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54 of 56 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Capriccio Gustoso--Variations on a Tasty Theme, February 22, 2010
This review is from: Giada at Home: Family Recipes from Italy and California (Hardcover)
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During my nine years of living in Rome, I discovered that the best dishes were based on simple recipes that could be prepared with infinite variations. In her latest book, celebrity chef Giada de Laurentiis demonstrates this proposition, presenting us with what in Italy is called cucina casareccia--and in California, home cooking.
Among her most mouth-watering concoctions are the antipasti: prosciutto-wrapped dates stuffed with blended mascarpone and goat cheese; smoked salmon and apple carpaccio; and fried cheese-stuffed zucchini blossoms (I was particularly grateful for her suggestion for testing the heat of the oil: toss a cube of bread into the olive oil--medium heat; when the bread browns, the oil is ready.). Similarly, her salads--"easy to throw together"--are truly inviting: an example is her green-bean salad, seasoned with fresh rosemary, parsley, chopped garlic, drizzled with olive oil (Her advice on choosing the best olive oil is especially enlightening.). Her lentil salad--mixed with grapes and cucumbers, among other ingredients, including hazelnuts--tickles one's tastebuds. And her recipe for Involtini--rolled-up beefsteaks filled with a mixture of various ingredients including garlic and basil--recalled forgotten memories of my father's putting me to work as a child, chopping parsely, garlic, together with something he called "fatback," which I imagine was lard, but which has now been substituted by olive oil. The strings with which he used to tie the involtini together have also been replaced by easier-to-use 4-inch skewers. Merely reading the recipe causes me to remember the aroma of involtini simmering in marinara sauce.
The beauty of these recipes is that they invite one to be adventurous, as the author suggests in combining the best of Italy with the best of California. Are lobster tails too expensive when preparing her divine brown butter risotto? Substitute shrimp. Too much sugar for you in her imaginative strawberry and rosemary scones? Use half the amount! The amazing thing about Italian cooking is that, as the author remarks, it is always "evolving."
Although "Giada at Home" contains some shortcuts, such as her tempting lemon-chicken soup, which calls for "low-sodium chicken broth" and " diced rotisserie chicken" [My father would turn over in his grave if he caught me following her suggestion to break the spaghetti into two-inch pieces!], many of her recipes, such as those which call for slicing, dicing, beating, and grating, require one to spend considerable time in the kitchen.
If you have the patience and enjoy cooking, I am certain that the results will be worth the trouble.
Buon' appetito!
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17 of 18 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
More fabulous Italian-inspired recipes from Giada!, February 28, 2010
This review is from: Giada at Home: Family Recipes from Italy and California (Hardcover)
Customer review from the Amazon Vine™ Program (What's this?)
When my younger sister first got me into The Food Network a few years ago, Giada's Everyday Italian become a quick favorite. From the very beginning, I felt like I had a connection with Giada. I was enamored by her tasty modern twists on Italian classics and simpler, more everyday approach to traditionally complex dishes -it also didn't hurt that I'm a big fan of Italian food and I my boyfriend has strong Italian heritage, so he's always happy to try out the recipes I get from Giada.
It didn't take long for my sister and I to introduce Giada to our parents, who also quickly become fans, and we started welcoming Giada into our kitchen regularly in the form of what we called "Giada dishes." Particularly after my sister and I gave my mother Everyday Pasta for Mother's Day last year, making Giada dishes become a big event that brought the family together. When I had the opportunity to check out Giada's latest cookbook, Giada at Home, I was more than excited and couldn't wait to see what tasty treats she had in store.
Giada at Home: Family Recipes from Italy and California builds on the already fabulous library of Giada recipes that put a twist on Italian dishes. This cookbook includes tasty appetizers like stuffed baby peppers (which can easily be turned into a main dish) and beef skewers; a great selection of soups and sandwiches such as white bean and chicken chili and mini Italian pub burgers (a great twist on silders); mouth-watering pastas such as rigatoni with creamy mushroom sauce and penne with treviso and goat cheese; meat selections, such as a succulent turkey meatloaf with feta and sun-dried tomatoes; lovely salads that could become meals on there own; some Italian twists on desserts and, in a unique addition, a selection of Italian-style brunch foods, such as baked provolone and sausage frittata, campanelle pasta salad and even an Italian version of steak and eggs! I particularly liked the blend of more traditional Italian dishes and more modern dishes with a Californian flair. The collision between classic and modern really gave the recipes here some dimension and variety.
Giada at Home follows the standard of gorgeous food photography set forth in previous Giada cookbooks. Along with photos of mouthwatering Italian treats, there are also several photos of Giada and her family, particularly her young daughter, Jade.
My only tiny criticism of this cookbook is that I felt like Giada lost a little bit of her "everyday" aspect here. Some of the recipes got a little too complex or called for ingredients that are a little more difficult to find and have a much stronger appeal to "foodies." While I personally still loved the recipes here, some would have trouble with wide-spread appeal.
Overall though, another fabulous cookbook from Giada!
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13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
As delightful as the chef who wrote it, February 27, 2010
This review is from: Giada at Home: Family Recipes from Italy and California (Hardcover)
Customer review from the Amazon Vine™ Program (What's this?)
Giada's show is the only cooking show I watch on a regular basis, because the pleasure she takes in the preparation and eating of a great meal is infectious, but never overboard. The recipes in this book offer the same fresh, almost joyful attitude towards food.
I have only tried three of the recipes--for one thing, they are seasonal and locally oriented, so I can't get any zuchinni blossoms or seasonal squash in February. But the white bean and chicken chili was a delightful winter meal (I made it with ground turkey). The rigatoni with creamy mushroom sauce was also delicious...and a great vegetarian option, as she pointed out in her notes. But the best of all was the pasta ponza. I love the concentrated flavor of roasted tomatoes, and with the addition of bread crumbs, this was a real treat.
I have many more recipes to try, and look forward to it.
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