A Tuscan in the Kitchen: Recipes and Tales from My Home - Hardcover

Luongo, Pino

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0517569167 ISBN 13: 9780517569160

Publisher: Clarkson Potter, 1988

Synopsis

This exuberant, delightfully unconventional cookbook is a warm, personal collection of recipes and reminiscences of the author's native Tuscany and a guide to a spontaneous way of cooking based on good taste and common sense rather than rigid rules.

In A Tuscan in the Kitchen, Pino Luongo, the creator of New York's successful Il Cantinori restaurant, presents 140 of his favorite recipes, from soups and antipasti to salads and desserts. The recipes include such tempting dishes as trout with balsamic vinegar, peasant-style risotto made with sausage and peas, roasted quail with tarragon, spaghetti with sea bass sauce, radicchio and orange salad, and baked peaches stuffed with walnuts and chocolate. Interspersed throughout in a spirited narrative are tales of his adventures as well as stories of family celebrations and the local traditions of the people who live in Tuscany's dries, hill towns, and fishing ports.

Mr. Luongo shows us how to cook the Tuscan way, using a small repertoire of ingredients and a few basic techniques to create dishes that taste delicious and can be endlessly varied. The ingredients in each recipe are broken down into a three-part list: pantry staples, like olive oil, pasta, and canned plum tomatoes; cold storage items such as eggs, butter, and cheese; and a handful of market foods that need to be purchased fresh. In the recipes, he gives basic instructions and guidelines for making each dish but does not give exact quantities. For instance, a recipe for tagliatelle with fresh garden vegetables suggests a variety of vegetables and herbs; the cook decides how many and how much of each to use, according to taste. Mr. Luongo teaches us the kind of flexibility good cookshave always practiced and encourages us to create our own personal style of cooking -- and have a wonderful time in the kitchen, too.

Filled with warmth and an irrepressible enthusiasm for life's pleasures, A Tuscan in the Kitchen is an original and inspiring cookbook.

About this title

About the Author

Pino Luongo was born in Florence, Italy. He is the founder of Il Cantinori restaurant in New York. He is also the owner of many highly acclaimed restaurants across the country, including Coco Pazzo, le Madri, Amarcord, Mad.61, Sapore di Mare in East Hampton, and Piccola Cucina.

From the Back Cover

Italian food has never been more popular, and now, in this inspiring cookbook, Pino Luongo presents the food of his native Tuscany. With him as our guide, we discover the delights of the region and learn a relaxed and simple way of cooking without precise measurements. As he says in the introduction, "Most cookbooks give exact amounts of this and that, but I never learned about timing and quantities -- I did everything by instinct. If you make a mistake in tablespoons, it's not going to hurt you. You don't need a prescription for cooking food, you're the person in charge...As in love, there are no rules for cooking. Everything should be done with feeling."

It's one of the loveliest cookbooks I've ever seen, filled with spectacular pictures, great stories and recipes that sound wonderful. -- Los Angeles Times

Even if one never makes a single recipe, his book, with its wit and wit and breezy style, is fun to read.

-- Milwaukee Journal

Its recipes are direct and appealing, the accompanying narrative charming and the many culinary opinions well worth considering.

-- Washington Post Book World

Anyone who likes to cook and is relaxed about it should find the book rewarding. -- New York Times

From the Inside Flap

nt, delightfully unconventional cookbook is a warm, personal collection of recipes and reminiscences of the author's native Tuscany and a guide to a spontaneous way of cooking based on good taste and common sense rather than rigid rules.

In A Tuscan in the Kitchen, Pino Luongo, the creator of New York's successful Il Cantinori restaurant, presents 140 of his favorite recipes, from soups and antipasti to salads and desserts. The recipes include such tempting dishes as trout with balsamic vinegar, peasant-style risotto made with sausage and peas, roasted quail with tarragon, spaghetti with sea bass sauce, radicchio and orange salad, and baked peaches stuffed with walnuts and chocolate. Interspersed throughout in a spirited narrative are tales of his adventures as well as stories of family celebrations and the local traditions of the people who live in Tuscany's dries, hill towns, and fishing ports.

Mr. Luongo shows us how to cook the Tuscan way, using a small repertoire of ingr

Reviews

Chef Luongo has produced a hefty volume fragrant with stories of the lush Tuscan countryside and the simple, robust foods to be had there. (The photographs alone are enough to make you want to move to Tuscany.) Luongo insists that his is peasant fare that can be made in any Tuscan grandmother's kitchen with only a visit to the market for perishable items. It's doubtful, however, that peasants often eat pasta with black and white truffles. Luongo, who runs Il Cantinori restaurant in New York City, also doesn't believe in giving measurements, oven temperatures or many directions; he argues that cooking should be a creative endeavor. Professional chefs can work in this way, but for the less experienced, the thought of trying to make black rice stewed with cuttlefish is daunting. (Merely cleaning a cuttlefish is no job for amateurs.) However, Luongo's pasta recipes are simpler, and most won't drive you into fiscal ruin.
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc.

A unique work from a talented chef. Luongo believes in developing one's instinct for cooking, relying on imagination rather than rigid rules to create delicious food using quality ingredients and trusted techniques. Thus, he lists ingredients but not quantities in his recipes, so that the reader will think and taste while cooking. His simple but sophisticated dishes are far from haphazard, however, and each is accompanied by careful preparation notes and background (and endearing reminiscences about life in Tuscany). Highly recommended.-- JS
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: Clarkson Potter
• Publication date: 1988
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0517569167
• ISBN 13: 9780517569160
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 240