Cookbook
Review
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Italian Family Dining: Recipes,
Menus, and Memories of Meals with a Great American Food Family
By Edward Giobbi and Eugenia
Giobbi Bone
Published by Rodale
November 2005;$27.50US/$37.50CAN
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It's mealtime, and the family
gathers around the table. There may be a dish of pasta to start,
or a bowl of soup. To follow, perhaps some tuna sausage and roasted
peppers, or chicken with mint. A salad? Well, maybe, if it's
a big meal. Salad at this point in the meal is good for digestion.
For dessert, a piece of fruit. If the occasion is special, then
a granita or a torta. Each dish celebrates the bounty of the
season. And each pause between these small courses -- indeed,
the entire meal -- is punctuated with lively conversation. The
result? Satisfaction. Contentment. And a very healthful meal.
This is Italian Family Dining.
Thirty years after the publication
of his classic book, Italian Family Cooking, Edward Giobbi has
joined his daughter Eugenia Giobbi Bone to share more recipes
for the way we want to eat today. When a cook follows the seasons,
little is needed to turn one or two ingredients into a work of
art. Swordfish with Peas reveals the essence of late spring and
can be made in less than 30 minutes. Come winter, Potato, Rice,
and Sausage Soup might cook for less than an hour, but the result
-- whether for lunch, with a salad, or as a first course for
dinner -- is spectacular.
Included as well in Italian Family
Dining are recipes for the big meals, the celebrations like Easter
or Christmas Eve, when cooking begins with the rising of the
sun and the meal ends long after the sun has set.
Throughout the book, Eugenia
reflects upon meals al fresco, mushrooms and wild greens, how
Italians eat pasta, fruit for dessert, and vegetables for dinner.
These essays are our entrée into the life of an Italian
family, and by themselves make this book worth returning to again
and again.
Continued
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