The Splendid Table: Recipes from Emilia-Romagna, the Heartland of Northern Italian Food [Hardcover]

Lynne Rossetto Kasper (Author)

Book Description

Release date: September 21, 1992

Just when you thought you knew the best of Northern Italy, along comes Lynne RossettoKasper to introduce you to Emilia-Romagna, a fertile wedge between Milan, Venice, and Florence, as gastronomically important as any land in the world. The lush homeland of balsamic vinegar, Prosciutto di Parma, tortellini, and Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese, this is a region venerated by Italy's food cognoscenti. "Ask an Italian where to take only one meal in Italy, and, after recommending his mother's house, he will more than likely send you to EmiliaRomagna,"writes Kasper.

A cuisine at once voluptuous and refined, the dishes of Emilia-Romagna's kitchen are literally irresistible. just listen to the names"Little" Spring Soup from the 17th Century, His Eminence's Baked Penne, Modena Crumbling Cake. Then imagine sitting down to a dish of Hot Caramelized Pears with Prosciutto, a Risotto of Red Wine with Fresh Rosemary or a Pie of Polenta and Country Ragú

The first American book to present the food of this singular northern region, The Splendid Table is an Italian cookbook for the nineties. It will take you from Parma, Bologna, Modena, Ravenna, and Ferrara to tiny villages in the foothills of the Apennines, from Renaissance banquet halls to the simplest of farmhouses, offering history, folklore, and substantive cooking tips along the way.

Among the things you will find are:

A 56-recipe pasta chapter including many never before seen in America. From fast and easy dishes such as Linguine with Braised Garlic and Balsamic Vinegar to a lasagne of chicken, pine nuts, and currants.

A veal Parmigiano like no other-Pan-Fried Veal Chops with Tomato Marsala Sauce, the whole finished with curls of Parmigiano Reggiano cheese.

An array of meatless or almost meatless recipes. Grilled vegetables with maccheroni; a

country dish of braised lentils with ribbons of pappardelle and crisp nubbins of pancetta; Tortellini of Artichokes and Mascarpone; or Fresh Tuna Adriatic Style.

Straight out of the Renaissance but perfect for today, a sumptuous tortellini pie, ideal for important dinners and holidays.

A salad of tart greens, Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese, and Prosciutto di Parma with a warm garlic and balsamic dressing and many other antipasto dishes.

Over thirty dessert recipes including Chestnut Ricotta Cheesecake and Torta Barozzi, a mysterious chocolate cake made at only one pastry shop in the entire region.

"A Guide to Ingredients" that shares the secrets of how to select, use, and store the very best balsamic vinegars, olive oils, porcini mushrooms, Prosciutto di Parma, mortadella, Parmigiano-Reggiano, coppa, fresh herbs, and much more.

Encounters with Lucrezia Borgia, Gioachino Rossini, Napoleon's Empress Marie Louise, Giuseppe Verdi, Arturo Toscanini, Carlo Bergonzi, Renata Tebaldi, and Luciano Pavarotti, all characters in the epic of Emilia-Romagna.

The Splendid Table is the Italian cookbook America has been waiting for a book firing our passion for Italian food while responding to our health concerns. It not only reveals Italy's best-kept culinary secret, the great cuisine of Emilia-Romagna, it is at the same time one of the most important teaching books of our era. Know it will become a good friend, well thumbed and lovingly stained over years of good cooking and good reading.

24 pages of finished dishes in full color. 200 recipes with wine and menu suggestions.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

