I bought this cookbook about a week before the cooker decided to call it quits. While we are waiting for a new one we are bound to cook by stove top... or slow cooker. As I am out of my element with cooking only by stove top, Nigella Lawson is in her element at being Italian or should I say channeling her inner Italian. There is something for everyone in this cookbook... food, passion and inspiration.
The introduction reads more like an autobiography reminiscing of her days spent in Florence. Written in true Nigella form. She is talking to you... sharing and emphasizing. You can sense her inspiration and passion for food and Italy. I have been to Florence too and as I read, I drifted off retracing my steps only to realise that food, travel and life impacts us all differently. After turning page after page of this cookbook it inspired me to make Spaghetti Bolognese. I had no recipe just my thoughts and whatever struck my fancy went into the pan. The large bowl of Spaghetti Bolognese was met with wide eyes and hungry stomachs. Servings were dished out happily and then seconds and thirds to the few who had the most room in their stomach.
Nigellissima is only 273 pages, notes, index and acknowledgements included. Compared to some of her other cookbooks this is a slim one. She has condensed her new Italian inspired recipes into five chapters. Pasta, Meat, Fish & Fowl, Vegetables & Sides, Sweet Things and An Italian-Inspired Christmas. She briefly discusses the eight pantry items she needs, and that you will need, to make her recipes. There are helpful hints placed here and there. One of them being: Never over sauce your pasta. Full page colour photography leads less to the imagination and more to your soon to be bottomless stomach. The Mascarpone Mashed Potatoes, Saffron Orzotto, Italian Tray Bake, Chocolate Salami, Chocolate Olive Oil Cake and the One -Step No-Churn Coffee Ice Cream have left me wanting my new cooker now! I really want to make the Chocolate Olive Oil Cake to christen the new oven. If you want to bring out your inner Italian then I would recommend this book... a tavola! -JW
Nigellissima is only 273 pages, notes, index and acknowledgements included. Compared to some of her other cookbooks this is a slim one. She has condensed her new Italian inspired recipes into five chapters. Pasta, Meat, Fish & Fowl, Vegetables & Sides, Sweet Things and An Italian-Inspired Christmas. She briefly discusses the eight pantry items she needs, and that you will need, to make her recipes. There are helpful hints placed here and there. One of them being: Never over sauce your pasta. Full page colour photography leads less to the imagination and more to your soon to be bottomless stomach. The Mascarpone Mashed Potatoes, Saffron Orzotto, Italian Tray Bake, Chocolate Salami, Chocolate Olive Oil Cake and the One -Step No-Churn Coffee Ice Cream have left me wanting my new cooker now! I really want to make the Chocolate Olive Oil Cake to christen the new oven. If you want to bring out your inner Italian then I would recommend this book... a tavola! -JW