Biscotti: Recipes from the Kitchen of The American Academy in Rome, The Rome Sustainable Food Project [Hardcover]

Mona Talbott (Author), Mirella Misenti (Author), Annie Schlechter (Photographer), Alice Waters (Foreword)

Book Description

Release date: October 12, 2010 | Series: Rome Sustainable Food Project

The Rome Sustainable Food Project, a program devoted to providing organic, local, and sustainable meals for the community of the American Academy in Rome, has launched a delicious revolution to rethink institutional dining. Headed by chef Mona Talbott, a Chez Panisse alum, and guided by Alice Waters, the menus have given rise to a new, authentic cuisine inspired by la cucina romana, Chez Panisse, and the collective experience of those working in the AAR kitchen. Biscotti is the first book in the series. Each volume, covering a single subject, contains authentic, simple recipes for favorite dishes served at the academy’s communal table, narrated with carefully explained techniques and methods–suitable for both the home cook and the institutional kitchen.

Our first bite into this book project is a sweet one, focusing on fifty biscotti and dolcetti (cookies and sweets). Subsequent volumes in the series will include muffins and scones; pasta, long and short; vegetables; preserves; and more.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

Of all Italian sweets, biscotti are among the best known and most reproduced. Although biscotti signify all sorts of cookies, the word most often conjures up in the American mind those twice-baked, ultracrunchy, nut-studded slices of dough perfect for dipping into a steaming cup of espresso. The American Academy in Rome has inaugurated a Sustainable Food Project that seeks to produce good food that only minimally diminishes the health of the environment. These biscotti recipes have all been developed by the academy’s staff and are served daily at tea and at dessert. The cookies come in a grand variety of shapes and sizes and feature nonstandard flours, such as those from farro, an antique grain. American cooks will instantly recognize the walnut jam biscotti as clones of perennial-favorite thumbprint cookies. Even the Italians have developed a fondness for peanut-butter cookies and all-American snickerdoodles. --Mark Knoblauch

Review

"...small but comprehensive, comprising 50 mostly traditional recipes for the treats best loved by the Academy's friends, students and workers (the authors are both employed there). Start with almond-cornmeal and work you way through to chocolate-hazelnut." —Charlotte Druckman, Wall Street Journal Weekend

“This book has recipes for all those cookies you tasted if you’ve ever been to Italy or lived there and thought you’d never find again, she says.” —FoxNews.com
 
“As you'd expect from a book with a foreword by Alice Waters, its recipes are sustainable yet delicious – 50 types of Italian cookies from pine nut and rosemary to honey and cardamom.” —The Observer, The 25 Best Cookbooks of 2010
 
“Proof that not all biscotti are sweet, super-crunchy half-moons. The bite-sized biscotti here range from dry and lightly sweet — the kind of cookie you'll want to soften with a dip into a caffe latte or a sweet Italian wine like vin santo — to highly sweetened varieties that don't need any liquid pairing.” —American Airlines, AA.com
 
“Dieters, beware: "Biscotti:" a smart little cookbook from the Little Bookroom, is Mephistopheles in cookie form…. With a forward by Alice Waters, this book is the first of a series of small hardbacks devoted to a single subject that will provide a glimpse into the American Academy in Rome.” —Pittsburgh Tribune
 
“Biscotti – Recipes from the kitchen of the American Academy in Rome offers a remarkable selection of cookies. The recipes can be made for greater numbers by scaling up the quantities, which makes it an interesting book for those with a crowd to feed and little time. Tastefully executed, this volume would be a well-received gift for any baker, be they novice or passionate expert.” —Mostly Food
 
“What can be better than a cup of coffee and a biscotti in the morning? That is the premise behind this lovely and mouthwatering book. Author Mona Talbott is the executive chef of the Rome Sustainable Food Project, which was established to create eco-gastronomic, authentic cuisine for the American Academy in Rome, where American cooks create biscotti, a mainstay of Italian sweets.” —June Sawyer, The Chicago Tribune
 
“Biscotti: Recipes from the Kitchen of The American Academy in Rome is a really charming book and filled with some familiar but mostly unfamiliar recipes.… I could easily see working my through this book, cookie by cookie!” —Amy Sherman, The Epi-Log on Epicurious
 
