Recipes from an Italian Summer

Recipes from an Italian Summer

Well, alright. I confess.  I admit it.  I own up.  I take responsibility.  I will say it.  Heck, I will even embrace it.  I am a cookbook freak, an addict, an avid collector thereof.   Cookbooks are my favored bedtime reading and every now and again a real treasure makes an appearance. A few years ago  fans of Italian cuisine eagerly awaited the release of The Silver Spoon.  The Italian Joy of Cooking, it blew us all  away.  Bookshops sold out and once we got our copies we never put them down.   Well, the folks at Phaidon Press have done themselves one better with the recent release of Recipes from an Italian Summer. This book shows you how to remain in your home kitchen and live La Dolce Vita as though you were in Italy.

The genius of Italian cuisine lies in its passion for the finest fruits and vegetables lovingly tended in thousand year old fields, livestock raised in time honored traditions and the teeming bounty of the surrounding seas.  The canvas for the cook is the Italian market, and it changes throughout the year.  This book lovingly guides the reader through the warmer Italian seasons.  No tremendous pieces of meat to roast in your oven, no hours over a burning stove top here.  These are all summer recipes that are quick and require minimum time at the stove.  The book is packed with enticing recipes along with sections about Italian summer life, food festivals and the growing seasons of typical Italian summer produce.

There is recipe overlap between The Silver Spoon and this book, but that should pose no problem for the Italian food fanatic.  I mean can one ever eat too many Amaretti Stuffed Peaches? Or too much Blueberry Cream?   Part food photography, part still life, part landscape, the lavish yet rustic photography will inspire you to grab your copy of the book and go to your Farmer’s Market to purchase what you need for a fantastic summer meal.

Recipes from an Italian Summer
by The Editors of Phaidon Press
Hardcover, Phaidon Press (April 7, 2010)
432 pages
ISBN-10: 0714857734
ISBN-13: 978-0714857732

I have no affiliation with any product, manufacturer, or site mentioned in this article.