Lidia Cooks from the Heart of Italy

By Lidia Matticchio Bastianich
Alfred A. Knopf, $35.00, 411 pages

Unlike a mere-how-to book of cold print on white paper, the very first page of this cookbook casts a heart-warming feel over the entire piece; in it, Lidia Matticchio Bastianich expresses a brief but very moving tribute to her father, whose favorite dishes she included in this compilation. Such a beginning voices well the focus on family gathering which is so much a part of cooking in Italy; having married into a Sicilian-American family, I found much of this book pleasantly familiar in the authentic recipes as well as its traditional feel. The recipes themselves are-like Italy-divided by region; the result is a tantalizing array of dishes to prepare: Stuffed Cabbage Rolls from Lombardy, Beef Braised in Beer, Whole-grain Spaetzle of Trentino-Alto Adige, Veal Scaloppine from Umbria, Calabrese Onion Soup and Sardinian Pasta “Pearls” and Flatbread Lasagna. The “General Reference” recipes were a welcome addendum to the book, including the basic building blocks of Italian cuisine, such as chicken stock and marinara sauce.

A cook with several published recipe books and a television series, Lidia Bastianich (with the help of her daughter Tanya) presents treasured recipes from her own family and her travels, including charming pictures taken along the way, as well as mouth-watering photographs of select dishes. This is a must-have book for any kitchen inhabitant.

Reviewed by Meredith Greene