and outstanding artisan-made products; his full-flavored, smartly presented fare combines the best of both worlds. Chapters covering antipasti, pasta and risotto, fish, meat and poultry, contorni (side dishes), and cheese and sweets offer classic dishes such as Baked Lasagne with Asparagus and Pesto and pork loin cooked in caramelized onions and milk alongside Batali's own enticing improvisations--Penne with Spicy Goat Cheese and Hazelnut Pesto or Tuna Carpaccio with Cucumbers, Sweet Potatoes, and Saffron Vinaigrette. And because his recipes succeed on the strength of their ingredients rather than on virtuoso techniques, home cooks can easily duplicate the clear, clean flavors and lively presentations that are Mario's signature. Thirty-two pages of color photographs showcase Chef Batali's colorful and approachable recipes. Traditionalists as well as those who thrill to the new will want to make dozens of these crowd-pleasing dishes a permanent part of their repertoire and embrace Mario Batali'sphilosophy of Simple Italian Food. |
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Sure to excite lovers of the best Italian cooking, Mario Batali Simple Italian Food: Recipes from My Two Villages reenvisions classic home cucina with enticing results. Batali, known to fans as "Molto Mario" from his Television Food Network shows, and as chef-owner of Manhattan's much-loved Po and Babbo restaurants, presents nearly 250 of his favorite recipes, traditional and innovative, for delectable salads, pastas, grilled specialties, ragus, and desserts, among others. The collection, inspired by the cooking of Borgo Cappene, a hillside village in northern Italy, and Greenwich Village, where Batali culls exemplary ingredients for his restaurants, reflects Batali's commitment to simple cooking--impeccable ingredients sensibly combined and properly prepared. Cooks seeking deeply flavored, smartly presented dishes will embrace Batali's recipes for everyday meals and for entertaining.
Arranged by courses, antipasti through formaggi and dolci (cheese and sweets), the uncomplicated dishes include White Bean Bruschetta with Grilled Radicchio Salad, Baked Lasagna with Asparagus and Pesto, and Roasted Porgy with Peas, Garlic, Scallions and Mint. Gorgonzola with Spiced Walnuts and Port Wine Syrup with fresh fruit would make a lovely conclusion to any dinner. Throughout, Batali provides advice on dish preparation; there are 32 pages of color photos and dozens of black-and-white shots of life in Batali's two villages. Batali's reliance on the best ingredients simply prepared, rather than on fussy restaurant techniques, places his dishes squarely in the realm of home cooks. They'll find his book a keeper. --Arthur Boehm |
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| Reader Reviews Below Sorted by Newest First | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 07-24-08 | 3 | 2\3 |
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Before I start, I want you to know that I haven't read any of the other reviews.
That being said, I bought this book some years ago because I enjoyed watching Molto Mario on the Food Network. What he was doing on that show seemed simple enough because he used a minimum of ingredients (or so it seemed). I've tried to get through some of the recipes in this book without having to substitute one thing or another because I can't get them in the not so far suburbs of Chicago. It isn't so much that some of the ingredients are unavailable, but there are so many that I would never keep in a "simple" home. The stories are wonderful, but as a cookbook, it leaves much to be desired. (Review Data Last Updated: 2008-11-30 08:07:02 EST)
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| 02-15-08 | 5 | (NA) |
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After reading ,trying and eating what Mario offered, I was certain he has mastered they way of Italy. And in Italia there is no bad food.. Grazie Mario
(Review Data Last Updated: 2008-07-25 06:56:53 EST)
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| 10-14-07 | 3 | 2\3 |
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"Take one Yak's kidney (the left one, not the right) and toss it with yellow-blue endive, freshly picked that morning from the garden of a french hairdresser's mother's cousin's chiropodist."
I only exaggerate a little. I'm sure the results of the recipes are fantastic, but I am tired of celebrity chefs selling their restaurant fare (which it took them years of intense labor and skill development) in cookbooks labeled "simple". If it were so simple, there would be no need to spend the money it costs to eat in their restaurants. They have the staff, the facilities, access to the ingredients, and the equipment to get done what most people can only dream of doing at home. If you want pretty pictures of food and some nice ideas to work from, enjoy this book. Personally, I prefer cook books that truly cater to the what the average interested home cook is likely to have at home. (Review Data Last Updated: 2008-02-16 16:00:40 EST)
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| 10-14-07 | 3 | (NA) |
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Here here!
