Amazon.com
Cookbooks about Tuscan cuisine abound, but the food of its easterly neighbor, Umbria, remains mostly unexplored. Mary Ann Esposito's Ciao Italia in Umbria meets this dearth handily. A "traveling cookbook," it showcases the region's healthy, rustic food while providing a first-person look at its restaurants, home cooks, and singular occupations, like truffle hunting. The core of the book--an offshoot of Esposito's PBS series Ciao Italia--is its 60 easy-to-do recipes, which feature the area's most notable and delicious products, including olive oil, black truffles, farro, and wine. If the relatively few formulas provided leave readers hungry for more, those offered, such as Carp with Rosemary and Fennel and Fava Beans with Olive Oil and Pecorino Cheese, couldn't be more inviting.
The recipes grow from Esposito's narratives. For example, her truffle hunt chapter yields the traditional Penne with Truffles and Cream as well as the more singular Veal with Black Truffle and Strawberry Sauce. Similarly, a section on local female chefs leads to two unusual gnocchi recipes--prune- and zucchini-filled--while one on Umbrian flatbreads offers formulas for oil-fried brustengo, spinach-filled torta sul testo, and a luscious prosciutto pie. Seafood is well represented, as are recipes for the pork delicacies of Norcia, including the delicious Sweet Pork Sausages with Grapes. Readers will also enjoy making sweets like Chocolate Spumone, exemplary strufoli (honey balls), and addictive mezzalune, almond crescent cookies. With an "address book" of outstanding Umbrian restaurants, the book provides a compelling culinary tour of a region too often neglected by cookbooks but, happily, celebrated here. --Arthur Boehm
Book Description
Known as the Green Heart of Italy, the central region of Umbria, just to the east of Tuscany, is largely unspoiled by the modern world. Mary Ann Esposito loves the foods, traditions, and people of Umbria so much that shes devoting the entire 2002 season of Ciao Italia to it. In this intimate, passionate traveling cookbook, Esposito takes readers through this lush, mountainous, and tradition-filled region, with 60 recipes for its healthy, rustic food, profiles of its welcoming people, and an intimate tour of its food markets, home kitchens, vegetable gardens, wineries, and restaurants.Fans of Mary Anns show as well as anyone who loves the top-notch Italian olive oil, wine, black truffles, vegetables, and country breads will be transported in this very special book.
Customer Reviews:
Ciao Italia.......2007-01-10
I bought this book after seeing Mary Ann Esposito's TV cooking show. We had also recently been to Umbria and had had many great meals. I was disappointed in the book. Not that many good recipes. Some of the items she prepared on the show are very good but the majority are not appealing. I am still looking for a better book on Umbrian recipes.
Book Description
From her Ciao Italia kitchen, Mary Ann Esposito shows people with busy lives and those just starting out in the kitchen how to prepare an authentic Italian meal in thirty minutes, in a book filled with more than seventy mouthwatering recipes from the entire gamut of Italian cuisine: Cibatta toasts with ricotta and salami Zucchini soup with cheese and eggs Quick Chicken Cacciatore Fresh Tuna with Artichokes, Capers and Chickpeas Layered Eggplant and Zucchini Casserole Baked pears with apricots and wine Mary Ann also gives readers tips on maximizing their time in the grocery store, how to love leftovers, and how to create a Ciao Italia Pronto Pantry filled with the necessary ingredients that any busy cook should have on hand for a quick and authentic Italian meal. This is a great new book in a sleek, contemporary package, from one of televisions most beloved personalities.
Customer Reviews:
More confusing than inspiring .......2007-09-30
"Ciao Italia Pronto!" is a better cookbook in theory than in practice.
Italian food? Check! Thirty minute meals? Check! Sounds like just the thing to make a nice meal and still have some time between getting home from work and bedtime. That would be a false assumption.
American kitchens are certainly more sophisticated since the days when Chef-Boy-Ar-Dee owned the Italian cooking franchise. However, many of the ingredients called for in these recipes are still on the exotic side in my corner grocery. Sure, we have farmers markets, Whole Foods, Trader Joe's, even an Italian specialty market or two but, if I have to fight traffic gridlock after work to go destination shopping for ingredients, it defeats the purpose of the Thirty Minute meal. The author recognizes this problem and provides a four page directory of mail order houses to obtain some of the required ingredients. This immediately makes about 40 percent of these recipes more trouble than they're worth.
If you do manage to find the ingredients, know that these recipes are neither simple, nor fast.
The recipe for "Lazy Lasagne" requires eight ingredients, and bakes for 30-35 minutes. That's cooking time only, and does NOT include prep time. Oh, and the tomato sauce for the lasagne is a recipe on a separate page. The sauce requires an additional eight ingredients and 20 minutes of cooking time.
Another main dish, "Fresh Tuna with Artichoke, Capers and Chickpeas," requires 12 ingredient and we're advised to make it early in the day, or a day ahead.
Some of the dishes are unfamiliar and pictures of the prepared food would have been a big help. There are only eight full page color pictures located in the center of the book, one appetizer, one soup, two main dishes, two salads, and two desserts.
If you're interested in this book for quick, convenient recipes, look elsewhere. This is far more complicated and time consuming than the advertised "....30 Minute Recipes from an Italian Kitchen." Not recommended.
Ciao Italia Pronto.......2007-02-09
a nice addition to the library but not as essential as her other books.
Recipes are very easy to follow and to prepare in limited time.
Book Description
Join the popular host of Ciao Italia, seen nationally on public television, for an intimate journey back to her childhood in Buffalo, New York, to a time when her mother and grandmothers ran the household from their kitchens.