This collection of recipes, history, food and folklore--surrendered by a tiny yet culinarily fertile region of Italy--was ably amassed by cooking teacher and writer Kasper. Even people "with only a passing interest in food" are likely to "recognize . . . this region's products." Among them are: Balsamic vinegar, Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese and prosciutto di Parma. Northern Italy is also where the renowned rich Ragu Bolognese comes from; Kasper includes both a historical and a modern version, as well as a selection of kindred sauces, such as game ragu and an unusual ragu of giblets. She pays homage to recipes ranging from the 16th century (rosewater maccheroni Romanesca) to the 18th (a Cardinal's favorite baked penne), but pays equal and fascinating attention to modern inventions: tagliatelle with carmelized onions and fresh herbs, and a lasagna of wild and fresh mushrooms. Nor does Kasper omit recipes incorporating the most famous native products. Balsamic roast chicken and sweet peas with prosciutto di Parma is an outstanding example. Rounding out various virtues are easy rules of thumb for making fresh pasta and a reliable guide to ingredients. Photos not seen by PW.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Kirkus Reviews

From an American food writer and cooking teacher, an informed and enthusiastic culinary tour of the northern Italian region of Emilia-Romagna, famous for its fervently upheld cooking traditions and as the source of tortellini, Bolognese rag—, Parmigiano- Reggiano cheese, and balsamic vinegar. This last ingredient appears here in everything from pesto to rabbit stew, veal scallops, and an enticing pot-roasted lamb with wine and olives; and Kasper, who devotes several pages to the mysteries and hierarchies of balsamic vinegar, passes along a tip for simulating the expensive ``craftsman'' quality with more common versions. It's the kind of cookbook that comes with a bibliography and with copious historical and other background notes on the recipes and the different local traditions within the region. It also comes with descriptions high in swooning superlatives; fortunately, the recipes--many of them local specialties unfamiliar elsewhere--live up to the billing, both in their attention to flavor-enhancing detail and in the certifiably splendid nature of the dishes. Serious culinary explorers, Italian food enthusiasts, and readers of gastronomic travelogues will put this on their list. (Twenty-four pages of color photos--not seen.) -- Copyright ©1992, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 530 pages
• Publisher: William Morrow Cookbooks; 1 edition (September 21, 1992)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0688089631
• ISBN-13: 978-0688089634
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 1.9 x 10.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (38 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #64,958 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #80 in Books > Cookbooks, Food & Wine > Regional & International > European > Italian

More About the Author

The Splendid Table®, public radio's award-winning, national food show from American Public Media, taps into the latest from the food world with experts of every stripe. Heard on over 350 public radio stations, host Lynne Rossetto Kasper explores the entire spectrum of food: from cheese making, to tracking down bargain wines, to the science behind a great cup of coffee, to finding the best little greasy spoons in America. The Splendid Table has been at the forefront of food issues and policies since its inception.

In 1969, when Lynne began cooking monthly Chinese banquets for her friends in New York (obsessively researching each dish), she never imagined she'd have a career in food. Those banquets led to an insatiable curiosity about the dimensions of food, and that turned into the career Lynne never expected.

Between writing, teaching, lecturing on food and culture, and her explorations, Lynne's research has covered much of America and Europe. In 1995 she and producer Sally Swift, working with American Public Media, created public radio's national food show, The Splendid Table®.

Between her books and the show, Lynne has received numerous James Beard and IACP awards, including Cookbook of the Year from both The James Beard Foundation and the IACP for her first book The Splendid Table. The Splendid Table® radio program has received multiple honors, including four Best National Talk Show Clarion Awards, two James Beard awards for Best National Radio Show on Food, and several Gracie awards from American Women in Radio and Television. Lynne is a member of the James Beard Who's Who of Food and Beverage in America. She lectures on food and culture and teaches cooking on both sides of the Atlantic and is a popular keynote speaker. More information is available at splendidtable.org.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

58 of 59 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars My favorite source for stupendous dinner parties November 3, 1999

By Roni Jordan

Format:Hardcover

I've owned this book since it first came out in 1992, and it occupies a special place in my cooking library -- eye-level shelf for easy reach. The salad of tart greens with prosciutto and warm balsamic dressing has been my first course for many outstanding dinner parties, including several on New Year's Eve. Other particular favorites - the lamb, garlic & potato roast, maccheroni with baked grilled vegetables, torta barozzi, and chestnut ricotta cheesecake. Ms. Kasper's outstanding knowledge of this regional Italian cuisine is equally matched by her understanding of how a home chef times and assembles a multi-course meal. I'm now ordering her new book, The Italian Country Table, and hope to be just as impressed.