"Take one Yak's kidney (the left one, not the right) and toss it with yellow-blue endive, freshly picked that morning from the garden of a french hairdresser's mother's cousin's chiropodist." I only exaggerate a little. I'm sure the results of the recipes are fantastic, but I am tired of celebrity chefs selling their restaurant fare (which it took them years of intense labor and skill development) in cookbooks labeled "simple". If it were so simple, there would be no need to spend the money it costs to eat in their restaurants. They have the staff, the facilities, access to the ingredients, and the equipment to get done what most people can only dream of doing at home. If you want pretty pictures of food and some nice ideas to work from, enjoy this book. Personally, I prefer cook books that truly cater to the what the average interested home cook is likely to have at home. (Review Data Last Updated: 2007-10-14 18:57:37 EST)
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| 04-05-07 | 5 | (NA) |
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excellent cook book for beginners or pros...love it and love shopping on amazon
(Review Data Last Updated: 2007-10-14 18:45:43 EST)
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| 12-10-06 | 1 | 3\10 |
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Mario Batali's cookbook is most disappointing. I looked it over carefully, and I found absolutely nothing of interest to me. His recipes are incredibly complicated, with ingredients available only in restaurants and the households of professional cooks, northern Italian ones at that. There had to be standby pestos, tapenades, sauces and vinaigrettes. Impossible, really. This is a most unattractive cook book. I won't even give it away.
(Review Data Last Updated: 2007-07-03 18:05:14 EST)
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| 12-09-06 | 1 | 2\8 |
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Mario Batali's cookbook is most disappointing. I looked it over carefully, and I found absolutely nothing of interest to me. His recipes are incredibly complicated, with ingredients available only in restaurants and the households of professional cooks, northern Italian ones at that. There had to be standby pestos, tapenades, sauces and vinaigrettes. Impossible, really. This is a most unattractive cook book. I won't even give it away.
(Review Data Last Updated: 2007-04-05 23:00:30 EST)
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| 04-12-06 | 5 | 8\9 |
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Batali's "Simple Italian Food" is an excellent cookbook for people who actually like to cook, and for those who accept that Italian cooking covers a vast range of subjects and styles, far more than just pasta.
The title is apt: none of these dishes are overly complicated for anyone with a decently equipped kitchen and access to good, fresh ingredients. Unlike more complex styles, French cuisine for example, there is very little combining of several different cooking techniques to produce one recipe. At it's most complicated, the book calls for use of staple ingredients that can be prepared ahead of time, and which Batali also provides recipes for, with sauces for example. One of the great pleasures of the book is discovering the unexpected tang and heartiness of his dishes. His pasta con vongole is a good example: the recipe calls for pancetta, and the result is a tangy clam sauce in a beautiful, brownish broth which is delicious and hearty without being overly rich. Comprate, cucinate e buon appetito! (Review Data Last Updated: 2007-07-03 18:05:14 EST)
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| 04-11-06 | 5 | 3\4 |
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Batali's "Simple Italian Food" is an excellent cookbook for people who actually like to cook, and for those who accept that Italian cooking covers a vast range of subjects and styles, far more than just pasta.
The title is apt: none of these dishes are overly complicated for anyone with a decently equipped kitchen and access to good, fresh ingredients. Unlike more complex styles, French cuisine for example, there is very little combining of several different cooking techniques to produce one recipe. At it's most complicated, the book calls for use of staple ingredients that can be prepared ahead of time, and which Batali also provides recipes for, with sauces for example. One of the great pleasures of the book is discovering the unexpected tang and heartiness of his dishes. His pasta con vongole is a good example: the recipe calls for pancetta, and the result is a tangy clam sauce in a beautiful, brownish broth which is delicious and hearty without being overly rich. Comprate, cucinate e buon appetito! (Review Data Last Updated: 2006-12-09 17:04:52 EST)
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| 03-24-05 | 3 | 13\18 |
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Seems like many great recipes, but many ingredients that aren't found in the regular supermarket, especially if you live in a rural area like I do...so I haven't been able to try many of them.
(Review Data Last Updated: 2007-07-03 18:05:14 EST)
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| 03-04-05 | 1 | 20\32 |
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I've reviewed this cookbook before from the point of view of the contents, for which I gave it 5 stars. I use this cookbook all the time and absolutely love it. Unfortunately, I use this cookbook all the time and the cheap glued binding has not held up. About half the pages have detached and I'm a few chapters away from having to pull the whole thing apart and put it in a three-ring binder. Interestingly, the same publisher used a sewn binding for the Babbo Cookbook, so I guess the gourmet recipes get the quality treatment. I would still recommend purchasing the cookbook for the wonderful preparations, but shame on the publisher for using such poor components on a book designed to be repeatedly opened and laid flat.
