Molto Italiano – 327 Simple Italian Recipes to Cook at Home
Molto Italiano 327 Simple Italian Recipes to Cook at Home
“The trick to cooking is that there is no trick.” ––Mario Batali
The only mandatory Italian cookbook for the home cook, Mario Batali’s MOLTO ITALIANO is rich in local lore, with Batali’s humorous and enthusiastic voice, familiar to those who have come to know him on his popular Food Network programs, larded through about 220 recipes of simple, healthy, seasonal Italian cooking for the American audience.
Easy to use and simple to read, some of these recipes will be those “as seen” on TV in the eight years of “Molto Mario” programs on the Food Network, including those from “Mediterranean Mario,” “Mario Eats Italy,” and the all–new “Ciao America with Mario Batali.” Batali’s distinctive voice will provide a historical and cultural perspective with a humorous bent to demystify even the more elaborate dishes as well as showing ways to shorten or simplify everything from the purchasing of good ingredients to pre–production and countdown schedules of holiday meals. Informative head notes will include bits about the provenance of the recipes and the odd historical fact.
Mario Batali’s MOLTO ITALIANO will feature ten soups, thirty antipasti (many vegetarian or vegetable based), forty pasta dishes representing many of the twenty–one regions of Italy, twenty fish and shellfish dishes, twenty chicken dishes, twenty pork or lamb dishes and twenty side dishes, each of which can be served as a light meal. Add twenty desserts and a foundation of basic formation recipes and this book will be the only Italian cooking book needed in the home cook’s library.
User Ratings and Reviews
4 Stars Good; but not quite great.
Were do I begin. I guess that first I will say that I love Mario batali. His recipes are great and come close to “just like grandma used to make”. The only disappointing thing that i find is that the description of the cooking processes(as well as times and yeilds) somtimes leave a little to be desired. If your a fan of his shows “Molto Mario” you now that he goes into great detail about the most important parts of the cooking process. This book doesn’t really do that. For example taking the lasagna bolognese recipee (which is fabulous). You need beciamella at 3.5 cups (this i believe is the right amount maybe you can go as little as 3 cups) but the recipe in the book says it yeild 3.5 cups from only 3 cups of milk (if you look up mario recipe on food tv he uses 4 cups of milk and says it only yeilds 3 cups) so somthing is wrong there. Then on the bolognese sauce, again amazing recipe. But, if you look uo his wine spectator video (uses a little diferent recipe) but watching the technique and browning the meat, just isn’t descrobed well in the recipe, but is of extreme importance. he doesn’t actually finish the meat until an hour into it pushing the cooking time to a 2.5 hour mark instead of the 2 hour mark in the book. I blieve the yeild here was different as well but i didn’t actually measure out the sauce. Next the lasagna call for 2.5 pound of dough. Which would be 2 batches of dough I only made 1 becasu I wanted only 1 9×12 pan of lasagna (the recipe says it would make 2. the dough recipe was right on my yeild was exactly as it should be 1.25 pounds. So I now had dough for 1 pan but sauce for 2 pans of lasagna. Lol rolling the past to the thinist setting i got enough dough for over 1.5 pans, it would have probably been close to the 1 pan but i only did 4 layers (as i ran out of sauce). Asumming that there should have been enough sauce for 2 pans i was putting very thing layers ( i shouls have half the left over after all). anyway, in doing it again it seems to me that it would make a good sigle 9×12 with 6-7 layers. not the 10 x 20 or 2 9×12 the book would advertise.
so be cautious of the yeilds and the cook times. that being said the recipes are great.
5 Stars Perfect birthday gift
My husband is the cook in the family, and has wanted Mario’s “Molto Italiano” cookbook for a long time. It came in time for his birthday, and he loves the basic Italian & country-style recipes. He has already tried the spaghetti sauce which we loved and is ready to try more.
J. Hahn
1 Star Huge let down!
I love Chef Batali’s TV show and I have lived in Italy on and off for years, so I was really looking forward to this cookbook. I’ve tried enough of the recipes now to call it quits! Fettuccini al Liimone with red onions and 3 jalepeno peppers?? It seems like the Chef allowed someone else to create a book and use his name, such is the discrepancy between the obvious knowledge of regional Italian cooking this chef possesses and the awful recipes in the book.
5 Stars Great cookbook. One of the best!
For as complicated as some of the recipe names sound, don’t be put off. Most of them are simple, easy to prepare, and easy to acquire ingredients. Really great flavors, and terrific meals to serve to family or guests. Highly, highly recommended!
5 Stars Classic Molto
Classic Molto – great recipes for everday, many great soup recipes as well as regional Itialian fare. My husband really enjoys this book.
[...] unknown wrote an interesting post today onCookingNook.comâ??s Blog » Blog Archive » Molto Italiano 327 Simple …Here’s a quick excerptEasy to use and simple to read, some of these recipes will be those “as seen” on TV in the eight years of “Molto Mario” programs on the Food Network, including those from “Mediterranean Mario,” “Mario Eats Italy,” and the all–new “Ciao … [...]