From an Italian Garden [Hardcover]

Judith Barrett (Author), Claudia Karabaic Sargent (Illustrator)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 1992

Vegetables are the foundation of Italian cuisine, and in this book, the author has collected more than 200 dishes that have as their main ingredients, fresh fruits and vegetables. There are chapters on antipasti, soups, polenta, risotto, breads, salads and desserts.

Editorial Reviews

From Kirkus Reviews

Barrett (coauthor, Risotto, 1987) promises methods here for making vegetables ``as delicious as they are in Italy''--but never acknowledges in her wordy advisory that the packaged fresh spinach and other American supermarket fare she calls for is neither ``from an Italian garden'' nor very garden-fresh; nor can you make good Italian bread in a standard American oven. Her offhand background comments can be just as questionable: Food historians would like to hear, for instance, about how Horace enjoyed eating pasta. Still, her sampling of Italian vegetable dishes is good and varied. Here, along with solo vegetables used mostly in antipasti, are vegetable bruschetta and pizza toppings, pasta sauces, enhancements for polenta, more risotto, frittata, and salad, and, in a switch, fruit (not vegetable) desserts. So the main question becomes just how much of this you can absorb on top of so many other Italian vegetable cookbooks, from Paolo Scaravelli and Jon Cohen's Cooking from an Italian Garden (1984) to last year's The Antipasto Table, by Michele Scicolone, and Verdura, by Viana La Place and Evan Kleiman. -- Copyright ©1992, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 320 pages
• Publisher: Macmillan Pub Co (April 1992)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0025074059
• ISBN-13: 978-0025074057
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.2 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #740,020 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Judi Barrett is the author of many well-loved books for children, including Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs, Pickles to Pittsburgh, Animals Should Definitely Not Wear Clothing, and Things That Are Most in the World. She teaches art to kindergarten students at a school in her Brooklyn, New York, neighborhood. And she usually doesn't mind going to the dentist!

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Great Guide to the Basics, April 29, 2000

By 

David G. Burr (Burke, Virginia, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: From an Italian Garden (Hardcover)

I was introduced to this book on a group ski trip. Coming in from a long day on the slopes, the house was full of the smell of roasting vegetables, baking bread and, yes, garlic. Heaven. I spent a good bit of time that weekend just reading Ms. Barrett's book. Unlike Krikus, I found the book to be easy and entertaining reading. You can learn a lot about a people and their culture by spending a little time in their kitchens. "From an Italian Garden" allowed me that opportunity. The food is simple and appealing and the recipes are well-described and easy to follow. The cooks that weekend sent my wife and I a copy of the book as a gift several weeks later and it remains a treasure of our kitchen library.