Customer Reviews

Italian Holiday Cooking: A Collection of 150 Treasured Recipes

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Some years ago I clipped out a newspaper recipe for zeppole, the ones you can buy at pizza places and Italian fairs. This recipe was 'the' real deal with that characteristic 'spongey' bite, no mistaking this for a wanna-be zeppole. In using the recipe recently the preface mentioned this author's name as the source of that recipe in this book. So THIS ONE RECIPE was the impetus for me to buy this book. I am a cooking/baking junkie, and I have never ever seen on TV cooking programs or other cookbooks a recipe like this one for zeppole that is so on the money. For the life of me, I can't figure out why, b/c the recipe is so stupid easy. I didn't care how long ago the book was published, this recipe was a gem among gems. So I may seem crazy in my approach to buying this book, but I figured if the zeppole recipe was 'the bomb' then how bad could the other recipes be? I will report back as I use more of the recipes, but I just felt I had to share this zeppole 'find' with those out there who love them as we do. I can even make these for my toddler granddaughter who has allergies to eggs, dairy and peanuts. This recipe is free from those ingredients. So good.
UPDATE 7/5/2011: I made the frozen almond creams (aka "tortoni"). It is spot on. Easy too. So far both recipes for me out of the gate are true, authentic, iconic Italian desserts I can replicate at home.

This is one of the better Italian cookbooks I have come across
but I ran into a problem with the first recipe I tried. The orange semolina cake sounded great. I prepared the semolina, made the ricotta mixture and beat the egg whites. The recipe never tells you what to do with the cooked semolina! I'm an experienced cook, and I figured it went into the ricotta mixture, but who knows? We're eating it tomorrow, Christmas Eve and I guess I'll find out then.