39 of 39 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars The very best regional Italian cookbook! Buy It! July 26, 2005

By B. Marold HALL OF FAMETOP 100 REVIEWER

Format:Hardcover

`The Splendid Table' by Lynne Rossetto Kasper is simply the most splendid book I have read on a regional cuisine and it is by far and away the best of the three books on the cuisine of Emilia-Romagna, even though the other two, `Biba's Taste of Italy' by Biba Caggiano and `Recipes from My Two Villages' by Mario Batali are excellent, as far as they go. Ms. Caggiano's book is simply a collection of recipes from Emilia-Romagna and Mario's book is more of a personal diary of recipes than a thorough examination of a historical cuisine.

Ms. Kasper's book, in the year it was published, won both the James Beard and Julia Child (IACP) cookbook awards, which is roughly the same as winning both the Academy award and the Foreign Press Writers award for best picture. And, I believe this book deserved all the attention it has received. Even Mario, who has his own book on the subject, made a special point to mention this book on his `Molto Mario' show. Since I have owned the book for over a year, it is one of those cases where I deeply regret having taken so long to get to studying the volume.

All that remains, then, is to point out what it is which makes the book so good.

For starters, it covers every aspect of a region's cuisine. That is, it deals with the history, the agriculture, and the economy of the region as well as the great recipes. And, what a background we have to relate. Emilia-Romagna is not just another region in one of the world's great culinary countries. It is THE very heart and soul of that culinary tradition, even more than the fabled provinces of Tuscany (Florence) in the north and Campagna (Naples) in the south. It is the home of Italy's three most important non-wine food products, Proscuitto de Parma, Parmesano-Reggiano, and Balsamic Vinegar.... On top of that, it is also the home of some of the most famous fresh pasta dishes to come out of Italy plus several of the most famous salume products from Italy (witness the name Bologna, the region's capital city, given to some of these products).

While this coverage is necessary for a complete book on this subject, it is not enough. And, this book gives us the most important component, an excellent selection of very well written recipes. And, with over five hundred pages to fill, Ms. Kasper has given us several different takes on many of the more interesting recipes. A fine example is the famous ragu Bolognese, which is offered up in at least six different variations, each for a slightly different purpose or from a different background.

Never having studied this northern (generally tomatoless) sauce in detail before, I am struck by how similar it is to the most common recipes for Texas chili. It has no beans, the meat is diced and browned, not ground, and tomato and other spices are added sparingly. In the place of dried chiles, the ragu includes cinnamon (in several of the more traditional recipes). One very odd facet of these recipes is that where a Bay leaf is specified, the author calls for the California bay leaf rather than the milder Turkish bay leaf.

The recipes are organized like all good Italian cookbooks, by course. The chapters are:

The Antipasto Course

Ragus

Essential Sauces and Stocks (In no other book have I seen such a thorough treatment of Italian broths and stocks. Ms. Kasper includes the simple traditional `brodo' but adds much more, highlighted by the rich `Il sugo de carne' or meat essence.)

Pastas

The Sweet Pastas of the Renaissance (So, not only do we get modern dishes, we also get recipes for historical dishes which one usually never finds outside a book specializing in Renaissance cooking).

Risotto, Soup, and Vegetable First Courses

Second Courses

Vegetable Side Dishes

Breads

Desserts

Aside from the atypical choice of the California bay, nothing in this book disagrees with anything I have seen from any other authority on Italian cooking. In fact, Ms. Kasper generally improves on other advice by giving more details and a finer turn to her information on ingredients, techniques, and background. I am especially happy to see recipes for some of the more complicated dishes which simply never find their way into less ambitious books, such as `bomba di riso', a northern Italian analogue to the pasta `timbale' of the south. And, while many books cover bread making in a very superficial manner, this book not only does justice to this difficult subject, it covers many of the more arcane flatbreads which tend to be overshadowed by pizza from Naples and foccacia from Genoa. Her chapter on desserts also gives the lie to Sr. Batali's often-repeated statement that the Italians are not big on sweet desserts. While many of these may have grown out of French and Austrian influences, there are tortes and tarts aplenty to enliven an Italian themed entertainment.

