Purchase
Thomas Dunne Books
September 2005
176 pages ISBN: 031233902X Hardcover
Add to Wish List
Cookbooks
It seems safe to say that most Americans whose roots are not
in Italy consider pasta the foundation of Italian cuisine
(with the possible exception of those who don't see beyond
pizza). There's justification in that, of course: In Italy
pasta is indeed ever present, in hundreds of forms, served
alone and in combination with just about any edible meat,
plant, or seafood one can think of, and with an endless
variety of sauces, even one named for she who practices the
oldest profession. But wait till you see the great dishes that Father Orsini
has brought you from the farms and cooks of northern Italy,
wonderful dishes based on-rice! No matter what you think, rice was not brought to Italy by
Marco Polo. The techniques of rice farming (and presumably
some seeds or cuttings) came to Italy in the ninth century
with the Arab invasion of Sicily. Rice farming prospered
against great odds, thanks to the determination and hard
work of Sicilian farmers and the money of the Sicilian
elite. And even though Father Orsini's own roots are in the
country's south, he readily concedes that northern Italy has
raised cooking rice to an art. This book will guide you through that art museum of Sicilian
rice dishes, with everything from delicious soups (Minestre)
to desserts (Dolci), a whole chapter on a fabulous selection
of risotti (Risotto, that's right! How'd you guess?), and
enough marvelous and often unsuspected rice dishes of many
kinds to send you off to the store for a Great Big Bag of
Rice. Father Orsini is an experienced cookbook author and an
experienced chef, and his readers needn't fear that his
recipes are difficult or complicated to follow. They taste
really special, but the good father has made them as easy to
put together as they are delicious to eat. The history of
rice is a bonus for the intelligence; the recipes are the
basic gift for your honest hunger. What more could you ask?
Comments
No comments posted.
Registered users may leave comments.
Log in or register now!
|