Glorious Soups and Stews of Italy

We are passionate cooks who went to cooking school in Tuscany two years agao, and my huge cookbook collection has its share of Italian cookbooks. This one is unusual, though, in its emphasis on traditional family-style recipes with seasonal ingredients that nonetheless are outstanding meldings of flavor. The recipes are organized by season, with excellent commentary. Although the recipes are not particularly simple, they are clear and straightforward and do not depend on exotic ingredients or unusual tools. The first three recipes we tried were all superb, and the Zuppa di Pesce is the best we've ever had, whether at home or in a restaurant! We are eagerly waiting to try some recipes until the ingredients come in season, and we're continuing to try the winter options. Delizioso!

"The Glorious Soups and Stews of Italy" is a beautifully written and produced cookbook that goes beyond mere recipes. Ms. Marchetti includes numerous anecdotes that make it a pleasure to read, and Mr. Meppem's excellent photographs make one's mouth water. The recipes are written clearly and in detail. Those we have tried so far have been very good indeed. Clearly the author has an extensive background in Italian cuisine. Highly recommended.

`The Glorious Soups and Stews of Italy' is the first cookbook by culinary journalist, Domenica Marchetti, published by Chronicle Books, the old San Francisco war-horse publisher of trade paperback cookbooks. The biggest problem this book faces is the fact that there are already numerous fine books, including some outstanding titles dedicated to soups. Leading the pack among recent titles is Deborah Madison's `Vegetable Soups from Deborah Madison's Kitchen' and Anne Sheasby's `The Soup Cookbook'. Even more challenging is the glut of great Italian cookbooks. Before comparing Ms. Marchetti's effort with other books, it is important to point out her strongest feature, which is the fact that her soup recipes are divided into the four seasons, with fifteen recipes per season. Less impressive is the fact that among her 60 featured recipes, only a minority (28) are for soups. The remaining 32 recipes are nominally stews; however, many such as the Stuffed Beef Roll in Tomato Sauce and the Oven Braised Endive look a lot more like casseroles, braises, roasts with sauces, or even frittatas than they do stews. In comparison to Ms. Marchetti's Italian 28 soup recipes, Michele Scicolone's encyclopedic `1000 Italian Recipes' has 41 soup recipes, all of which are quite certainly soups. Also, the authoritative `Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking' by Marcella Hazan has 35 soup recipes. So, you are not really getting more soup for your dollar in this book if you already own one of these other large Italian recipe cookbooks. Another caveat I have is that while Ms. Marchetti indeed covers virtually all the different varieties of Italian soups, her recipes tend toward her interpretations or variations on classic recipes, rather than the original classics themselves. I must be clear on the fact that the book contains more than 60 recipes, in that it includes an introductory chapter with seven (7) recipes for broths, sauces, and egg pasta. It also has a chapter of accompaniments with 11 recipes for crostinis, croutons, risotto, polenta, and tarts. So we get 78 recipes with 28 soup recipes for about $20 or $0.25 per recipe. This is getting close to being pricy, so the value of the book depends a lot on how much you like soup, and how big your collection of Italian cookbooks is already. For this price, the author also gives us 25 pages of instruction on basic kitchen skills that the average experienced home cook can easily skip over with no danger of missing anything important. On the other hand, a novice who reads this may be struck by the irony in Ms. Marchetti's statement that you don't really need many pieces of equipment, after which she reels off 26 classes of equipment needed to make soup, including a few obvious redundancies such as a potato masher and food mill, and a few unnecessary items, such as a garlic press. Her glossary of ingredients is much better, but no better than you can get from a standard text such as Senora Hazan. All this carping should no