Customer Reviews

Skinny Italian: Eat It and Enjoy It - Live La Bella Vita and Look Great, Too!

5 star:		(173)
4 star:		(34)
3 star:		(11)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(36)

 

 

I bought this book for 2 reasons, never having watched the TV show. First, diet Italian food, who wouldn't like that? and Second, the wonderful little section on Italian herbs and spices. That alone is worth the price of the book.

The recipes are simple and easy, but far too few to make a good cookbook, let alone a diet cookbook. Everything I've cooked from it, has turned out. That lemon chicken is excellent. But there isn't much there!

The diet advice is sketchy at best. A little on portion control, a good comment on Italian American food as served by such popular joints like the Olive Garden. Basically pointing out that the way food is eaten in Italy is much different, pasta is a side dish, not a main dish, and it isn't usually swimming in cholesterol. BUT as diet advice goes, this isn't enough for most people to lose weight on. As a guide to the reason why Mediterranean diets work for health and weight loss, this is lacking.

However the nutritional analysis; calorie counts, fat, carb and protein grams at the back was EXCELLENT and I wish more cookbooks did that!

Now to my more serious complaints.

I was completely repulsed by Joe's sidebar on the behaviour of some other woman on that TV show. Yes the actions were dreadful, but to stick them in the cookbook? Too much information! The author actually names a dish after this Danielle character, likening her to a prostitute. Again, extremely inappropriate in a cookbook.

I was completely turned off, not on, by the constant references to sex. Even she is a little stumped for explanations when she names a fish dish sexy! It feels like a grade 6 class of little boys who just discovered dirty jokes. Sexual innuendo and references abound as the author blends both food with sex in a crude and very inappropriate manner. I really don't care that she thinks her husband is juicy, nor do I want to know why!

I think this book has some very good recipes, that wonderful herb guide in particular, and could have used more good recipes, perhaps a bit more to explain why each was a "diet" food beyond the nutritional composition at the back of the book. She had a golden opportunity to explain the advantages of a Mediterranean diet, and include a wider variety of recipes.

In the end she wasted a lot of space on personal complaints and attacks, and WAY too much on sexual innuendo. Not everything is about sex all the time and it gets tiresome when her only superlative is whether or not a food is "sexy".

This so-called cookbook has more talking in it about the author's thoughts on "Italian culture" than it did recipes. The Author drones on and on about what "Italian" really is. If you want an Italian cookbook, buy it from Lydia, Mario or Giada! This is just smoke and mirrors.

I have actually tried two of the recipies which I think is more important than just basing the book on your personal opinion of Teresa Giudice. I made the Farfalle con Piselli and followed the recipie exactly. It calls for a chopped medium onion and 1/3 cup light cream, which, once put over heat like instructed to, the light cream evaporates and you are left with a pile of barely coated onions that you have to add to pasta. I had to add almost the entire pint of light cream to get it to a consistency that can be added to pasta, then, it was bland so I added nutmeg to give it flavor. Next up, Old World Pizza Dough. Not too bad, but tasted EXACTLY like what you can buy in the grocery store. No point in buying the ingredients for the dough when you can buy a $2 bag and it tastes and bakes the same. The next day, I was at my dad's and my stepmom was making pizza dough and using the recipie that comes with the Cuisinart food processor, which I just got. Her dough looked great, so I went home and made it and it was so much better than Teresa's! Not only did it taste better, but this book that is supposed you help you get into your skinny jeans calls for 1/4 cup olive oil compared the the Cuisinart one which calls for 3 teaspoons! Pasta Cacio e Pepe and Skinny Pasta Al Burro are almost the same dishes, the only differences are that one uses spagetti and one uses fettuccine, and the skinny pasta has an addition of two ingredients, butter and oil! Why make a cookbook where two of the recipies are almost identical? Not to mention the fact that those two recipies are pasta with grated cheese on them, that's it. Not exactly an intricate italian dish. I have a lot of better, tastier recipies that I have found by simply googling around.

I give this book two stars because it does have a lot of information on oils and herbs and spices and the drinks look good (although I didn't try them, I don't think you can mess up a bellini too bad). I don't get why Teresa (or Heather) didn't write a cookbook with better Italian recipies and drop the whole weight-loss aspect of the book. Just give some good full-fat Italian recipies that taste good-not every cookbook has to be a diet book. Unless you are a big Teresa Giudice fan, not worth the money as I don't feel it's a real cookbook, more of a component to the Real Housewives of NJ show.

Teresa's heart and humor shine through on each page. She gives you insights into real Italian cooking with delicious recipes that are easy make and not only does she share some of her family's treasured recipes, but also she offers up some helpful tips and advice on how to stay in shape while living a fulfilling life.

The one and only thing that kept me from giving this book 5 stars were the references to Danielle. Skinny Italian is filled with sweet stories about the Giudice family but the negative remarks about Danielle don't fit in with the love of family Teresa displays through out the book. If all references to Danielle had been excluded I think this book could have been a great resource for those looking to learn how to cook authentic Italian food, especially to those who don't watch the show and have no idea who Danielle is.

Teresa's maiden voyage cookbook is obviously her first, and obviously co-written by others while remaining elementary. The sexual references are juvenile, pictures self-serving and if you've ever watched her on the RHONJ, you know how she interacts with family for REAL! It's not worth the money; if you want to learn Italian cooking, try Giada, Lidia Bastianich, or Mario Batali - chefs and cooks who actually cook! Save your money; I'm giving mine away to an elementary student.

This book was given to me as a gift; at first, I thought it was a great idea and was glad to have received it ... then I stated reading it. The 'stories' in the book are rather mean-spirited and gossipy and just not very nice at all. Recipes are ok. From the very quick turnaround of these recipes from preparation to table, they are not very challenging at all, and somewhat reflected in their 'average' taste.

This is the worst cookbook in my collection. It was given to me as a gift and I'm glad to know that my friend didn't waste too much money on it. The recipes are awful....no seasoning....and full of comments about the show....who cares about that if you really want to cook. Not a cookbook at all....the positive reviews have to be from her fans and not anyone who cooks!!! There are so many real Italian cookbooks out there if you really want to cook GOOD Italian....Giada, Mario and Lydia

I hoped this book would give me a new batch of recipes to use. I was really disappointed. It seemed that she reused recipes that have been written over and over in other italian cookbooks. The dessert section is a long commercial for Nutella. Don't waste your money buying this book. Personally, we love the show. As far as the book goes - fuhgetaboudit. Sincerely, Exit 16E.

I loved this book. As an American Italian, it brought back memories from my childhood. Teresa explains the "why" for many of the ingredients she uses, I LOVE knowing why I am doing something. She is witty and knowledgeable or got help with the details, which ever it was, I learned what I wanted to know. Each recipe I tried was a success. It takes the scary out of pasta.

I bought this book on a recommendation of a friend. So far I've tried 2 recipes, the Bowtie pasta with peas and the Sicilian steak. The Bowtie pasta came out very bland. The Sicilian steak was better but nothing to write home about. I'm willing to give this book a chance and try some of the other recipes (especially since I already bought it), but so far I have not been impressed.

I give the book 3 stars however because the advice is very good, especially about what olive oils and pasta to buy, how to preserve and store herbs, etc. Plus it is a very colorful, nice looking book. But at the end of the day, I wanted a recipe book and so far it isn't cutting it. I am willing to keep going with it though...