Mario Batali Simple Italian Food: Recipes from My Two Villages

I find it hard to be entirely objective about this book, as Mario Batali is my number one culinary hero. Through his show `Molto Mario' on the Food Network, he exposed me for the first time to Italian regional and microregional cuisines and the `if it grows together, it goes together' doctrine. This is called `terroir by the fans of cooking from `the F country', which Mario loves to hate. This also brought into full light the doctrine of `buy the very best of what is fresh today and that will determine what you cook tonight.' Mario does not give you the cerebral approach of someone like Paul Bertolli or Tom Colicchio or, ultimately, like Thomas Keller, but Mario gets all the important stuff right, in a way we can appreciate and use.I love the way Mario quite honestly confesses to having lifted most of his recipes from Italian grandmothers, as he believes that the best Italian cooking is done in the home and not in the Restaurante. In spite of his heart being with Italian cuisine, he is never disrespectful of American food and produce, especially when the American product is superior to the Italian.This book is comprised of recipes primarily from the extended three-year stage he served in a little trattoria in Emilia-Romagna, a stones throw from the border with Toscana. But, it does contain several recipes from other parts of Emilia-Romagna, Toscana, Lazio (Rome) and even Sicily. His two `villages' are Porretta Terme in Italy and Greenwich Village in Manhattan.The book has six chapters of recipes, these being:Antipasti, 43 recipes including crostini, bruschetta, polenta, pickled vegetables, mushrooms, and cured fish.Primi (pasta or rice), 49 recipes including recipes for fresh pastas, gnocchi, couscous, and risottos.Seconde (main dish) Pesce (fish), 27 recipes including scallops, calamari, prawns, crabs, lobster, snapper, and even frogs' legs. Carne (meat), 32 recipes including rabbit, pheasant, lamb, veal, beef, sausage, liver, and sweetmeats.Contorni (side dishes) 26 recipes including polenta, many vegetable dishes, grilled, fried, and pickled.Formaggi & Dolce (cheese and sweets) 27 recipes including fruit and confections with funny names.Each section includes pantry recipes for sauces and dressings not included in this count.I would recommend this book primarily for the reading of Mario's unvarnished enthusiasm for food and the Italian dedication to (relative) simplicity of method and freshness of your `prima materia'. I would also highly recommend his basic tomato sauce (I make it all the time) and his recipes using fresh pasta. As he points out, there is a big difference between the fresh pasta of the north and the dry pasta of the south both in the way they are made, in the types of flour used, and in the sauces appropriate to each. Mario's recommendations on making and dressing pasta are worth the price of admission.The black and white or sepia photographs of Mario and his colleagues at the trattoria lend a warm `gemutlichkeit' (sorry, I don't know the Italian word) to the proceedings. The color photos are better than average, in that the photographer succeeds in getting the entire dish in focus.I highly recommend the book for the authenticity of the recipes and his introduction into a deeper appreciation of Italian food. It is not a complete presentation of Italian dishes, but it is a great partner to a broader treatment done by Marcella Hazan, Lydia Bastianich, Giuliano Bugialli, or the Cooks Illustrated volume on Classic Italian recipes. I agree with those who warn that the book is not for novices, but is the sort of book which can show the way from innocence to experience.

This one is a gem. Lots of great recipes! Item also arrived in great condition and on time.

So far, we've thoroughly enjoyed every recipe we've made from Mario's book. Some favorites include Balsamic Glazed Chicken with Grilled Radicchio, Sautéed Scallops with Wild Mushrooms and Frisee, Red Wine Risotto with Radicchio and Asiago (this was also really beautiful!!), every fish and vegetable recipe and of course, the many pasta dishes. A healthy number of the recipes call for not so common ingredients, like rabbit, boar, frogs legs, certain types of fish, but we substituted these recipes with something else, and they were just delicious.Something else I really like about Mario's cookbook is that his recipes don't call for a laundry list of ingredients, yet they are extremely flavorful. The technique is important, and I wouldn't recommend this cookbook for a novice; you need to know the basics such as how to saute, braise, poach, grill, etc. If you have these techniques down, then this book will be a lot of fun as you'll be able to take a basic ingredient such as shrimp to the next level.The recipes are easy to read and the method is just enough information (again, you do need to have basic techniques down first - there isn't much explanation of how to do this). You might just start a Sunday family dinner tradition with this book!

I'm a bit of a loss to read the less than stellar reviews of this book by Mario Batali. Yes, Mario uses some not-so-common ingredients... but if you want not-so-common food, you try your best to find those ingredients (hint: you can find hard-to-find ingredients pretty damn easy over the Web)... besides, there'sa common alternative to practically every ingredient that Mario uses.So far I've tried about a dozen recipes... *all* with stellar results. The artichoke/pasta and the calamari recipes are particular favorites. And while I was skeptical about the quick tomato sauce that he describes early on (hey... its *so* different than Marcella's quick sauce), when I tried it, it was amazingly good, especially for a 30-minute sauce.And... yeah... it does take a little practice to make your own fresh pasta. Overkneading/overrolling can make fresh pasta pretty tough. If you can't... you can always stick to Sicilian dishes. Sicilians prefer dried pasta. :)This is a good book (unlike other junk like Emeril's book... Emeril is a circus clown not a cook). Besides the simple (they *are* simple) recipes, you really learn quite a bit about simple Italian cooking that you can leverage in your other dishes.

I like the variety & exotic ingredients used by the chef, which I been admiring for years. I wish there were more pictures in this book; only about 10. It’s a value purchase that makes you cook sophisticated, and need to buy a few additional spices or fresh herbs. Frankly, I’m shocked at many rather negative reviews people posted about this book. Perhaps they ought to stick to simple burger dishes!

From a simpler time when Nina poured and Jason waited, this collection was the first in what was to become a winning streak of recipe books from the then Pope of Cornilia Street, Mario Batali. Replacing my first, falling apart copy, I have cooked through these pages countless times, from NYC to Manhattan Beach and every dish was a spot on hit that brought me back to Po', MB's small-but-always-jammed first restaurant. The only caveat is to read through each entire procedure before you go shopping, as some of the ingredients are DIY items, but once mastered, you'll be cooking shellfish like a Sicilian Lifeguard and garlic bread just like Guido. Gnocchi could not be easier nor Ziti al Telefono more delicious. Combine the two, and you'll be transported to the shadow of Calzuro Arancia, Italy!Buy This Book!!You'll never reqret it.

Purchased as a gift...