Customer Reviews

Sicilian-American Pasta: 99 Recipes You Can't Refuse

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(1)
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After a brief but helpful introduction, the authors provide 99 recipes in three main sections: vegetables (55), meat (18) and fish (26). The sections are further divided by ingredients, so you get three cauliflower recipes in a row, and, later, two with scallops, and so on. I'm personally appreciative of the number of bean/legume recipes (10), and there are several good ideas for pesto and lasgane sprinkled throughout.

The recipes range from very easy to mildly challenging, but the authors do not cut corners with ingredients. There's no garlic powder or canned crushed tomatoes here (canned peeled are okay). The illustrations by Miriam Dougens are nice, but I always prefer photos. This book will not lie open and flat on its own.

EDIT: also, there's no index.

Out of a selection of nearly a dozen books on Italian cooking, Penza & Corsi's book steps forward with a friendly smile and warm handshake. No airs, no yuppie insistance on unknown ingredients rise up to cow the cook. If some ingredients aren't always available, Penza & Corsi tell you what to do instead. They make new recipes easy in every respect--not because they're overly simple, but because the authors make them seem so. The results are delicious. By all means, try it!

Coming from Long Island, New York, I grew up on southern Italian cooking and I am still a great fan of it. I brought "Sician American Pasta:99 Recipes You Can't Refuse" a few years ago and it turned out to be one of my best buys in cook books. This is because there are so many excellent recipes packed in one cook book that I have used and have turned out great. John Penza & Tony Corsi have written a little gem in the area of cooking in general and it is more than worth the price you pay.

I love this cookbook. My wife and I use it all the time. The recipties are usually simple and they taste wonderful.

This was my second purchase of this title. (as a gift) If you want an exhaustive compilation of exciting pasta sauces and combinations here it is. Most of them are simple but delicious and do not require an arms length list of ingredients. Highly recommended for people looking for more than the tried and true traditional recipes. Particularly recommended is the artichoke pesto sauce as well as the fennel pesto sauce. Vegetarians will love this cook book; there are also some unusual fish and shellfish recipes using clams, scallops, lobster, anchovies, etc. I haven't prepared one dish that disappointed!