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Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking Reviews

Customer Rating:
Summary: The Best Italian cookbook ever
Comment: Marcella Hazan's cookbooks are all great. This is the BEST. The characteristic that sets her book apart from all others is not the ingredients and not lucious looking pictures (there are no photos), but rather the important processes she describes in clear detail. I bought this as a gift for someone but have owned this version for five years and its earlier edition for 25 years and have never been disappointed. She is the best. Period. You'll never need another Italian cookbook.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: It's like a text book
Comment: This is a hefty book - lots of detail, lots of instruction and pretty strict about how things need to be done. As someone who hasn't ventured outside of my comfort zone for cooking, this structure can be very helpful - but it can also complicate things as I have to prepare everything in advance and rarely can pull off a recipe in this book with a low stocked pantry.

Still, I can't fault the book for my need to prepare - overall it's great and when I do have the time to make a special trip for all the right ingredients I know I'll have everything spelled out for me. The thing is huge so it's not easy to move around a kitchen counter with a couple of fingers in the middle of cooking, but like my title indicates, it's like a text book. There's more than just recipes, there's reference information, instruction on preparation and history. A very well rounded book.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Watch the cooking times!
Comment: I have mixed feelings about this book. On the one hand, the depth of her knowledge of Italian cookery is amazing, on the other, the lack of specifics and inaccurate cooking times can be quite frustrating. This caveat should suffice: when making use of these recipes, make constant use of your tasting spoon!

I made Pasta e fagioli with fresh cranberry beans according to Ms. Hazan's recipe, and, because of Ms. Hazan's widely-acknowledged eminence, I followed her recipe precisely, something I rarely do, as I am an experienced cook. Her time for cooking the beans (45 minutes), left me with undercooked beans; they should have cooked for at least an hour and fifteen minutes, if not an hour and a half. No big deal, except I added the pasta at the point Ms. Hazan recommended.

I am sure that this book will be an invaluable resource to anyone who wants to learn Italian cooking, just make sure to test and modify these recipes as necessary ahead of time; following them as is can result in flubbed meals.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: An essential book for a beginning chef...
Comment:

...I've referred to this book over the years for technique and authenticity of Italian cooking...it is a wonderful book. I agree that it is on par with Julia Child's French cookbook. I've made many of the recipes and they are fabulous....the poached shrimp, easy and delicious...the grilled shrimp with flavored breadcrumbs is another favorite, the Lemon, garlic & parsley chicken cutlets is marvelous...her focaccia recipe is the best...fried tomatoes......I can go on and on. Ms. Hazan has given us a remarkable gift.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: So far so good
Comment: I only received this book a couple weeks ago.
The 3 recipes I cooked were okay.
I had reservations about the two chicken breast filet recipes:
cooking times requested are very short and your filets can come out raw.
-She should've been more specific on to tell when its done by detailing the weight of the breast filets to use.

However, other recipes, especially the pasta ones, look really good!
Looking foward to using this book more.

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