[.ca] Marcella Cucina (ISBN 0060171030)

From Amazon.com:
Marcella Hazan's Marcella Cucina is a jewel: the recipes glow with the diverse flavors of Italian regional dishes, the instructions are precise, and the full-color photographs are a fine complement to Hazan's writing, which is both clear and alluring. Along with recipes, tested to perfection, Hazan shares warm, personal stories along with snapshots of Italian life and her usual caring advice. The diversity of dishes in Marcella Cucina runs from Zucchini and Thyme Pasta Sauce to Fish in Crazy Water, Assunta's Beans, Stewed Beef Cubes with Pickles, Capers and Red Wine, and Yogurt and Sambuca Cake.

one of my all-time favorites:
I adore this cookbook. The photographs are beautiful, the story behind each recipe is fascinating, the explanations are clear and the results are superb. I am awed by Marcella Hazan's ability to take simple ingredients and create fantastic results with sheer technique and attention to details, such as slicing vs. chopping garlic, sauteing certain ingredients for a long time and adding others for a short time, using butter here and olive oil there and even just plain vegetable oil at other times. There are two summer pasta sauces with nearly identical ingredients, and, as Marcella points out, completely different results. I have made almost all of the sauces and none have been less than delicious. I have discovered the joy of pancetta thanks to this book. I have learned how to make risotto, very good and not all that difficult. Now I am venturing into the meats - the beef stew with capers, cornichons and pancetta was amazing. I have learned alot about good cooking from this book, and not just of Italian food. Marcella's cooking is alive and accessible and completely masterful at the same time.

A Good Book:
This book is simply the best Italian cookbook ever made; it contains good, affordable recipes and directions that are the most complete that I have ever used.

very good:
Covers: Marcella's thoughts on ingredients and buying them, appetizers, soups, pasta (making and sauce) risotto and polenta, fish, poultry and rabbit, meat, vegetables, salads and desserts. I liked the book, I find the recipes easy to follow and pretty tasty. I especially liked the beginning info on olive oil, and parmesan cheese. The book is not a northern italian or southern italian cookbook, it's sort of a mix of all over Italy, which is something to keep in mind. The pictures are very nice, and the quality of the book binding is very sound.

great for gardener/cooks:
I love this book. One of the things that makes food in Italy so delicious is they use and combine whatever ingredients happen to be in season. Marcella follows this tradition. I love to pick recipes out of this book and find that everything it calls for is available in my garden, and I can pick fresh and cook.

A flood of Flavor:
I own all of Marcella's books: this book contains many of my favorite recipes, as it is falling apart with familiarity. We have learned to taste over our time eating these recipes; we have developed a memory for the way that flavors mingle and generated new impressions in both the mind and mouth. Now, these same recipes are helping in another way: other cook books are seen in relationship to this benchmark cooking and the resulting tastes. I have learned to see in recipes the heart and mind of a cook. And that ability to discern taste is the most valuable lesson that all of Marcellas' books have to offer. These books have literally enriched our lives at home. When we travel, our noses do the talking and the smell of good food has convinced us to enter and to discover this reliance on our senses to direct our food investigations and discoveries has never let us down. And my cooking is getting better and better: friends are big fans and comment on the wonderful taste of the food. So, all of us are enjoying the pleasure of food thanks to Marcella Hazan. Her name is frequently mentioned by cooks/chefs who sight a handful of cooks who have helped to broaden their experience of food. Yet, how many people have yet to make her acquaintance? 'Cook like you love to cook', could well be her motto. For those of you who want to cook simply and taste deeply, these books are a good starting place. I have now a group of books and a group of cooks that I go back to time and time again. There is a sureness in my cooking that is related to this relationship of authors and readers. What a wonderful gift that comes through the printed page and into your mouth.