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Italian Family Dining: Recipes, Menus, and Memories of Meals with a Great American Food Family
by Edward Giobbi & Eugenia Giobbi Bone

review by Mimi Cummins

The first thing that struck me about this book is how beautifully designed it is. It's quite substantial, a good size without being unwieldy. It is printed on good-quality cream colored paper with dark green ink, and nearly every page features hand-drawn illustrations. However, the proof is in the recipes.

The premise of this book is that "Italian meals are structured in a way that keeps family and friends at the table." Italians sit down together to eat; a custom that is rapidly becoming obsolete in our busy American lifestyle. Viewed that way, cuisine because one of the most important ways to spend quality time with your family. The book is in itself a family affair, a father-daughter collaboration.

Italians acknowledge that food tastes best when prepared with fresh, seasonal ingredients and to that end the book is structured around the four seasons, featuring recipes and menus for spring, summer, fall and winter. It also features special recipes and menus for the major holidays of each season. There are many other menus build around themes such as "A Quiet Fall Dinner," "A Simple Summer Dinner for Company," or "A Sexy Winter Dinner."

The recipes are fabulous, although I was challenged by many of the ingredients. A good many of the recipes called for ingredients I simply cannot get at my local supermarket, such as tripe, fresh morels, onion blossoms, cardoons, puntarelle or cranberry beans. Some of these things I have never even heard of before! However, adventurous palates with access to gourmet food stores and farmers' markets will delight in the recipes that will allow them to make use of the variety that is available to them. There were enough recipes that didn't call for more exotic ingredients that I didn't have any trouble putting this book to good use. One thing is for certain, this is no mere book listing different ways to prepare pasta!

Some of the recipes in the book are: Leek and Chestnut Soup, Butternut Squash and Rice Soup, Farfalle with Green Tomatoes, Eggplant Rolls, Chicken with Lobster, Duck Baked in Salt, Linguine with Blue Crab Sauce, Spaghettini with Maine Shrimp, Risotto with Crabmeat, Parchment-Wrapped Sausage with Fennel and Onions, Orange-Clove Souffle, Pannettone Bread Pudding, Lemon Sorbet with Spumante, Jaques Pepin's Rhubarb Galette, Strawberry-Rhubarb Coffee Cake.

Adventurous chefs wanting to try something new, healthy, and at the same time homey in a uniquely Italian way will delight in exploring this excellent cookbook.