Everyday Italian: 125 Simple and Delicious Recipes: A Cookbook

I would have been really disappointed if I had purchased at full price. Recipes are mostly VERY simple and delicious but in 250+ pages there are fewer than 30 pictures of finished product, including several you don't need a picture of to know you did it right, and 80+ pictures of Giada or raw ingredients. I'd far prefer pictures of finished dishes to get an idea of how it's supposed to look and plating ideas instead of wasting whole pages on her not even demonstrating a technique. Especially if it is a recipe I'm not familiar with. I know what she looks like and I don't need a picture of a lemon or a sprig of rosemary to make me interested in a recipe.

This is the best Italian cookbook I have ever bought! so many of my family's favorite recipes come from this book!

Welcome to easy Italian cooking, people. I have downloaded and printed a lot of recipes off of the Internet from Ina Garten, Martha, and Giada, but Giada's are the easiest to make and taste great. I love all three of these ladies, but when it came to the recipes that I enjoyed making over and over, Giada's did it for me. The ingredients are simple, the cooking time is quick, and most if not all of the recipes are delicious.

Giada De Laurentiis' first cookbook was exactly what I expected from watching her show. True it does not greatly differ from her TV show, but I did not expect it to, they share the same name for a good reason. Just like her wonderfull show, the recipes are pretty classic Italian but recipes you can make from your own pantry or your local store. No hunting down speciality ingrediants. I personally liked the section on what you need in your pantry to make the majority of the dishes included. I am one of those people who reads a cookbook cover to cover and I enjoyed Mario Battali's intro about Giada very much. Especially the part about how she is the kind of girl his mother told him to marry. The book also describes how Giada ended up with her own show. The recipes center around those found on her show, with some I do not recall from the show. If you are already familure with her food network show then you know that Giada focuses on achievable Italian cooking, you do not need a degree from culinary school or a week to make her food. There are more traditional Italian cookbooks out there, but if like me, you are unlikley to make a marinera sauce that requires a minimum of three days, this cookbook is more your style. The book also tells you how and how long many of the dishes can be stored. Something I really appreciate. And being that it is Giada, there is a good dessert section. A nice touch is that there are some simple, light fruit desserts along with the more decadent fare. Also there are intros to the recipes with facts or explinations on variations. Some people have said there are not enough recipes included. While I too would love some more of Giada's recipes (especially the esspresso frothy dessert/breakfast from one of her shows); I don't understand the complaint when the number of recipes is stated in the title. Personally I had no problems reading the text. Although I would have liked more pictures of the food (one of my favorite things about expensive gourmet cookbooks is that there is a photo of every dish), it is not devoid of food pictures. I don't think the number of shots of Giada ditracts from the book, the publisher just like the show's producers are just capitalizing on what a beautifull engageing woman Giada De Laurentiis is. How many other tv chefs get writen about in magazines like Maxim? All in all I gave the book five stars because I felt it delivered on what I expected, plus some fun surprises.

I have found the recipes in this book to be very useful. They are easy to prepare with a minimum amount of specialized ingredients. She brings many new ideas to those of us who have been preparing Italian meals for years. Especially delicious is the polenta and the rib-eye steak with roasted peppers and arugula.

Before receiving Everday Italian as a Chistmas gift,I hated to cook. From grocery shopping to reading recipes, I despised it all. Now I've finally found a cookbook that makes me want to cook! Giada's recipes are easy to follow and for the most part, quick to make. Best of all, most of her ingredients can be found at your local grocery store for a reasonable price. At first I was irritated by the lack of finished recipe pictures in the cookbook. Once I started cooking, I realized I didn't even need them - the recipes are that simple. I'm not a gourmet chef so I don't want complicated recipes, even if they do taste a bit more robust or authentic. I'm just somebody trying to find the inspiration to enjoy cooking and eating again. I've enjoyed almost every recipe I've made from this cookbook and I look forward to cooking at the end of a long work day. My favorite recipes have been the marinara sauce (I can't believe I made my own sauce), the bolognese sauce, the chicken piccata, and the chicken parm. Tonight I'm going to make ziti with asparagus, smoked mozzarella, and prosciutto. I would highly recommend this book to anyone who thinks they don't have the time or the finances to make fresh, great tasting Italian food. If the thought of one more night of grocery store, jarred tomato sauce makes you want to scream, this book is for you!

I have been a big fan of the show since the beginning. This book is a blessing. For a long time I would have to hunt down the recopies on the food network website, print them, lose half of them, etc. This way I have it all in a beautiful glossy hard cover book, written with warmth, personal stories and mouth watering pictures of the dishes. I have made many of the dishes she features in her book, and not one turned out badly. It all comes out exactly as it's supposed to. That's tricky with some cookbooks, when you just can't get it to be what it's meant to be. Giada's book is divided in these sections: Antipasti, Sauces, Pasta Polenta and Risotto, Entrees, Contorini (Side Dishes) and Dolci (Desserts) Some of my favorite recipes I've made are: Stuffed mushrooms: thank goodness they are so simple to make, because I am being hounded by my boyfriend to make them. Simply amazing. Simple Bolognese- meaty, fresh, and satisfying, plus you don't have to wonder what was in it. You made it and you know it's clean. Classic recipe that's easy to follow. Brown Butter sauce - I can still close my eyes and taste the sage and butter, over any meat. Instant dress up to any meal. Chicken piccata - light, lemony, olivey, simply fantastic. I can just go on and on, but I don't want to bore anyone. This book is simply super. I don't mind the pictures of her, and if she changed her clothes for every single photo in the book, I would have mistaken it for a Vogue shoot, instead of a cookbook. Hope you can enjoy it as much as I am. This book is in constant use at my house.