From Publishers Weekly
To many Americans, Italian food means pasta, pizza and maybe gelato. The Romagnolis' new collection may add zuppa to that list. In a tour of Italy that presents 144 soup recipes from 17 regions, the authors explore variations of a dish that they describe as "something?vegetables, meat, fish, or fowl?cooked in a broth, with or without thickeners." Each regional section begins with a few pages on that region's history, agriculture and people. Some soups (Goulash Soup of Alto Adige or Sardinian Couscous Soup) show the influence of neighboring cuisines. Others, like Lombardy's Rice and Frogs' Legs Soup, rely on local ingredients or specialties. Some soups are common all over Italy but vary greatly by region. Bean soups, for example, include, among others, Rice and Bean Soup from Venice; Chickpea, Bean and Barley Soup from Liguria; Bean and Cabbage "Reboiled" Soup from Tuscany; Fresh Bean Soup from Le Marche; and Apulian Pasta and Bean Soup with Mussels. Similar itineraries can be based on fish soups from Liguria to Sicily or on vegetable soups from Genoese Minestrone with Pesto to Calabrian Onion Soup. Many recipes depend for their goodness on homemade broths, the recipes for which are included in a final section on basics. Almost all the recipes in the book are simple to make and based on inexpensive, widely available ingredients; many would make fine one-dish suppers. (Nov.) FYI: Margaret Romagnoli, coauthor with her husband of The Romagnolis' Table and other notable cookbooks, died last year.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Library Journal
There seems to be something about Italian soups that inspires enthusiasm?or at least exclamation points. The Romagnolis, well known for their many previous books and television series (Margaret died before this book was published), offer a culinary journey through the 17 regions of Italy, north to south and then onto Sicily and Sardinia. Each chapter starts with a travelog, providing background information and highlighting the regional specialties?sort of a mini-Michelin guide. Recipes are generally simple?most of this is robust peasant food, although some of the richer regions do have some more elegant dishes?and many will be unfamiliar to American readers. Bianchi offers a more intimate account, concentrating on the soups?the brodi, minestre and minestrone, creme, and hearty zuppe?of one small corner of Italy, the Garfagnana in northern Tuscany. A New York City food writer, Bianchi also runs a cooking school in Campo Romano, Tuscany, not too far from where she grew up, and she knows her subject. The people of the Garfagnana are as important to her as the recipes, and their stories and history are captured in her well-written, respectful prose. With their quite different approaches to the same subject, both these titles are recommended.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.
