Product Description

Make it Italian . . . But how to achieve the genuine Italian flavor that we Americans love so much?

According to Nancy Verde Barr, author of the incomparable We Called It Macaroni, the secret lies in knowing one’s ingredients and how to cook with them; it is a birthright that is passed down through generations of Italian families. She learned by watching her grandmother, Nonna, and now, in this wonderfully instructive and warmhearted book, she translates that hands-on experience into a primer of techniques and tastes that will become our Nonna in the kitchen.

First she introduces us to the Italian cupboard -- essential ingredients that give Italian dishes their distinctive flavors. Then, for each category of food, she gives us a Primary Recipe, detailing the right cooking techniques, timing, seasoning, and finishing touches to achieve the perfect balance of taste and texture. Countless variations follow, enabling us to put into practice all we have learned.

For example, once we have mastered Penne and Marinara Sauce, we can confidently whip up Linguine with Tuna and Pea Sauce or Rigatoni with Eggplant Sauce or Ziti with Sausage and Peppers.

The perfect formula for making Veal Scaloppine with Lemon and Parsley invites us to use pork, chicken, or turkey, or to try rolled, stuffed, and breaded versions.

Fresh fish and seafoods are roasted, sautéed, steamed, or braised according to what is the best for each species. The detailed instructions for Roasted Whole Red Snapper can be applied to small stuffed sardines; the formula for Sautéed Tuna Steaks with Prosciutto and Tomatoes works beautifully for Sautéed Monkfish Medallions with Pancetta and Cream.

The same principle applies to vegetables, the glory of the Italian table. The right cooking techniques bring out the best in each seasonal offering, from Roasted Green Beans to Smothered Broccoli Rabe.

The desserts she gives us are her own favorites, homey and simple to make -- light Semolina Pudding, “cooked creams” like the classic Panna Cotta, tender sponge cake (and its reincarnation in her version of Tiramisù), some fruit delights, and the formula for crisp biscotti.

There are charts throughout to guide us in creating our own recipes out of the lessons we have learned.
For Nancy Verde Barr, Italian cooking is musical and diverse, and recipes should be inspirations, not inflexible instructions. Now, with the tools she has given us, we can confidently reproduce that genuine Italian flavor.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #624659 in Books
• Published on: 2002-11-05
• Released on: 2002-11-05
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 512 pages

From Publishers Weekly
Barr, who cooked alongside Julia Child and authored We Called It Macaroni, shares her nonna's wisdom in a book organized by traditional Italian courses. Adjusting for Americans, Barr portions pasta and soup as whole meals. She provides extensive information on everything from shopping and tools to terminology to how to make scaloppine. The strength is in her unique approach to the recipes: instead of a rigid prescription, ingredients are categorized yet flexible. For example, ingredients for Spicy Bay Scallops with Capers and Lemon are under headings for the fish, the aromatic, the deglazing liquid, and the finish. There are four variations on this recipe alone. Cooks get license-and the tools-to experiment. The soup section is especially strong, with a table on how to create your own and examples such as Fennel Soup with Ham and Soup with Porcini and Cornmeal. Chapters begin with a "primary recipe," such as Tomato, Mozzarella, and Basil Pizza, and advance, for example, to Potato Pizza. The only drawback to this approach is the cross-referencing necessary. Barr provides just enough guidance, writing, for Nonna's Chicken with Garlic and Rosemary: "Don't be alarmed by the large amount of garlic" because it will sweeten. Recipes are traditional Southern (her family is from Ischia) with some surprises (e.g., Roasted Monkfish with Roasted Red Pepper Sauce and Sweet-and-Sour Lamb Stew from Apulia). The salad chapter ("the stomach's toothbrush") is straightforward-the way it should be. The dessert section emphasizes puddings (Lemon "Cooked Cream" with Berries) and mix-and-match sauces (Chocolate-Espresso Sauce and Dried Tart-Cherry Sauce for puddings or ice creams). This book is worth having for anyone who loves Italian food.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal
Barr (We Called It Macaroni) learned to cook from her Italian grandmother, who learned from her mother and her grandmother. With her latest book, Barr hopes to impart that familial knowledge and kitchen instinct to other cooks. She refers to her book as a primer and urges readers to draw on her techniques to improvise their own dishes that taste of Italy. To that end, she provides what she calls "Primary Recipes," detailed recipes that cover all the basics, and related recipes that build on them, along with charts on "Creating Your Own"-guidelines and proportions for putting together variations on these themes. Barr writes in a reassuring, "hands-on" style, describing the why and how for each recipe step and offering many useful tips along the way. Her opening chapter, "Flavors That Say `Italian,'" is an illustrated buying guide to ingredients, and each chapter begins with a thorough introduction; numerous boxes on all sorts of culinary topics add even more. Filled with delicious recipes and important information, Make It Italian is an essential purchase.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist
Make It Italian comes from Nancy Verde Barr, who has set herself a goal of weaning Americans away from restaurants to cook Italian food at home. She starts off with a careful inventory of Italian staples to provide cooks a common terminology and to ensure that her recipes turn out successfully. Current expanded availability of Italian meats and cheeses in groceries across America also helps to make many of these dishes possible to reproduce authentically-pancetta, porcini mushrooms, fresh mozzarella, and fresh basil are now common supermarket offerings. Barr presents key recipes and then shows how each element can be manipulated to take advantage of the day's freshest ingredients. Her analysis of pasta sauces ranks as a notable, concise summary of culinary theory as she explicates the role of cooking fats, central ingredients, liquids, and finishing flavors. Nevertheless, Barr isn't wed to rigorous tradition: her recipe for spaghetti with white clam sauce allows for Parmesan cheese, a horror to the Italian original. Fish cookery and meat courses follow authentic Italian principles of freshness and simplicity. Mark Knoblauch
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Customer Reviews

