Simple Italian Food is, unfortunately, anything but that featuring many multi-component recipes that aren’t practical for everyday cooking. However, if you’re looking for restaurant quality, special occasion fare, then there is much to commend this book.
Kitchen experience is required to execute most of the recipes as basic instructions for cooking or preparing some components aren’t included. And one’s common sense must prevail so one does not add 1 tbsp pepper to a single serving of fish or use the entire ¾ cup tomato oil to garnish 4 plates!
I quite like the look of the book with its sepia-toned and black and white photos and the font is very easy to read, but with the sections approaching 50 pages in length, an index for each should have been included.
I really enjoyed the food I made from the book, particularly the roasted red pepper gnocchi and stuffed veal rolls, so I will revisit it when I’m in the mood for some flavourful but not-so-simple Italian food.