Customer Reviews

Flavors of Tuscany

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

 

 

There are a couple of genre whose excesses are apparent. One is cookbooks, the other is books about Tuscany. Indeed the very word Tuscany seems to have inspired dishware, linens; the list goes on. Given this plethora, it is a genuine delight to read this (or any) book by Nancy Harmon Jenkins. She not only serves up the greatest recipes, which is expected of any cookbook worth its salt, but her writing is charming and most intelligent. This is one book which not only gives the Flavors of Tuscany, but its people, its customs...its reality! Ms. Jenkins surpasses the usual and customary in food writing, she is a social historian who uses food to instill a genuine reality. Great food, even a better read!

I fell in love with Tuscan food years ago. This book has the recipes I love--I have never found a bad recipe in here, and many of the pages are so dog-eared and dripped-on that you can tell they're the ones used again and again. The wonderful comments, the simplicity of the recipes, the incredible food that results are an invitation to linger outside on a balmy summer night and, like the Tuscans, make dinner an EVENT that everyone enjoys for hours. A little wine, good friends, the setting sun, and good Italian food--Incredible!

I fell in love with this book at the library. I love the descriptions of Tuscany and the food! It's a great book to inspire you to make something healthy to eat. The pictures are beautiful!

I purchased this book some time ago when I first began cooking seriously, and I recall having several recipe disasters under my belt before putting it away (an incredibly confusing and altogether too large bread recipe that ended up a liquid disaster after a 3 day process, for example). I've returned to it now years later after honing my skills and spending a great deal of time in Italy, and I'm equally miffed by the problems this books presents. The lack of specificity in the instructions is what is particularly irksome. I'm now making the Vegetable Soup in preparation for a Ribollita, which requires cooked beans (the type of beans are never specified - even suggestions are never mentioned), a bunch of chard, a bunch of kale and half a green cabbage (this is how they are stated in the ingredient list). I've chopped my way through all three, only to see near the end of the recipe that the three together are supposed to amass a mere 4 to 5 cups. I've never seen a bunch of either kale or chard alone that would only amount to 4 to 5 cups. Perhaps saying 2 cups of each kale and chard and one of cabbage would work? Her sense of proportion and lack of detail are just maddening.

Do the recipes appear authentic? Yes. Are they unnecessarily complicated? Absolutely. Many recipes require three separate stages or more. The soup, for example, requires making the beans (one day), then the vegetable soup (another day) and finally, the Ribollita on the third. I'm certain there is a recipe out there that cuts this to one to two days tops. A review of many other recipes in the book show similar multi-day/stage processes. I'm not averse to such options in theory, but if you are looking to master the simplicity of truly great tuscan cuisine, perhaps there is a more precise but less cumbersome book out there from which to choose.