Italian Regional Cooking

Thirty five years ago I was coming home to Phildelphia to visit my family at Xmas. I was living in London and arrived in Philadelphia without luggage. The airline said it would be along in a few days. On my way to my parent's house, the taxi passed a bookstore. I had them wait so I could run in and get a couple presents. I've long forgotten what I got my father but Adi Boni's book was my Xmas present to my mother that year. She loved it. Whenever I went to visit she cooked something from it and everything was incredible. After my mother passed away, I got the book and cooked from it for years. We go to Italy every year and I am more and more pleased with the recipes in this amazing book. Things I thought were merely delicious, I now know to be absolutely authentic. I think in Amarcord, Marcella Hazan talks about learning how to cook from Ada Boni's book. Over the years, I've taken classes with Guilano Bugiali and cooked from Mario and Marcella and so many others. However, if I had only one Italian cookbook I could keep forever, this would be the one.

I bought this cookbook over 22 years ago, before the cooking industry became embellished with designer cooking and designer photos, and it still my favorite above all 15 other Italian cookbooks that I own. The book was originally published in 1969 and written in Italian, but has been very well translated into English. Ada Boni also wrote The Talisman Cookbook, which is a very good, very basic book for cooking Italian (I own that, too). There are more than 600 authentic recipes from 14 of Italy's 20 diverse regions (antipasti, main dishes, and intriguing desserts), and 144 pages of full color photographs against local settings, an added treat. Along with each section comes a lovely introduction to that regions style of cooking. This cookbook is as close as it comes to true home-style Italian cooking. Consider yourself fortunate to find one of Ada's delightful books on the internet! Buona cucina!

Italian Regional CookingWhen I was in college in the sixties, I heard of Ada Boni as the best Italian cookbook writer. Only recently have I begun cooking in any serious way. I found a copy of Italian Regional Cooking at Powell's in Portland, Oregon several months ago. I have fallen in love with Ada Boni, though I fear she is long gone (I searched for an notice of her passing on the internet, but nothing turned up). My wife understands, after a fashion, in part because she loves the results. The recipes are so extraordinarily good - try the Ragu Bolognese, the Napolitano Sauce (with about half the oil though), the osso buco, etc. and see for yourself. Enjoy!

This is my favorite Italian Cookbook. I purchased it 15 years ago and still use it all the time. I was sorry to see it was out of print, as my copy is so worn. This is the real Italian cooking, arranged by the different regions of Italy. Don't expect typical Italian-American fare (spaghetti and meat balls with gallons of tomato sauce, pizza with tons of meat and cheese, etc.). The recipes in this book are spectacular. Some of my favorites include Osso bucco Milanese (braised veal shanks) with saffron risotto, spaghetti with red clam sauce Viareggio, Manzo brasato (a beef roast, slowly braised in red wine with vegetables, served with polenta), and the Abruzzi pasta sauce made with lamb, red sweet peppers and tomatoes (d'Agnello). The recipes are easy to follow. Though the author often asks for fresh tomatoes, we've found that good canned plum tomatoes or crushed tomatoes in puree work fine for these recipes. Although occasionally, an ingredient is not readily obtainable in the U.S., you can usually find suitable substitutes. If you love authentic Old World Italian cooking, this book is well worth having.

This book is so well set out and illustrated; it has the best recipies. I studied Italian in Florence in 1964, and we had wonderful food in the family I lived with. After I was married, in 1975, I found "Italian Regional Cooking" in a book sale in Syracuse, New York. We were on a strict budget, but we bought it, and "The Complete Works of William Shakespeare", at the same time. Both are still in use, with equal satisfaction, 26 years later. My husband has since died, but I still love this recipe book, as it afforded us so many memorable, and not expensive, feasts, and the recipies are easy to follow.Buy it!