Lucinda Scala Quinn has been cooking professionally since she was sixteen, but the food she loves best is simple, home-style Italian cooking. It's the food of her heart and soul-the dishes that bring back warm memories of her Italian-American childhood and her many trips to Italy.
Now, in this gorgeous little cookbook, Lucinda shares fifty-two of her favorite recipes for homey Italian food. Accompanied by lush color photographs and Lucinda's engaging notes and reminiscences, these dishes are easy to make, beautiful to look at, and delicious to eat. Many are family recipes that Quinn has lovingly preserved, while others were inspired by her visits to Italy.
Open the book, and you'll find tasty, simple-to-prepare versions of all your Italian favorites, as well as some more unusual and equally tasty dishes. There are appetizers such as Bruschetta Pomodoro and Miniature Meatball Panini, pastas like Linguine with Clams (Lucinda's favorite) and Rigatoni with Rapid Ragu, and soups such as Stracciatella ("rag soup," Lucinda's childhood comfort food). You'll also find Pizza Margarita and Polenta, main dishes such as Chicken Milanese and Beef Brocciole, and desserts like Espresso Granita and Zabaglione with Fresh Peaches and Raspberries.
If you want to see just how easy it is to prepare crowd-pleasing everyday Italian meals, let Lucinda's Rustic Italian Kitchen be your guide.
Lucinda Scala Quinn
Quinn, head of the food department for Martha Stewart Living and one of the hosts of the PBS series Everyday Food, made her cookbook debut with Lucinda's Authentic Jamaican Kitchen, "an ode" to a place she loves. Her new title includes favorite recipes from her childhood: Italian American classics like Fettuccine alla Carbonara and Grilled Calamari. The book has the same attractive format as her first one, with color photographs of many of the dishes, but the recipes are very familiar, and most can be found in any Italian cookbook. For comprehensive subject collections. (Library Journal, March 15, 2007)In this small but tasty collection of Italian recipes, Quinn, host of the PBS series Everyday Food and author of Lucinda's Authentic Jamaican Kitchen, draws on her travels and ancestral past for classic home-cooked dishes. In bringing rustic Italian food to the busy American table, Quinn cuts out several steps such as homemade stock and freshly rolled pasta (although she does include a recipe for pizza dough that can be topped with escarole and Gaeta olives or served Margherita-style). Technique is perhaps not as important as ingredients: Her "Notes to the Cook section" covers some basic territory such as how to control the flavor of garlic, the merits of salted capers and her secret dredging weapon, Wondra flour for gravy. Though selections like Carolina's Wine Taralli (cookies) and Tuna Gremolata Dip have a sophisticated flair, there are plenty of earthy, elemental pleasures, like Polpette (a meatball in Italian, but Quinn turns it into a meatloaf), which is baked with mortadella slivers and pistachios, and Tuscan kale sautéed with olive oil and seasoned only with salt and pepper. Along with plenty of color beauty shots by Quentin Bacon, Quinn's book demonstrates that even at its very humblest, Italian cooking yields extraordinary flavors. (Apr.) (Publishers Weekly, February 19, 2007) ".with plenty of color beauty shots by Quentin Bacon, Quinn's book demonstrates that even at its very humblest, Italian cooking yields extraordinary flavors." (Publishers Weekly, February 19, 2007)
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