Customer Reviews

David Ruggerio's Italian Kitchen: Family Recipes from the Old Country

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I enjoyed reading this book almost as much as I enjoyed the recipes I prepared from it. As the Italian Food Host @ BellaOnline, I keep primarily an Italian kitchen, and have over 130 Italian cookbooks in my collection. This book has great photos, interesting little articles throughout and VERY good recipes. I am partial to southern Italian cooking anyway, so this book with it's Sicilan and Napolitano influences was particularly appealing. I have made quite a few recipes from this book already and apart from the odd one or two, would repeat them all. If you like southern Italian cooking with it's bold flavors, you won't be disappointed with this book!

This book is a great reference for traditional Italian recipes. Together with Little Italy, it's all you need to cook delicious dishes just like Grandma used to make. I would heartily recommend it!

This book would make a wonderful gift for an Italian American with either a Sicilian or Neapolitan descent. Intersperced in each of the usual Italian cookbook sections--antipasti, zuppe, pasta, frutti di mare, carne e pollame, verdure and dolci---are stories about Sicilians and Neapolitans that whet not only your culinary interest in these amazing people but also your interest in their culture and traditions. The book is punctuated with beautiful full page color photos of both the food, the places and the personalities. Ruggiero offers an amusing lexicon of Sicilian and Neapolitan phrases--that although I am not Sicilian or Neapolitan myself, I could relate to them with a broad smile as they seem to be indigenous to the Southern Italian dialect and can be easily recognized if not by spelling at least by sound by any Italian American. This book is a fun way to look into your heritage and at the same time prepare and eat good food.

This book is a delightful combination of wonderful recipes, artful photographs, and nostalgic recollections! The recipes are easy to follow and contain ingredients readily found. I particularly liked the old photographs of Mr. Ruggerio's family, and his anecdotes about them. I can hardly wait to try all the recipes-especially the fish ones. They all look spectacular!

Everyone, but especially Italian-Americans will love the stories related by David Ruggerio and will recognize their own families in them as well. Ruggerio has memorialized the delicious foods we grew up on and fondly recall today. The traditional recipes brought me back to the days at my grandmother's table.

Truly a treasured addition to every Italian kitchen, enabling the traditions to continue for generations to come.

I ordered this book because I had reviewed a copy at a friends house. There were so many good recipes in the book that I just had to order it. My mom's family was from the same region as the author and many of the lost recipes from my family showed up in a similar form in this book. The sunday sauce and bread recipes are awesome.

The other reason for ordering the book is the additional material on the different regions and why certain recipes came to be.

David Ruggiero's Italian Kitchen: Family Recipes From The Old Country showcases more than one hundred and fifty recipes collected from family and friends provide a range of traditional Italian dishes, blending with vivid photos of southern Italian people, markets and culinary traditions. Sidebars of 'how to' information enhances the readability and character of these dishes: the result is a spicy blend of appealing dishes steeped in Italian tradition. Wonderfully illustrated by the photography of by Maura McEvoy.