(Review Data Last Updated: 2007-07-03 18:05:14 EST)
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| 11-02-04 | 5 | 15\19 |
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Simple referes here to a lifestyle! Reading this book takes you right into the italien kitchen. The kitchen which is shown in some of the pictures in this book.This is really what italien home cooking is like! Having said this let me tell you that I'm a german, who lives in Italy now after having lived 9 years in the states.
This is down to earth cooking. Making with joy something special out of little ingredients. Cooking because it's fun and having taken the time to make something special. It might take a few times to get something like pasta right when doing it the first time. Once managed, even pasta making can be a brise and done for dinner. Don't be afraid to try it. With only so few ingredients it's really simple. I've never had a cooking class. I just love to feed my family well. It is definitly not like the "everyday italien" cooking show on TV. This is life in the country not city fast food. So good because it's so fresh and made with love. Mario clearly love this country. It just spills out of him. This is visible in the Molto Mario show and in this book. Wonderful. (Review Data Last Updated: 2007-07-03 18:05:14 EST)
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| 06-05-04 | 2 | 3\86 |
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If you never grew up on Italian food or if you are not a Italian born, there's no way one can regognize the true authentic flavors of real Italian food. You can certainly try to immediate it, but its like comparing Leather to Pleather. I see Mario multi talented in his huge glossary of fancy words that describe history and perhaps description of foods in a high ranking cooking university. He is best suited somewhere in northern alps of Italy teaching Italian foods to the very elite and most sophisticated snobs who would be very interested in learning Italian Mario abstract-style and maybe paying a few hundred dollars for a fancy odd meal.
(Review Data Last Updated: 2006-07-07 13:32:11 EST)
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| 01-19-04 | 5 | 66\72 |
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I find it hard to be entirely objective about this book, as Mario Batali is my number one culinary hero. Through his show `Molto Mario' on the Food Network, he exposed me for the first time to Italian regional and microregional cuisines and the `if it grows together, it goes together' doctrine. This is called `terroir by the fans of cooking from `the F country', which Mario loves to hate. This also brought into full light the doctrine of `buy the very best of what is fresh today and that will determine what you cook tonight.' Mario does not give you the cerebral approach of someone like Paul Bertolli or Tom Colicchio or, ultimately, like Thomas Keller, but Mario gets all the important stuff right, in a way we can appreciate and use.
I love the way Mario quite honestly confesses to having lifted most of his recipes from Italian grandmothers, as he believes that the best Italian cooking is done in the home and not in the Restaurante. In spite of his heart being with Italian cuisine, he is never disrespectful of American food and produce, especially when the American product is superior to the Italian. This book is comprised of recipes primarily from the extended three-year stage he served in a little trattoria in Emilia-Romagna, a stones throw from the border with Toscana. But, it does contain several recipes from other parts of Emilia-Romagna, Toscana, Lazio (Rome) and even Sicily. His two `villages' are Porretta Terme in Italy and Greenwich Village in Manhattan. The book has six chapters of recipes, these being: Antipasti, 43 recipes including crostini, bruschetta, polenta, pickled vegetables, mushrooms, and cured fish. Each section includes pantry recipes for sauces and dressings not included in this count. I would recommend this book primarily for the reading of Mario's unvarnished enthusiasm for food and the Italian dedication to (relative) simplicity of method and freshness of your `prima materia'. I would also highly recommend his basic tomato sauce (I make it all the time) and his recipes using fresh pasta. As he points out, there is a big difference between the fresh pasta of the north and the dry pasta of the south both in the way they are made, in the types of flour used, and in the sauces appropriate to each. Mario's recommendations on making and dressing pasta are worth the price of admission. The black and white or sepia photographs of Mario and his colleagues at the trattoria lend a warm `gemutlichkeit' (sorry, I don't know the Italian word) to the proceedings. The color photos are better than average, in that the photographer succeeds in getting the entire dish in focus. I highly recommend the book for the authenticity of the recipes and his introduction into a deeper appreciation of Italian food. It is not a complete presentation of Italian dishes, but it is a great partner to a broader treatment done by Marcella Hazan, Lydia Bastianich, Giuliano Bugialli, or the Cooks Illustrated volume on Classic Italian recipes. I agree with those who warn that the book is not for novices, but is the sort of book which can show the way from innocence to experience. (Review Data Last Updated: 2006-07-07 13:32:11 EST)
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| 12-31-03 | 4 | 26\27 |
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Far too many people look at the title "Simple Italian Food" and think that the book is going to include tons of 30 minute recipes for everyday Italian cooking.
