I was pretty sure that I’ve asked this question a few years ago, but the search engine of this forum tells me I haven’t asked it, so I’m going to ask it now. Maybe again.
A trip to Verona last week resulted in a rucksack full of delicious souvenirs, which in turn reminded me that I’m still searching for a good Italian cook and especially baking book. So I thought: Why not asking these good looking guys in the Thimbleweed Park forum?
Especially to the Italian members of this forum: Can you recommend cook books and baking books? Are there any “standard” books that every Italian owns?
Books in the Italian language are Ok – that would help to brush up my Italian a little bit (IMHO the second best language in the world).
Ahhhh I can’t help on that, whenever I need a recipe I just google it. 90% of the time I end up in Giallozafferano, the rest 10% in Fattoincasadabenedetta. Never ever got a book.
Thanks! I guess today these sites have replaced the cook books. I use the internet also heavily, but I still like books - especially those with “basic” recipes that everybody loves.
When I google an Italian dish here in Germany, Google suggests only German sites. So your site recommendations are very welcome!
Actually there is a German translation available called “Der Silberlöffel” (“The Silver Spoon”). It claims to be “the bible of Italian cooking”. So I guess I have to order it.
Unfortunately the Italian version isn’t available in Germany as it seems. Same with …
But Ursula Ferrigno wrote several books in English. Like her “Dolci Italiani” they are looking promising too.
Anyway, I came here to suggest the same book. The copy I used to own (probably lost during one of my relocations) was a 1970s edition, probably given to my mom as a wedding gift.
It was THE italian recipe book, every housemaid had it.
It was a very classical-style cookbook, written in very pompous, old-fashioned Italian. Just to give you a couple of examples: dinner was called lunch, and lunch was called breakfast (probably only Italians, or French-speaking people from outside-France-french-speaking-countries, will understand what I mean), while the whole “pasta” section was included in the chapter on “soups” (which probably even Italians won’t understand, but it actually makes a lot of sense if you think about it).
It also had a section on how to write and respond to formal dinner invitations, and how to dress for the occasion.
Anyway, it was pretty clear that it had been written with the intention of being “the Italian cooking bible”, and it has indeed been just that for decades.
I suppose modern editions won’t be so much old fashioned and fancy, so I suggest to serch the bay for an old edition.
For more casual cooking, I second the recommendation of GialloZafferano, too.
The German translation has just a red cover with a silver spoon:
It makes (a little bit) sense in German too. For example we have several soups with variants of pasta in it, like the “Flädlesuppe” in the Black Forest area.
Old German cook books had these too. Even modern cook books explain how to use a food processor and other fancy “hardware”.
After reading some samples I would assume that you are right. But as I am a modern guy in a modern world, I’ll buy the current edition before I search for an old one.
Yes, not to mention the german speaking regions of italy where they prepare knoedel soups. I don’t think the assonance with “noodle soup” is coincidental, nor is coincidental the fact you can also serve dry knoedels, just like pasta. Anyway we have a word, in modern italian which is “minestra”. It depicts a soup with pasta inside. Since originally pasta was only served inside broths or soups, “minestra” originally basically meant “any pasta dish”. And it was served, as soups, before the protein main course. When they started to reduce the soup until it becomes a sauce, they started to distinguish between “minestra” and “minestra asciutta” (dry minestra), then “pastasciutta”, then simply “pasta”.
This is why many stranger people I know complain about pasta lacking proteins: it is not intended to be a full meal, while it’s just the first course of a two course meal (albeit nowadays in casual meals you often have one course, in that case you have pasta at lunch and proteins at dinner, or vice versa).
And this is why often strangers see pasta more as a side dish you eat alongside meat or fish, than as a starter. And this drives italian people crazy, because mixing courses is worse than casting curses.
So it seems you already have what you were looking for. I do have two recommendations, though:
First
The other one is
While I have cooked only a handful of Recipes from each, those are really delicious.
Giada also has a website where you can get (some of) the Recipes, and I especially recommend
and
A word of caution, of course: Giada de Laurentis is probably American (definitely lives there), so not sure how original her recipes are. But hers was one of our favorite shows to watch on Food Channel in 2006 / 2007 (the other one was Emeril Lagasse).
Wait a minute… you were in Verona and didn’t tell us? If I had known, I would have come to see you and treated you to lunch! It would have been a pleasure for me to meet you!
Anyway, to answer your question: there isn’t any standard cook books. Each italian region has its own recipes, traditions, granny’s secrets… So, there are a lot of books, just pick one and good luck!
Ah, thank you for the explanation! This is very interesting.
At least to me pasta was and is always a main course - with only a few exceptions. And a really good hand made pasta needs only olive oil IMHO.
But what puzzled us was the primo and secondo thing. We bought a travel guide that stated you have to order a primo and a secondo course if you won’t act like a typical dumb tourist. But the primo dishes were so large (at least in the restaurants in Verona) that we couldn’t eat another course. And even the Italians ordered a primo or a secondo dish …
Thank you! I will have a closer look later.
That’s the “problem” with a lot of books here in the book store in my hometown: At least I can not figure out which one covers the original Italian food that you get in Italy. In a lot of cases the recipes were modified somehow by the cook (or influencer).
Yes. I visited relatives in Munich and after that we thought: Why not jump on the train to Verona? It was really a short trip. But next time I’ll tell you in advance!
I know. I haven’t asked for a special region intentionally, because I would like to get a broad range of suggestions, I was curious if there is a “standard” book that (nearly) every Italian owns, and one big book with the most important recipes would be a lot cheaper than 12 special books.
BTW, it’s the same in Germany: In Bavaria they had other dishes than the people at the coast of the North Sea. “German” cook books are trying to cover the most well-known dishes from all over Germany.
But it attracts your attention and stays in your mind. So mission accomplished.
