Customer Reviews

Good & Garlicky, Thick & Hearty, Soul-Satisfying, More-Than-Minestrone Italian Soup Cookbook

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Any excuse to buy another soup cookbook is a good one for me. The large words "Italian Soup" written across the cover was all it took for this one to end up in my shopping bag. Recipes range from amazingly simple to time consuming but worth the work. These are recipes that you'd expect to have passed down lovingly, with each recipient making it their own along the way.

There are no pictures in this cookbook but the descriptions do the recipes justice all on their own. Each recipe is listed by its English name, its Italian name shown underneath. Chapter titles, listed English over Italian, appear only in Italian on each page header. For visuals, a decorative green strip borders the page edges and there are drawings done in orange interspersed throughout. A very well done index is also provided at the end of the cookbook.

The "Sautéed Asparagus Soup" is a super simple soup that contains so few ingredients you wonder how it could possibly be any good. But it is! I found myself making it whenever I was short on time and ideas. Like most soups, it reheats well and tastes even better the next day. For the most part, soups contained here can be made in under an hour (after preparation of ingredients).

"Pasta and Beans with Fennel and Sausage" is great when company's coming and you don't want to have to fix a lot of food. A nice salad served along side this rich and filling soup and you'll elicit compliments and requests for seconds.

Soup is typical considered a great food for dieters though with these recipes, I would suggest going over the ingredients lists carefully. Many ask for a good helping of cheese in or on top of. Some use bread, rice, or potatoes as thickeners, the meat-based soups use fairly fatty meats, and butter is used most often to cook in.

If you are looking for meal type soups, miss your grandmother's Old Country cooking, or just enjoy soups like I do, this is a not to be missed cookbook. You can turn to any page and feel comfortable that the results will be fantastic.

I'm not a cook. But during winter months especially, I do make a few soups to help in the household. And this book is the one I usually use as my guide. I need a recipe. I need recipes that are foolproof. And here is where I get them. Not only does every recipe end in a soup that is edible, but one that is tasty and repeatable. That, with this "cook", is downright miraculous! There is variety here, a learning experience, and in the end a soup that is invariably a tasty success. And I'm not even Italian.

This collection is one of my favorite soup cook books (I have over 20). The recipes are outstanding and the variety is great. Who knew that there are so many different recipes for minestrone? This cook book is the type I love to just pick up and read, and the author includes many warm vignettes or his family memories associated with these recipes. Unfortunately, though, there are no pictures of these excellent soups.

Not only are the soups tasty and inventive; but they are sensible and nutritious. They require little time and ingredients that are neither exotic, nor hard to find. Most recipe books are loaded with expensive ingredients that necessitate driving 20 miles from your home, and that you use only for one particular recipe. I want recipes that use inexpensive stuff I have on hand, or will have no trouble finding. This book meets those requirements. I read cookbooks like other people read novels, and this is the best cookbook I've ever had. Now that he's conquered the soup pot, Joe needs to move on to pastas and more.

This cookbook has the most wonderful soup recipes in it - thick and hearty with deep, rich flavor - I learned so many new tricks for making a good soup taste GREAT! And even better, the soups freeze well so you can make a different recipe each night and freeze the leftovers for another time.

The recipes are easy to read and not too time consuming. While you can always substitute for some of the ingredients listed, splurge and get the items mentioned at least once - I guarantee you will not regret it!

These recipes are not for carb haters or low fat fans. The liberal use of cheese, butter and full bodied broths precludes that. But the recipes are still healthy - They involve lots of veggies, olive oil, herbs and are chock full of good stuff!

Even the most finicky soup eaters will find a favorite recipe in this book. A good bread, salad, a nice wine and one of the soups from this book and you have the perfect meal!

Great recipes,very well explained, delicious soups and very entertaining stories about Italy. I am Italian myself and I first thought that this book, written by an American, would be a deception. But it really surprised me. If you have a veg-garden and never know what to do with all those vegetables, BUY THIS BOOK! You will adore it! And it is also very well designed.

I traveled through rural Italy on a soup budget ... and these are every bit as good, and authentic.

What an amazing collection of italian soup recipes! If you want to fill the house with great aromas and please your guests, this book will get you there. The collection is divided by types of soup, i.e. pasta e fagioli, vegetable soups, bean soups, rice and pasta soups, etc. Pappa e pomodoro, broccoli rabe and white bean soup, and escarole soup with tiny meatballs are our three favorites, and all three are so good that we serve them for guests at holiday dinners. By the way, soups are a great place for a fledgling cook to start making real food, and this book will give you lots of very accessible ideas of just where to begin.

I was so pleased with book and the recipes, I bought two more for my daughter and daughter-in-law. The recipes are simple, complete and made with products available in a Mid-Western town.

Reading this book just makes my mouth water and it has some history of Italy, with references to just about every spice and tasty combinations. Wow, I ran out and bought a soup pot! One downside, making broth, Uh! Although I will say the book offers substituted canned broth I just don't want to throw these wonderful ingredients into anything less! This is a great book for readers too, I loved hearing about the Famularo family!