Italian

Farfalle with Broccoli Rabe Pesto, Fried Salami, and Burst Tomatoes
Farfalle with Broccoli Rabe Pesto, Fried Salami, and Burst Tomatoes

Farfalle with Broccoli Rabe Pesto, Fried Salami, and Burst Tomatoes. Big Love Cooking by Joey Campanaro with Theresa Gambacorta. Photography by Con Poulos.

Big Love CookingFrom Joey Campanaro, the lovable chef and owner of popular Little Owl restaurant in New York City, Big Love Cooking features 75 accessible recipes infused with Mediterranean flavours inspired by Joey’s Italian-American family.

This is simple, authentic food, with generous servings and nourishing, shareable meals.

• Includes stories from the restaurant, historical NYC photographs, and conversational advice
• Dishes include Little Owl Crispy Chicken, Ricotta Cavatelli with Tomato Broth, Bacon, and Fava Beans, and Brioche French Toast with Stewed Strawberries.
• Features warm, inviting photography that emulates the family-style meals

With accessible recipes and familiar ingredients, this cookbook is perfect for big family meals that will please a crowd.
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Sheet Pan Eggplant Parmesan
Sheet Pan Eggplant Parmesan

Sheet Pan Eggplant Parmesan, DInner Uncomplicated by Claire Tansey. Photography by Suech and Beck.

Dinner Uncomplicated

It’s 2 p.m. – do you know what you’re making for dinner? That’s the struggle most of us face every day, and the more complicated life gets, the more stressful the simple act of deciding what to feed your family can feel. But if you love food and eating well, you’re more than up for the challenge! And Claire Tansey’s latest book is here to make it easy, fast, delicious and fun.

Dinner, Uncomplicated frees you from the pressure of the evening meal with simple and satisfying recipes for every night of the week: the ones with the luxury of 45 minutes and the ones when the whole family needs to eat right now. These 90 inspired and easy-to-follow recipes are simple to shop for, efficient to prep and quick to clean up, and the dinners they make are flavourful, nourishing and always crowd-pleasing. What’s more, the recipes and techniques in this invaluable book are designed to suit every type of meal planner, whether you like to schedule your week, batch and freeze, fly by the seat of your pants or discover some perfect place of your own in between.

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Caramelized Onion Meatballs and Spaghetti
Caramelized Onion Meatballs and Spaghetti

Caramelized Onion Meatballs and Spaghetti, Posh Pasta by Pip Spence. Photography by Faith Mason.

Posh Pasta by Pip Spence.

Pasta is loved the world over. Whether it’s a pile of saucy spaghetti, a creamy cheesy bake or unctuous buttery parcels, pasta is the go-to dinner choice for millions around the globe—no other food is so versatile, so comforting and so delicious. Fact.

In this latest book in the Posh series, we celebrate the humble bowl of pasta in its many forms and offer amazing new ways to elevate classics, as well as revealing new sure-to-be favourites.

Beginning with clear instructions for basic pasta doughs, followed by recipes on meaty, fishy and veggie pasta, as well as bakes, salads and soups, you’ll have a mouth-watering variety of dishes to choose from every time that pasta craving calls.

From Crispy sausage orecchiette, Spaghetti and meatballs, Crab and saffron linguine, through to Mac and cheese arancini, Hot smoked salmon farfalle salad and Baked aubergine caponata, it’s time to posh-up your pasta!

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Tomato, Mozzarella & Basil Pasta
Tomato, Mozzarella & Basil Pasta

Tomato, Mozzarella & Basil Pasta, Laura Santini’s Pasta Perfect. Photography by Christopher Scholey.

Laura Santini's Pasta PerfectA plate of pasta is one of the most satisfying things in the world—whether coated in a rich tomato-based ragù, doused in a fragrant herb pesto, or smothered in creamy carbonara sauce.

Pasta has many merits: it is inexpensive, quick to make, and works both as an everyday staple or a dinner party showstopper. Laura’s approach is that the heart and soul of each dish is down to the sauce.

The dishes are divided into Quick and Easy with simple stunners such as Pepper and Parmesan and Lemon Artichoke Pesto. Vegetables and Fungi comes next with an umami-rich Wild Mushroom Ragu.

Following this is Fish and Seafood with a simple Salmon Carbonara as well as luxurious affairs like Asparagus and Scallop. In Meat and Poultry are Best-ever Meatballs, Spicy ‘Nduja Sausage. Flip to the Creamy and Cheesy chapter to find earthy Gorgonzola and Walnut and zesty Saffron and Zucchini. (more…)

Grilled Sausage Subs with Bell Peppers and Onions

Grilled Sausage Subs with Bell Peppers and Onions, Cook’s Country Big Flavors from Italian America.

Cook's Country Big Flavors from Italian America

Travel with Cook’s Country and savour the homey comforts of Little Italy, an array of neighbourhoods throughout the nation where Italian immigrants set down roots, and from those roots produced some of the best eating you’ll find anywhere. To fill our Italian-American table, we tested, tasted, and adapted our way through countless takes on beloved fare to discover what makes each a knockout, from meaty lasagna to eggplant Parmesan.

Along the way, we scoured the country to uncover less common (but no less delicious) dishes like Chicago’s Chicken Scarpariello and Brooklyn’s Prosciutto Bread, even coaxing some heirloom recipes from the families behind their landmark restaurants.

Italian-American cooking sparks fierce passions. Cooks may never agree on whether the best style of pizza comes from New York, Detroit, or St. Louis (you’ll find recipes for all three kinds in these pages). But we hope you’ll all find a place on your table for our drop meatballs, which stay tender without falling apart, our ricotta gnocchi (finally, a foolproof method), and a make-ahead tiramisu that rivals any restaurant’s.

