Cook Italy - 9781906868192

"Katie's excellent book includes ingredient lists and 400 fraditional recipes. She highlights distinctive dishes from Italy's 20 different regions and reveals practical secrets for risotto, meats and gnocehi."---BBC Good Food Magazine

As any fan of Italian cuisine will know, each region within Italy is fiercely proud of its unique recipes and cooking techniques. From Tuscany's signature Ribollita (Tuscan Layered Bean and Bread Soup) to the delicious Sicilian Sarde a Beccafico (Stuffed Sardines in Tomato Sauce), popular dishes have been shaped by centuries of tradition and define local identity, from the sun-drenched Mediterranean south to the landlocked, mountainous regions in the north. It is these local particularities and preferences---each evocative of people and place---that make Italian cuisine so rich and fascinating, and Katie Caldesi, with a uniquely impartial eye, has captured all its variety in this beautiful and comprehensive book.

Katie is the perfect guide across Italy's culinary map---she has spent years traveling across the country, meeting home cooks and trattoria chefs and gathering authentic recipes and techniques that are distinctive and, at times, the proud and closely-guarded specialty of one village or town. Her 40 masterclasses on cooking techniques---such as making your own tortelloni, baking bread and pizza, and preparing Tuscan sausages---include secret tips that have been handed down through generations and are interwoven with essays on Italy's world-famous produce and fascinating stories on the local traditions that shape the food we know and love today.

With several hundred recipes from all 20 Italian regions, including chapters on Pasta, Meat, Fish, Dolci, and Cheese, and featuring stunning travel photography, this is the definitive guide to discovering and cooking Italy's many gastronomic treasures.

Katie has spent over 10 years teaching Italian cooking to students at every level and is the principal of La Cucina Caldesi---the only Italian cooking school in London. With her husband, Giancarlo, she owns the Caffe Caldesi in London and Caldesi in Campagna, a beautiful restaurant in Bray, England. Their TV series Return to Tuscany appeared on BBC2 in 2007, the same year a companion book was published. They are also the authors of Italian Mama's Kitchen and have two children, Giorgio and Flavio.