Wrong. Anyone who has watched Batali's show, or anyone who reads the introduction to this book will find out that what he is referring to is the use of a few, excellent ingredients in each dish, as opposed to a long list of ingredients that will require one whole cart at the grocery store to carry. Most of the recipes require 6 or 7 ingredients, tops. Some are exotic (most have easy substitutes), yet one of Batali's primary but often-missed points is that the kind of ingredient isn't important, but its quality. I'm surprised by how few a number of people took this concept away from the book. The recipes turn out delicious. They can be intensive at times, particularly the pasta dishes. Most of the meat dishes also require long periods of braising. Few of the dishes are quick-prepares. THAT'S FINE IF THAT IS WHAT YOU ARE LOOKING FOR. So look through the book a little bit before buying and determine if this is what you are expecting. If so, you'll likely enjoy it. (Review Data Last Updated: 2006-07-07 13:32:11 EST)
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| 08-16-03 | 4 | 0\19 |
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What recipes that I used are very good. I did find that they are not work intensive. I have watched Lidia's TV program and find it very instructional.
(Review Data Last Updated: 2006-07-07 13:32:11 EST)
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| 06-14-03 | 3 | 13\16 |
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Despite the inference of the title that the recipes contained in this book are "simple", I think that you really have to understand that in Mario Batali's world, these recipes are indeed simple and the dishes he is preparing are considered rustic country cuisine. For the average home cook, I thing the word that "simple" means food that doesn't take a couple of hours to prepare or require you to order ingredients on the internet from specialty stores because you can't find them anywhere. Not all of us live in New York where Italian groceries abound.I like watching Mario's shows on Food TV but let's face it, he is NOT making simple food. Yes, pasta is "simple" but not when you make it from scratch yourselfwith specialty flour. Rachael Ray or Sara Moulton make simple food, not Mario. That said, this book does have some good points. It is very nicely presented and lovely to look at. The food does look delicious and if I get real adventurous someday, I might try a few. If you are looking for a basic Italian cookbook to make simple lasagne or manicotti, do not buy this book.
(Review Data Last Updated: 2006-06-27 16:38:05 EST)
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| 05-05-03 | 5 | 9\10 |
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I've begun working my way through this cookbook and I've been extremely happy with the results of every recipe I've tried. (The chicken thighs with saffron, green olives and mint are outstanding.) I particularly appreciate Batali's combination of tradition and innovation and his presentation of recipes that highlight the freshness and focused simplicity of Italian cooking. This cookbook may be more valuable for those who enjoy experimentation in the kitchen and don't worry overmuch about following recipes to the letter. If you don't have boar (and who does?), try pork. No ramps? I used scallions. This cookbook is a lot of fun!
(Review Data Last Updated: 2006-07-07 13:32:11 EST)
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| 01-01-03 | 5 | 30\32 |
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I'm a bit of a loss to read the less than stellar reviews of this book by Mario Batali. Yes, Mario uses some not-so-common ingredients... but if you want not-so-common food, you try your best to find those ingredients (hint: you can find hard-to-find ingredients pretty damn easy over the Web)... besides, there's
a common alternative to practically every ingredient that Mario uses. So far I've tried about a dozen recipes... *all* with stellar results. The artichoke/pasta and the calamari recipes are particular favorites. And while I was skeptical about the quick tomato sauce that he describes early on (hey... its *so* different than Marcella's quick sauce), when I tried it, it was amazingly good, especially for a 30-minute sauce. And... yeah... it does take a little practice to make your own fresh pasta. Overkneading/overrolling can make fresh pasta pretty tough. If you can't... you can always stick to Sicilian dishes. Sicilians prefer dried pasta. :) This is a good book (unlike other junk like Emeril's book... Emeril is a circus clown not a cook). Besides the simple (they *are* simple) recipes, you really learn quite a bit about simple Italian cooking that you can leverage in your other dishes. (Review Data Last Updated: 2006-07-07 13:32:11 EST)
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