Ms. Kasper also gives us a very nice little guide to ingredients, mail order sources, and a bibliography composed almost entirely of Italian language sources.

It is not hard to see how Ms. Kasper has been able to produce such a great book. Elizabeth David lived in Italy and studied its cuisine for a year before producing her excellent `Italian Food'. Ms. Kasper has spent the better part of a lifetime, including five years living in Bologna, studying this cuisine. It is no surprise that the recipe writing in this book rivals that of Julia Child in `Mastering the Art of French Cooking', as this author has spent about the same time mastering her subject before committing it to paper.

Any culinary library that has any pretensions to being complete must include a copy of this book! Read more ›

30 of 31 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Mouth-watering Balsamic Roast Chicken March 21, 2001

By dallas

Format:Hardcover

The Balsamic Roast Chicken is simply splendid. I use free-range chicken parts and rub the garlic-rosemary paste under the skin (I make more of the paste than the recipe calls for). The chicken is delicious even without the balsamic vinegar--moist and tender. I love the recipe for sprucing up canned chicken broth, too--use fat-free broth and you can skip a step or two. The Green Beans Bolognese are absolutely wonderful, as well. I am looking forward to trying more recipes from this book and wowing my dinner guests (again)! YUM!

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Fun to read and more fun to use November 2, 1999

By Timothy Himes

Format:Hardcover

The recipe for soup stock alone has changed my life. I used to use canned stock, but now I make this stock once a month and use it for everything -- I even drink steaming mugs of it for breakfast as the author recommends.

The recipes are so precise that even a beginner like me can prepare some impressive meals.

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Worthy of your kitchen and your coffee table April 28, 2000

By A Customer

Format:Hardcover

No other author has inspired such creativity and emotion in me. Kasper doesn't just tell you the ingredients and procedures, she relates the history of her dishes and the people behind them. From the Wine Basted Rabbit to the Balsalmic and Braised Garlic Pasta, every recipe is absolutely wonderful! Each recipe is followed by helpful wine and menu suggestions. If you are passionate about the people, culture, and food of Italy this is the book for you.

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars One of THE best cookbooks March 28, 2008

By Chris L.

Format:Hardcover

I'm surpised no one has reviewed this book yet. A winner of prestigous book awards, I say without question that this is my favorite cookbook. (Julia Child's The Way to Cook comes in a close second)..I was working in a high-end Italian restaurant in San Franciso that also sold fresh food, Italian wines, and great cookbooks. The author was there to prepare dishes from this book, so I got to meet her, taste her food, and got a signed copy. Not only was she nice, she really knows how to cook. The food is from Reggio-Emilia, in the center of Italy, and the true home of Prosciutto, Bologna, Pamigiano Reggiano, Balsamic vinegar (the REAL balsamic vinegar) among other fantastic food. The recipes are comprehensive, very well written, and authentic. She gives background and hints, and the book is very educational and interesting just to read. She even tells you step by step how to make real pasta, and find ingredients. I've made many recipes and they are all so good. This is a book where I would make something for a dinner party without testing it beforehand; that is how much I trust it. Worth every penny!

21 of 23 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars A Very SPLENDID Cookbook! August 4, 2000

By Deb Mele

Format:Hardcover

I have had this book since just after it was published, and it remains my authority on northern Italian cuisine. Lynne Rossetto Kasper has compiled an amazing quantity of quality recipes from the Emilia-Romagna region. As the Italian Food Host @ BellaOnline, and a collector of over 100 Italian cookbooks I would highly recommend this book to anyone who appreciates northern Italian cuisine. Ms. Rossetto adds a little comentary on each recipe's history that is very interesting and her food photograph's are stunning. My only complaint about this book is that there are not more of these glorious photographs!