"Just in time for Thanksgiving is Mona Talbott's cookbook, Biscotti: Recipes from the Kitchen of the American University in Rome. The protege of Alice Waters consulted on the menus for Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's Chappaqua residence and worked as a private chef for Annie Leibowitz." —Vogue
 
“For the past four years, Canadian chef Mona Talbott of the American Academy in Rome—and author of the new cookie bible Biscotti—has transformed the institution’s dinner table into a model for sustainable dining.” —Travel + Leisure
 
“This charmer carefully explains techniques—and a little history—behind the traditional Italian bite-sized cookies served at the Academy’s communal table. A treat to try: biscotti al pistachio.” —Coastal Living

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 140 pages
• Publisher: Little Bookroom (October 12, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1892145898
• ISBN-13: 978-1892145895
• Product Dimensions: 6 x 0.6 x 6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #180,862 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #83 in Books > Cookbooks, Food & Wine > Baking > Cookies

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

19 of 19 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Authentic Italian Cookies November 16, 2010

By Book Lover

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

As for the negative review because the book contains no "biscotti" recipes, the reviewer is correct. This book has no "biscotti" or what we Americans have come to know as biscotti recipes.
Just as Italian grandmothers tend to refer to all long, strand pasta as spaghetti, this book refers to crisp cookies as biscotti. If you are looking for a lovely book to add to your collection, please consider this one. The pictures are charming and the recipe selection is perfect - a little bit of everything. There are no ooey-gooey chocolate brownie type sweets, but the kind of cookies you can mail, share and keep in a cookie jar to enjoy days later with tea or coffee. If you like walnuts, pictachios or pine nuts, this book is for you. I LOVE it.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A Biscotti Bible January 23, 2011

By Charles G. Thompson

Format:Hardcover

Biscotti comes from the Latin word biscoctus meaning 'twice cooked, or baked.' Baking them twice makes them dry, so they're easy to store for long periods of time. This was highly advantageous at one point in time. Twice-baked breads were useful during long journeys and wars, and were a staple food of the Roman legion. Now, it's simply a lovely left-over result of the original recipe that we're still enjoying today. From the kitchens of the American Academy in Rome, 'Biscotti' is a very special cookbook, a small love letter to one of Italy's most famous sweets.

The book is the first in a series of small hardcover cookbooks on single subjects to be published by the American Academy in Rome in conjunction with the Rome Sustainable Food Project, a program devoted to providing organic, local and sustainable meals for the community of artists who work and study at the AAR. Author, Mona Talbott is the American born, Chez Panisse-trained Executive Chef who oversees the kitchens of the Academy. Alice Waters is also part of the collaborative dining program advising on menus, and food choices. The program was first implemented in 2007 when the Academy remodeled and revamped the AAR kitchens. The Rome Sustainable Food Project facilitates the AAR's move towards sustainable, and local cooking and eating.

The book is comprised of fifty recipes for bite-sized cookies, or biscotti, and includes five categories: Milk and Wine; Nuts; Honey, Citrus, and Spice; Meringue; and Chocolate. There are recipes for cookies to be eaten throughout the day - for dipping into caffe latte in the morning, for after lunch (or dinner) dips into vino dolce, or dessert wine, or to eat with a mid-afternoon espresso. While the original biscotti di Prato recipe used only almonds, modern recipes now include other types of seeds and nuts like pine nuts, sesame seeds, walnuts, and almonds; dried fruit; herbs and spices are added too; flavorings like extracts and liqueurs are also used.

The recipes in 'Biscotti' use these and more. There are even recipes for ladyfingers, macaroons, and snickerdoodles. To appease homesick American students the kitchen created peanut butter cookies - not a cookie an Italian would normally eat. This is an interesting cookbook from a unique organization. It could easily be too esoteric but it's not; it's the opposite - down-to-earth and accessible. The recipes are easy to follow, and they work. The end result is the best proof of the book's success: it's almost impossible to stop popping these bite-sized cookies into one's mouth. It will be interesting to see what the Academy and the Rome Sustainable Food Project come up with next.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Senior Project Manager Nike Inc November 17, 2010

By wendy hollister

Format:Hardcover

I love the way Chef Mona Talbott has created an easy to follow collection of cookie recipes. Her book has inspired me to bake every cookie recipe listed in the book. The question is which recipe do I bake first as they all look so good in the beautiful photographs. Mona is to be commended for her dedication and commitment to the slow food sustainability movement. Bellisma!