Best Cookbook EVER

Today while taking my students to the downtown library and browsing around, I came across a cookbook that I have been curious about for some time now. After checking it out and taking it home, I discovered something surprising and fantastic. While Molto Gusto is not, nor does it claim to be, a vegetarian cookbook, it is full of meatless, vegetable-based recipes! I was so excited about this, it gave me a new idea for the blog: cookbook reviews! 

As vegetarians we end up passing over pages and pages of most cookbooks that use meat as the main ingredient. And while nowadays there are shelves of vegetarian and vegan cookbooks, I find that many of them are either a little too hardcore for me or (and this is my problem with all kinds of cookbooks) feature recipes with a million ingredients. So as I run across cookbooks, I'll share what I think are some of the pros and cons of the more interesting ones.

If you have read my blog at all, you will know that I am a huge fan of Italian food. Pizza, pasta, bruschetta, tiramisu - these things make me giddy. The week I spent in Italy was the culinary highlight of my life (and responsible for about 10 of the 15 pounds I gained while living in Europe). 

As you can see on the title, Molto Gusto claims to be "easy Italian cooking" and while I haven't tried any of the recipes yet, I believe it will deliver. The recipes call for relatively few ingredients and the focus is on freshness and quality - nothing too fussy. There are beautiful color pictures of almost every dish - something I always look for in a cookbook. 

Like I said, this is not a vegetarian cookbook. There is a section on meat antipasta and of course there are recipes in which seafood or meat is the main attraction. That said, the first section in the book is devoted to vegetables! There are delicious, flavorful looking dishes featuring a variety of vegetables. And in every other section, there are several options that contain no meat at all. How about some Pennette with Swiss Chard Ragu? Or maybe a Winter Caprese Salad (yes!!)? The book also offers tips on pasta cooking and a guide to cheeses. 

If you are feeling particularly frisky, there is even a chapter on gelato. Now, I love gelato as much as the next person, maybe more. However, I am not a fan of making my own desserts. For me, it takes the pleasure out of the "guilty pleasure". Especially when it leads to the throwing of baking pans and the screaming at batter that won't rise. I feel that there are some things that I should just let someone else do for me. Making gelato is one of them.

It's hard to find a con in this book, but if I had to, it would be that some of the vegetable recipes call to be cooked with pancetta. However, I think one could just leave that step out in most cases.  

Bottom line - this is one of the best all-round Italian cookbooks I've ever come across. I wonder if the library wants it back...