Soups of Italy: Cooking over 130 Soups the Italian Way 
asked by tubi on November 9, 2006 3:45 AM
A passion for Italian home cooking (or cucina di casa, as she might tell us) has led Norma Wasserman-Miller from Risotto, which she cowrote, to zuppa. Soups of Italy is Wasserman-Miller's paean to the comforting first course that is often served twice a day in Italian homes. Rather than focusing on one region, she surveys all of Italy, showing the great difference, for example, between minestrone recipes from Milan, Naples, and Sicily. The book starts with a brief culinary history of soups in Italy (in the Middle Ages, the nobility were warned against eating this peasant cuisine!), followed by a lengthy introduction to soup techniques and more than 130 recipes, which are handily categorized by main ingredient.
Some readers may find Wasserman-Miller's heavy use of the Italian names for techniques and ingredients a bit off-putting. (For example, it's difficult to discern that the sapori and the passatelli are one and the same thing in her Minestra di Passatelli without knowing a bit of Italian.) Nevertheless, the recipes are authentic and the author has taken pains to help her audience recreate the Italian flavors at home. Soups of Italy is a delightful guidebook for cooks anxious to try their hand at simple Italian cooking found not in restaurants, but in everyday kitchens throughout the country.
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I've lived in Italy for 8 years, these recipes are exactly how my Italians friends and family make thier soups...
reviewed by jan1975 on November 13, 2006 9:34 PM
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This book is that rare treat--a cookbook that is historically and culturally informative, stimulating to the taste buds and to the eyes, beautiful to behold, and filled with clear, accessible, and engaging instructions on how to make some of the most sumptuous, delectable, and easy recipes ever to have found their way into print. There is something here for everyone, from the novice to the experienced chef (really!), with recipes for a wide variety of tastes, budgets, and needs, from simple clear soups to hearty meals-in-themselves taken from the gamut of the Italian social and geographical landscape. The author goes to great lengths to ingegrate historical and cultural information of Italy into her instructions on how to prepare these dishes, and also lets her reader know where variations and experimentation are called for, thereby making this one of the most flexible and adaptable cookbooks around. But the book's greatest strengths are its astonishing gustatory rewards embedded in virtually every one of its 130 recipes, for despite the clarity and precision with which the reader is introduced to the various dishes, no one could anticipate from reading alone just how marvelous these soups will taste. They are extraordinary and are sure to make every occasion in which they are used a culinary event. If you are looking for a cookbook that will remain open and in use, rather than on the shelf, this is the one!
reviewed by vicky123 on November 14, 2006 9:14 AM