Customer Reviews

Molto Gusto: Easy Italian Cooking

5 star:		(19)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

I've had Molto Italiano for awhile now, and I can honestly say that I don't cook from it that often, because the recipes--while all amazing--just aren't as accessible in terms of ingredients. But Molto Gusto (with its truly beautiful photographs) really lives up to its subtitle and brings the recipes down to the bricks and mortar of Italian. The few pastas and antipasti that I've made from this already were fantastic. Highly recommended!

I am a pretty good cook, and I have Batali's other cookbooks, so I expected that this might be "too easy" for me--but that's not at all the case! The photographs are beautiful, and the glorious mixture of vegetables and pasta/pizza makes the recipes healthy, as well as simple. I think I may use this book more than his others, in part because it is visually so appealing. That makes me want to try all the recipes!

This is the first Mario Batali book I've ever bought and I'm very impressed with the beautiful looking food. I'm inspired to make almost everything in it. But I've started with the pizza and what a HUGE success that was! The dough was fabulous. I had to track down the "00" flour called for in the recipe at a specialty market, but I'm sure it was worth the extra effort. I'm now a fan of Mario!

A nice cookbook--and a different cookbook--from Mario Batali. In his words at the outset (Page 13): "What you will certainly notice quite quickly is that this cookbook is radically different from all the others that I have written in its complete lack of traditional main dishes."

The book is divided into several sections--vegetable antipasti, seafoods and meat antipasti, bruschetta and cheese, insalata (salad), pasta, pizza, and gelato and sorbetto. No super protein dishes here. Photographs are nice and the glossy pages add a richness to the feel of this cookbook. But, it's the recipes that are at the heart of any cookbook, and there are some nice, makeable recipes here.

An example of vegetable antipasti is "Cherry tomatoes with creme fraiche and chives. Ingredients: cherry or grape or pear tomatoes, halved; sherry vinegar; flaky sea salt; creme fraiche; extra virgin olive oil; chive for garnish. Very simple to make and a nice side dish (or starter dish) for a meal. Under salad, a three bean salad. Ingredients: kosher salt, green beans, chick peas, cannellini beans, chopped fresh mint, red wine vinaigrette, and flaky sea salt and coarse black pepper. Again, easy to assemble. I like such salads, and I have penciled in this recipe to try it out. Another salad that intrigues me is "Arugula with Tomato Raisins." Again, pretty straightforward recipe with the promise of a tasty salad.

Pasta? I have made something like this, but Batali's recipe looks like it would have a fuller taste. "Spaghetti with garlic and oil." Ingredients: kosher salt; extra virgin olive oil; garlic cloves; hot red pepper flakes; parsley; spaghetti; Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese. Again, I have made something similar, but this has a few extra "tricks" to it. Some other pasta dishes that intrigue me: Penn with pomodoro cotto; Penn alla puttanesca; Pennette with pesto.

Want some pizza? Take a look at his Prosciutto and Arugula pizza. Yum! Looks tasty.

And so on.

I really like the lighter dishes, the healthier dishes that appear in this volume. Worth taking a look at!

I grew up in a 100% immigrant Italian family with a sprawling extended family, some near, some further away but not too far - the kind of family who defines entertainment as visiting relatives, never going to restaurants (why? The food and wine was always better in our homes and a whole lot cheaper - and most of all, a lot more fun) and who shared the talent for all talking at once and still taking it all into one's heart.

Not too many years ago, I returned to where my parents were born and spent several weeks in Italy while doing it. Brought me back once again, and more sharply, to what is expressed in this cookbook. More than food. A philosophy for living lightly.

This cook book is a wonderful description of how Italians eat before they become influenced by the American affection for meat. Simple, light, made with the best ingredients available (out of our own garden when the season is right) and completely satisfying........ even more, gratifying.

I am buying many copies of this book for some of my dearest friends who love to cook just to honor their kindnesses to me. I cannot think of a nicer gift.

Thank you, Mario.

We have ALL of Mario's cookbooks and we have made practically every recipe from them all. This book is another hit. Beautiful photography, simple, classic Italian recipes. We have made 10 different recipes from this book and they all came out perfect. We love Mario and enjoy eating at his NYC restaurants. His cooking technique is very rustic and clean. My husband is a classically trained chef and is now retired from cooking professionally. This book, like the others, are not only geared toward experienced cooks but for everyday cooks as well. I found it to be clear cut and very easy to use. You rock, Mario. We love everything you do.

Alora. The recipes are simple - as simple as "Spaghetti with Butter" - the ingredients fresh and for the most part available down the street at your local grocer or in the town square at Saturday's Farmers' Market . And oh, so very flavorful.

Among my favorites is "Spaghetti con la Sarde," but all you need to do is give me a $1.39 can of sardines and I'm happy. Batali's version adds fennel bulb, fennel seed, grated orange zest and your own freshly pan fried bread crumbs. Like I said, very flavorful. If you don't like sardines, try it with tuna. I told my wife we were having smoked trout and she savored it.

The recipes are bundled into seven what-you-would-expect categories, from antipasti, bruschetta & cheese to insalata, pasta and pizza. Each of the sections includes food lore and very, very useful basic information such as "Ten Most Important Pasta Cooking Tips." Tip #4: never boil a sauce until you've added the pasta. Tip #5 reminds the cook that "The sauce should always be well integrated with the pasta, unctuous, as supple as silk, and homogenous. I get the homogenous part but I'm not sure how to make the sauce "unctuous."

Here however is a big caveat. All the reviews here so far have referred to the hardcover version. Don't set your expectations too high if you're planning to download "Gusto" to your Kindle. At least on the K2, as I did.

A blurb on Amazon says the electronic book is "optimized" for the large-format Kindle DX.On the K2 the information and recipes are certainly readable. But the packaging is a little off. For example, each of the sections is preceded with a series of very large photos of the recipes that follow. I imagine that in the hardcover edition these photo spreads are very inviting and point out the beauty in simplicity and texture, not to mention color.

In Kindle Land, the photos are black and white. Kind of muddy, too. One photo fills a page. On the next page is a single-phrase cutline. In the hardcover version, I imagine one recipe fits nicely on one page. On the Kindle the page breaks are haphazard, the cheese is on one page and the sauce on the next. The information is all there to be sure; the packaging however is somewhat annoying.

Be warned to be forearmed. I was willing to put up with the could-surely-be-better Kindle formatting because I found the proof to be in the tasting and the enjoying. Prego.

This book is a feast for the eyes as well as the body. The pictures are enticing and the recipes are easy and delicious. Being a vegetarian, I am not able to try them all, but the vegetable ones I have tried are great. I even gave the pizza a go (not being one to like making a yeast bread). I will call it my "practice run" with the dough, as the shape was not the best, but it still tasted great and I will try it again. It was too delicious not to!!!

I bow to no one in my love of Mario and his brio. However, he's getting overworked, I guess, as I've used this cookbook a few times now and have found errors an editor could easily have caught. For example, he has a recipe for shaved asparagus, but the accompanying picture is of asparagus cut on the bias, not shaved. Then, in the back, one of the referenced sources for Italian food products is not that at all, but rather has pictures of naked ladies. Now they may be Italian ladies, but still...

This sounded very good and the pictures are very enticing. The first recipe I tried was an old favorite, cacio e pepe (pasta with cheese and pepper). Without thinking, I went ahead and put in 1/4 cup of pepper for a pound of pasta. Needless to say, it was inedible. Most recipes call for a teaspoon or two. I tried several other recipes that had overwhelming amounts of oil and butter. I love olive oil and butter, but not when they take over and they are all you can taste. It seems to me that the recipes were put together hastily and without testing.