Mama Mia!
More than a cookbook, no chef should be without it! A thorough exploration of Italian cooking. Highly readable format makes this cookbook a must.

Clear our your shelves because this is THE book!
This book is just fantastic - from start to finish! It takes you through the building of a recipe from buying the ingredients to the techniques involved to prepare. Each section, Soup, Pasta, Meat, etc. gives you recipes that build on each other and then ends with suggestions on how to swing out on your own. When reading the book you feel as though Nancy is standing in your kitchen - her voice is clear and eloquent.

A few weeks ago, my father asked me how to make Bolognese sauce. I gave him Nancy's book and told him to read her recipe (that is wildly easy and delicious). I explained the arrangement of the book and he went to work reading the chapter on pasta. After that he was hooked! He made a shopping list to stock his pantry and couldn't wait to get started. He said it was as though he'd been to an Italian cooking class.

Make It Italian has become my standard wedding shower, birthday - anything present.

Not to be forgotten is Nancy's "We Called It Macaroni." I have used it a thousand times. Her sundried tomatoes and mascarpone appetizer is requested by dinner guests and when it's my turn to bring an hors d'oeuvre.

THE Book to Have for Italian Cooking
Why is it THE book to have? The important aspects of Italian cooking -- which can be applied to all cooking -- are explained here, in conciseness and clarity. Why you should purchase certain items; how you should cook them and why; when to use one ingredient over another and why. Why should you cook the soffrito for pasta & bean soup slowly, over medium-low heat, for 20 minutes? Why should you remove tomato seeds from your whole tomatoes if you're cooking them for more than 30 minutes? Why should you try to find genuine Italian import stores that stock the "good" stuff? The answers are in there.

I prefer to bake more than cook (my sweet tooth in action), but I like -- and can do -- both. I'm just slow in the kitchen; my husband's a better sous chef than I am. But, having an Italian grandmother and living in an area with pronounced Italian-American heritage, when I saw this book I had to get it. And after making a batch of the marinara sauce with generic crushed tomatoes, I knew I had a winner! Now I'm dying to try it out with a can of San Marzano tomatoes!

As the other reviews have stated, she explains what you need, and why you need it. Even if you doubt or don't understand either, have faith! It will work out well. I can't emphasize enough the value of quality ingredients when you cook simply, as she does in this book! Throw out your grated-cheese-in-a-can and get some *real* parmesan and a grater!

The pasta & bean soup in the "soups" section is a little lighter than some of you may be used to, but you can always add the fresh cheese of your choice. And definitely take the time to make your own stock for recipes. She may say she'll used canned stock, but after making and using my own, I'll be less likely to use canned ever again.

So far, the cooking has been simple, however, there is preparation to be done (such as making stock beforehand, or soaking & cooking beans for the soup above). But if you plan ahead, it becomes so much easier.

I am by no means an accomplished cook in the kitchen, but this book -- and the results I've got from it so far -- have given me courage to keep trying!

Did I mention the biscotti at the very end of the book? Yum yum yum - I had to make the chocolate almond variation on the anise biscotti. Incredibly enough, I got (as she said) exactly 60 biscotti from the recipe. :-)