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Fried Ravioli with Cheese and Honey
Fried Ravioli with Cheese and Honey

Fried Ravioli with Cheese and Honey from Bitter Honey: Recipes and Stories from Sardinia by Letitia Clark. Photography by Matt Russell.

Bitter Honey In Bitter Honey, seasoned chef Letitia Clark invites us into her home on one of the most beautiful islands in the Mediterranean Sea—Sardinia. The recipes in this book do not take long to make, but you can taste the ethos behind every one of them—one which invites you to slow down, and nourish yourself with fresh food, friends and family. 

The importance of eating well is even more pronounced here on this forgotten island. Try your hand at Roasted eggplants with honey, mint, garlic and burrata, or a fresh, zesty salad of Celery, orange, anchovy and hazelnut, followed by Malloreddus (the shell-shaped pasta from the region) with crab, saffron and tomato.

Each recipe and the story behind it will transport you to the glittering, turquoise waters and laid-back lifestyle of this Italian paradise. With beautiful design, photography, full-colour illustrations and joyful anecdotes throughout, Bitter Honey is a vacation, a cookbook and a window onto a covetable lifestyle in the sun—all rolled into one. 

Bitter Honey: Recipes and Stories from Sardinia is available at Amazon.com and Indigo.ca. (more…)

Sweet meatballs with almonds and cinnamon
Sweet Meatballs

Sweet Meatballs, The Sicily Cookbook by Cettina Vicenzino. Photography by Cettina Vicenzino.

The Sicily Cookbook

Join Sicilian cook, writer, and photographer Cettina Vicenzino as she shares more than 70 authentic and mouth-watering recipes from this unique Mediterranean island. While only a few miles from Italy, Sicily’s heritage is proudly distinct from that of the mainland, favouring dishes packed with spices, citrus fruits, cheeses, olives, tomatoes, eggplants, and seafood.

Embark on the enchanting culinary journey and experience the culinary delights of the Sicilian diet. Featuring three strands of Sicilian cooking—Cucina Povera (peasant food), Cibo di Strada (street food), and Cucina dei Monsù (sophisticated food)—alongside profiles on local chefs and food producers, The Sicily Cookbook invites you to discover the island’s culinary culture and let your summer cooking burst with Mediterranean sunshine.

The Sicily Cookbook: Authentic Recipes from a Mediterranean Island is available at Amazon.com and Indigo.ca. (more…)

Pizza Picante

Pizza Picante

Craft PizzaHailing from the sunny south of Italy, and quickly popularized around the world, pizza is undoubtedly a fast-food favourite. Now more popular than ever with the rise of “craft” creations, its versatility of tastes, toppings, and types of bread, means that everyone can share in a slice of the action, and Craft Pizza will show you how.

Without the need for elaborate equipment, you’ll be shown it’s possible that—with just the most basic, fresh ingredients—you, too, can make luscious handmade pizzas, calzones, and focaccias. If you’re a fan of the classics you’ll find recipes for a Margherita, Stromboli, or Pizza Piccante but, if you fancy something a little different, why not put your hand to the Pulled Pork Calzone or the Truffled Breakfast Focaccia.

Once you master the basics of the pizza doughs and sauces, you’ll be amazed at how this popular dish is wonderfully easy to make, always tasty to eat, and guaranteed to transport you to the vibrant streets of Italy—you’ll want every night to be “pizza night”!

Craft Pizza: Homemade classic, Sicilian and sourdough pizza, calzone and focaccia is available at Amazon.com an Indigo.ca. (more…)

Spicy Lobster Linguini
Spicy Lobster Linguini

Spicy Lobster Linguini, Venetian Republic by Nino Zoccali. Copyright © 2020. Photographs by Alan Benson.

Venetian RepublicThe food of the Venetian Republic is diverse: prosecco & snapper risotto, Croatian roast lamb shoulder with olive oil potatoes, the sweet & sour red mullet of Crete, zabaglione from Corfu, or Dubrovnik’s ricotta & rose liqueur crepes.

These are recipes steeped in history; dishes from the days when Venice was a world power. How did this small city-state rule the waters of the Mediterranean, enjoying unrivalled wealth and prestige? How could this serene, safe-haven city of canals come to play a defining role in shaping the cuisine, culture, and architecture of her Mediterranean neighbours? Yet, for a thousand years, the ships and merchants of the Republic dominated salt, silk, and spice trade routes.

To tell this story, respected writer and restaurateur Nino Zoccali focuses on the four key regions that geographically encapsulate the Venetian Republic, each of which has its own distinct cuisine: Venice and its lagoon islands; the Veneto, of which Venice is the capital; the Croatian coast and the Greek Islands formerly under Venetian rule. The 80 dishes he has selected all have strong traditional Venetian roots or influence, celebrating ingredients and techniques that show how, to this day, food in this magnificent region continues to be influenced by neighbouring cultures.

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The Incredible Lemon Pie

The Incredible Lemon Pie

The Incredible Lemon Pie, Big Mamma Cucina Popolare

Big Mamma Cucina Popolare puts a clever contemporary spin on tradition featuring more than 120 delicious, easy-to-prepare, imaginative recipes.

Created in collaboration with one of the most exciting and successful Italian restaurant groups in the world, the dishes in this vibrant and accessible book include true classics such as Risotto alla Milanese and Tiramisù, while others reflect the most creative Italian food today, with such intriguingly named dishes as Burrata Flower Power and Double Choco Love

The one thing that unites them all is that everything enjoys a fresh and modern twist—making this the perfect collection of recipes for a new generation of food lovers and Italophiles.

Big Mamma Cucina Popolare: Contemporary Italian Recipes is available at Amazon.com an Indigo.ca. (more…)