A timeless Mother's Day gift: The most important, consulted, and enjoyed Italian cookbook of all time, from the woman who introduced Americans to a whole new world of Italian food.
Essentials of Italian Cooking is a culinary bible for anyone looking to master the art of Italian cooking, bringing together Marcella Hazan’s most beloved books, The Classic Italian Cook Book and More Classic Italian Cooking, in a single volume, updated and expanded with new entries and 50 new recipes. Designed as a basic manual for cooks of all levels of expertise—from beginners to accomplished professionals—it offers both an accessible and comprehensive guide to techniques and ingredients and a collection of the most delicious recipes from the Italian repertoire. As home cooks who have used Marcella’s classic books for years (and whose copies are now splattered and worn) know, there is no one more gifted at teaching us just what we need to know about the taste and texture of a dish and how to achieve it, and there is no one more passionate and inspiring about authentic Italian food.
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Library Journal - BookSmack!
There is a wonderful section in Senate's book where Holly tracks down some of the recipes her grandmother handed out during cooking school sessions long ago, collecting both brief remembrances of Camilla and her handwritten lessons on pasta. Camilla's cookbook is a talisman for Holly, gathering as it does not just ingredients and the need for wishes and hopes, but memories of childhood and her grandmother's point of view. While Senate fans cannot get their hands on Camilla's cookbook, they can dig into perhaps the most essential of Italian cookbooks, Hazan's two works of sheer brilliance, The Classic Italian Cook Book and More Classic Italian Cooking, collected here into a revised and unified edition. Hazan is not as warm and cozy as Senate's women, but like Julia Child, she is on a mission to teach readers how to cook and to explain the steps and processes of Italian cooking. If Holly's attempts at sauces and perfect pasta made your readers want to reach for flour and a big pot of boiling water, there is no better guide than Hazan. — Neal Wyatt, "RA Crossroads," Booksmack! 2/3/11
