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(More customer reviews)Just as Gennaro Contaldo's recently published book `Passione' would not have existed without the patronage of Jamie Oliver and the author's connection to Antonio Carluccio, this book headlined by Eleanora Russo Scarpetta would not exist were it not for the primary author's connection with both Martha Stewart and Al Roker in his role as a Food Network producer and star. Ms. Scarpetta has appeared on shows for both of her sponsors and she attributes the impetus behind this book to urging by Ms. Stewart. As with Gennaro's book, I would have paid this book no attention at all without the big name connections.
On first blush, it seems foolish for an amateur housewife to venture into the world so thoroughly explored by big name chef / writers such as Mario Batali, Lydia Bastianich, Marcella Hazan, and Giuliano Bugialli, just to name the currently most popular names in Italian cuisine writing. Ms Scarpetta does not even have the added cachet of a skillful culinary amateur Vincent Schiavelli, a well-known character actor and seasoned culinary writer.
Just as I wrap up all my reasons for pessimism, I actually start reading the book and discover that Ms. Scarpetta has captured a niche in culinary writing which none of the other names I have mentioned, even soul mate Gennaro, have touched. This is the role of the cook who genuinely cooks exclusively at home based on shopping done exclusively at retail markets in the Bronx' little Italy. She is not adapting restaurant recipes to the home or interpreting dishes done by Italian Nonnas or dishes written in 200 year old cookbooks. To this niche, Ms. Scarpetta adds a genuine passion and skill for canning and preserving, the talent that brought her to the attention of the Martha Stewart organization. This aspect immediately appeals to the unreconstituted `Whole Earth Catalogue hippie' in me, especially since I saw Ms. Scarpetta do her thing on Ms. Martha's show and it is easy to see the lady knows what she is doing.
Scarpetta describes her recipes as Italian American, based on the traditions of southern Italy in and around Naples, her birthplace. As such, the names of dozens of her recipes are immediately recognizable to regular readers of Italian cookbooks. Here we have yet another recipe for such classics as Eggplant Rollatini, Spaghetti Carbonara, Pasta Puttanesca, Chicken Cacciatore, Ossa Buco, Calzones, Sausage and Peppers, and several varieties of Minestrone. There are a fair number of original dishes, especially a wide variety of dishes featuring eggplant. There are also many good recipes for southern Italian torte for those of you totally jaded by Parisian and Viennese pastries.
There are a few general twists that differentiate Ms. Scarpetta's recipes from many others. The first is the prominent use of home preserved tomatoes (although a large can of Roma tomatoes is a satisfactory substitute). The second is to consistently replace Parmesano Reggiano with Pecorino Romano. Ms. Scarpetta says she prefers the stronger taste of the goat's milk cheese; however, it satisfies my sense of geographical fitness that Ms. Scarpetta from Naples would prefer the Roman product to the product from Parma, much further north on the Italian peninsula. The third is to actually prefer dried herbs to fresh in many cases. This is immensely satisfying, in that this is much more economical to the average cook and much more realistic, as even in warm Italy, an herb's growing season will probably fill only half a year. What do you do for the other half of the year? Ms. Scarpetta goes a step further and recommends that the home cooks take the effort to dry their own herbs. One reservation I have with the dried herb practice is in the use of dried basil. Every source I have ever seen on the subject prefers fresh to dried basil, fresh basil is available year round, AND, fresh hothouse basil available in your megamart is actually better than basil grown outdoors in the naked sun. I discovered this much to my surprise last year and have seen it written by veg experts since then.
Ms. Scarpetta provides all the information you need to do the home preserving she uses in her recipes and which I am sure she does herself with great skill and success. Preserving recipes cover drying herbs, canning artichoke hearts, marinated eggplant, canned sweet Italian peppers vinaigrette, canned roasted red peppers, canned caponatina spread, and (last but certainly not least) cured green olives. That's right. Ms. Eleanora cures her own Sicilian or Cerignola olives.
I've read almost every recipe and I find them all to be both of a professional quality and `just simple enough' but not too simple. All are worthy of the skills of premier restaurant chefs Mario and Lydia. It is important to note that Ms. Scarpetta had the assistance, as co-author, of Sarah Belk King, a well-known freelance writer and co-author for fellow Martha Stewart alumnae Sara Foster. Based on Ms. Belk's credits and acknowledgments, I suspect her contribution was primarily with cooking the words rather than with cooking the pasta.
The downsides of this book are few and depend on what you want from a new cookbook. While there are some family anecdotes herein, none have the richness and vibrancy I found in Genarro's work. Also, unlike Genarro's recipes, there are many, many standards that you will have in any number of other books on Italian-American cuisine. There was one ingredient in these recipes which puzzle me to no end. This is `fresh cheese'. I simply cannot visualize this ingredient except as cottage or farmer's cheese. I am also puzzled by the basic bread recipe, as it seems to use far too little yeast for the amount of flour, and a great amount of flour it is. For simple Italian bread, check out Gennaro or his student, Jamie Oliver's recipes in `Jamie's Kitchen'.
Highly recommended for genuine, straightforward Italian-American Home Cooking.
Click Here to see more reviews about: Eleanora's Kitchen: 125 Fabulous Authentic Italian-American Recipes
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