Italy Anywhere: Recipes and Ruminations on Cooking and Creating Northern Italian Food

A food writer joins with the owners of a string of successful L.A. Italian restaurants to unravel the mysteries of Italian cuisine and bring these secrets into the ordinary American kitchen. 17,500 first printing.

Frequently offering short narratives about such things as searching for wild mushrooms in Italy or her mother-in-law's kitchen mastery, De Mori brings an infectious enthusiasm to the notion of cooking with the senses. Written with the help of her husband and Tommasi, chef/founders of L.A.'s popular Locanda Veneta and five other restaurants, this debut book assembles 175 recipes that prove Italy is a state of mind and that its food is characterized by grace, generosity and simplicity. The dishes are mostly cook-friendly and familiar. Focaccia is topped with saut?ed onions or a slather of tomato paste. Fried Zucchini and Zucchini Blossoms takes advantage of summer's bounty, as does Green Beans and Plum Tomatoes. An easy Meat Rag? uses ground beef and ground pork and takes only about an hour and a half to cook. One of the most demanding dishes is Pasta Souffl? with Mixed Mushrooms, but even this timballo can be assembled a day in advance. Favorites from the restaurants include Locanda Veneta Linguine with Rock Shrimp, Asparagus and Tomato, Flattened Chicken Marinated in Herbs, Mustard and Vinegar, and Ossobuco with Polenta Fritters. Not forgotten are varieties of risotti and gnocchi. Desserts are as simple as Summer Peaches in Prosecco with Mint and as rich as Vanilla Cream Custard with Caramel Sauce. De Mori makes an appealing advocate for what is still the most popular ethnic cuisine in the U.S. (Oct.)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

De Mori, an American married to an Italian, writes that "nowhere is Italian life more seductive than in the kitchen and at the table." And her intention is to allow her readers to partake in this style of life; "the Italy that is more concerned with the delectable than the practical, that slows down for meals, for beauty, for friends and family." She and her family spend part of the year in a restored farmhouse in Tuscany, surrounded by vineyards and olive groves, but most of the time they live in Los Angeles, where husband Jean-Louis and coauthor Tommasi own the popular Locanda Veneta and five other restaurants. De Mori's charming book echoes the philosophy of another Tuscan restaurateur, Pino Luongo (Simply Tuscan: Recipes for a Well-Lived Life, LJ 2/15/00). She includes more than 150 mouthwatering recipes (and an entertaining description of her recipe-testing lessons from Tommasi, the chef), along with stories about friends and family and mini-essays on the grape harvest, the proper way to cook pasta, and other aspects of Italian food and life. Highly recommended.
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Italian food is arguably America's most beloved foreign cuisine, pizza and pasta being only the most obvious imports. So adaptable is Italian cuisine outside the peninsula's borders that Lori de Mori contends that one can follow an Italian diet anywhere. In Italy Anywhere she provides simple but uncommon recipes, such as sausage-stuffed olives, that are bound to become hits at cocktail hour. In lieu of the familiar Italian American pasta "fazool," she suggests a lentil, tomato, and spinach combination to sauce spaghetti. Mark Knoblauch
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved