The Red Cat Cookbook: 125 Recipes from New York City's Favorite Neighborhood Restaurant (Hardcover)

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Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Bradley, owner of Manhattan's Red Cat restaurant, provides a new twist on familiar dishes in this delightful collection. Compiled for home cooks, the book offers an unlikely synthesis of the Italian-American classics Bradley grew up on and the down-to-earth sensibility of his native New England. He tweaks the classics enough that they are fresh but still recognizable, offering simple, big-flavored dishes that can be prepared with relative ease, such as Osso Buco with Saffron Couscous and Escarole and New England Fish Chowder. Conventionally arranged, with starters, soups, pastas and risottos, main courses, vegetables, and desserts, recipes include headnotes that provide information about the dish, its backstory and tips for successful cooking. Bradley includes details on essential ingredients that he uses liberally: olive oil, lemons, Parmigiano-Reggiano, Pecorino Romano, olives, pepperoncini and red pepper flakes. He also advocates use of high-impact cooking techniques to enhance the ingredients' natural flavor and texture, such as the char of grilling or the crunch of frying. Notable recipes include Baked Fontina with Garlic, Olive Oil, and Thyme; Chicken, the Red Cat Way, with Lemon Sauce and Summer Vegetable Salad; Chanterelles with Capers; and Risotto Fritters. Recommended for all home cooks, this collection will add new life to much-loved but tired favorites. 65 color photos. (Nov.)
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From Booklist

Residents of Manhattan's Chelsea District love the Red Cat, which serves up an idiosyncratic version of Italian American food. But the Red Cat attracts more than simply Chelsea's arty crowd, and people travel from all over the city to eat chef Bradley's cooking. Appetizers include simple green salads; a tart holding just caramelized onions, blue cheese, and fresh fig slices; and tempura-battered green beans. Split pea soup gets a final hit of fragrant rum. Pastas extend from cavatelli with veal cheeks to two risottos: one with mushrooms, raisins, and radicchio; another with peaches and pancetta. Bradley reimagines a classic Portuguese dish by preparing clams with a large patty of pork sausage. Osso buco pairs with saffron-infused Israeli couscous. Calf's liver gets a coating of crushed peppercorns and a glaze of balsamic vinegar, bacon, and garlic. Sweets feature different approaches to rice pudding: one with a hard sugar crust; another deep-fried. Mark Knoblauch
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 256 pages
• Publisher: Clarkson Potter (November 14, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1400082811
• ISBN-13: 978-1400082810
• Product Dimensions: 9.6 x 7.6 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.3 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #496,745 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

20 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An absolute delight!, February 6, 2007

By	Robyn Johnson (Seattle, WA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

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If you're not in the neighborhood to enjoy the gourmet meals at the Red Cat resaurant, this cookbook is the next best alternative. Beautiful photographs and fresh writing make it a joy to peruse. The directions are clear and encouraging to even a novice cook like me. This is the only cookbook I own that I actually read from cover to cover. Try the green beans tempura--you'll be hooked forever. And if you're in NYC, the Red Cat is worth going out of your way for.

28 of 38 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars 125 Recipies, But None that use Cats, Red or Otherwise, December 4, 2006

By	John Matlock "Gunny" (Winnemucca, NV) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

My first thought on seeing this book was 'where ever can I find some red cats to cook?' But of course that's not what the book is about. It turns out that The Red Cat is a restaurant in Manhattan. Yet this is not a typical restaurant menu cookbook.

This is a cookbook that takes a lot of food tastes, primarily from the Eastern seaboard (think clam chowder), and Europe (think France, Italy, Germany) and presents them is a clear and easy to understand manner. Although it is not that big a book, it is abook that covers all aspects of a meal from finger foods at the start to home made ice creams at the end.

While a lot of the recipies have a down home simple aspect about them, many of them add higher end ingredients (lobster) and some very tasty sauces.

7 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Red Cat Cookbook, February 21, 2007

By	Robert Corcoran "Berwyn Bob" (West Chester Pa) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Wonderful book, and easy to use for an average cook. Great food.