The Silver Spoon by Phaidon Press see larger photo List Price: $39.95 Our Price: $26.37 Released 01 October, 2005 Hardcover Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours

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Customer Review
Awesome--ignore the nitpickers
5/5 Stars
Ok, so maybe the book is not as well-known in Italy as the Joy of Cooking is over here. But that may have more to do with the fact that no respectable Italian I know would admit to owning a book like the JoC, since this is the stuff your mother is supposed to have taught you. And since my mother was not Italian, but English, I think this book is awesome.

And I am GLAD there's no long stories and histories of dishes--I have no time for that. Almost every recipe is boiled down to its essentials, giving simple and quick instructions. If you want a history of Italian regional cooking, this is not for you.

However, if you are someone with little time but with a great appetite for new recipes and combinations of ingredients you had never thought of, this is for you (Fried eggs on eggplant? Pork chops and blueberries and honey? The list goes on. And if they are not 100% Italian, as one reviewer notes, frankly, my darling, I don't give a damn.) These are really original recipes, even though I have had my share of Italian cooking (with a sister married to an Italian and living in Florence for years).

The recipes are listed by ingredient, which is great: if you want to eat eggplants, you get (almost) all the recipes in one place. Note that the ordering follows the Italian names of ingredients, so this is a chance to learn the original terms and read Italian menus (otherwise, there is the index of course).

So, yes, no intricate lessons in techniques, shortcuts introduced, complex procedures avoided, and tiny titles close to the binding for the pictures, (look hard, they're there)--but awesome results. We report, you decide!

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