Food was the connector in our lives; it brought people together. In an Italian family, love is expressed through kisses, kudos, and in the kitchen, writes Mary Ann Esposito. Yet, as a girl, Mary Ann took for granted the endless parade of delicacies emanating from the family hearth. Only when she began studying cooking in Italy did she realize that the techniques and recipes she was learning were so familiar because she'd seen them prepared countless times before! Inspired, Mary Ann spent ten years combing Italy for the secrets of its great regional cooking. Now, in this companion volume to her enormously popular cooking show, she offers two hundred recipes -- some straight from the Mediterranean, others from her family's archives and memories -- plus dozens of anecdotes and tips, to create this intimate loving tribute to her Italian heritage.
The hallmark of Italian cuisine is its freshness, and Esposito shows how to make the most of every ingredient. Here's her recipe for quick tomato sauce, ready in just thirty minutes, plus one made with red peppers and another with yellow tomatoes. A chapter on breads covers everything from hearty focaccia to calzoni with a choice of four fillings to sweet, fruit-filled panettone. Many of her soups are meals in themselves, like rich Sardinian Fish Soup or Spinach and Meatball Soup.
Customer Reviews:
Ciaao Italia.......2000-06-26
I had this book for years and then it was stolen. There are recipes in it I absolutely must have so I find myself buying a new one.
Recipes like my mother usd to make!!!!!.......1999-01-20
These are my home town recipes! Reading this made me feel at home. True Italian flavor. These are real...real..hand-me-down recipes from the old country. Even if your not Italian you can't help but enjoy the tradition presented here. CAIO !
These are the real Italian recipes you've been looking for.......1998-10-06
Don't pass up an opportunity to own this book! With love and warmth the author shares recipes that are simple and satisfying. I've cooked half of this book and the results have always been terrific...especially the Farfalle Picante.
What more has to be said!!.......1997-07-06
Ciao Italia is filled with traditional Italian recipes and is not only
a wonderful book that is an associate book to the public television show
but the host of the show and the author of the book Mary Ann Esposito is
one of the most down-to-earth and personable people I have ever met
Wonderful!.......1997-05-07
This is one of my all-time favorite cookbooks. The recipes are easy to follow and they turn out just like you'd imagine them to taste. I also love the commentary on Italian ingredients and cooking techniques. This book is the perfect way to try Italian cooking
Book Description
talian-cooking expert Mary Ann Esposito does it again, pre-senting eighty authentic recipes from the region of Tuscany. Tying in to the 2003 season of 'Ciao Italia,' this delightful new cookbook includes warm personal anecdotes from Mary Ann's travels through Tuscany, along with color food photos and black-and-white photos from her unforgettable Tuscan adventure. Recipes include Tuscan Leek Tart, Flat Olive Pizza, Grilled Steak Florentine Style, Almond-Meringue Cookies, and many others. Ciao Italia in Tuscany is a must-have for cookbook lovers and fans of all things Italian.
Customer Reviews:
A fairly good book on Tuscan Cuisine.......2004-03-02
When I opened this book by Mary Ann Esposito to read and review, I was looking for something that would raise it above it's face value of a companion volume to an average PBS cooking show series. When I embark on a review with this objective, I almost always find something. In this case, I did not.
This doesn't mean this is a bad book, only that it may not have that much to offer to someone who is already steeped in Italian culinary lore. It is inferior to, for example, David Downie's book on Roman cooking as a snapshot of an Italian regional cuisine. It is less genuine on a personal level than Mario Batali's `Simple Italian Food'. It is less of a cookbook than Lydia Bastianich's two books accompanying her PBS series on Italian food and Italian-American food. I will recommend this book as a source of classic Tuscan recipes over books by Pino Luongo, who clearly states that most of his recipes are original with him or his restaurant staff. They are not Tuscan; they are inspired by the Tuscan cuisine.
Part of the problem is that, unlike Lydia's books, this one has recipes in chapters which follow the episodes on the TV show rather than recipes organized by course as is typical of most Italian cookbooks. This awkwardness is not offset by a supplementary table of contents listing all recipes by food or by course.
Another part of the problem seems to be that unlike Mario's book, the experiences of Tuscan culture are all second hand. Most life experiences are not of the author but of the owner and employees at the Tuscan villa, Spannocchia, at which the PBS crew is housed. Ms. Espositio's experiences feel like a tourist's experiences.
One thing that impressed me about the creation of this book is the number of people it takes to put on a cooking show, even on PBS. There must be a dozen principle contributors at least in the Acknowledgments. In comparison, Julia Child started her show at the Boston PBS station with nothing more than her husband, a cameraman, a soundman, a producer, and herself.
I really wish I would have seen the PBS series on which the show is based, as I am sure that would have increased the value of the book for me by two or threefold. My experience with books by the `Frugal Gourmet', Jeff Smith show that books like this can be very attractive if you are not familiar with the wider world of cookbooks. Twelve (12) years ago, I thought Jeff Smith was something special. Now I know he was simply a decent communicator with a gimmick. I don't even think he was especially frugal. Since this book does accompany a TV show, I am really surprised at the dull photographs. The sepia coloring even seems to obscure some details in the picture.
There is no problem with the recipes in this book. Many classic Tuscan dishes are here and all of the recipes give competent instructions on how to prepare them.
I would recommend this book to anyone who plans to travel in Tuscany anytime soon. The book has a strong travelogue flavor about it and its recommendations about where to eat in Tuscany are not doing anyone any good unless you go there. The price of the book rescues it from a below average rating. As I stated at the outset, the book provides what is expected and nothing more. My only regret is that unlike many other regions of Italy, I have yet to find a good cookbook that effectively explores this cuisine.
Amazon.com
Ciao Italia: Bringing Italy Home, the companion guide to Ciao Italia's 11th season on PBS, is a delightful cookbook that reads like a travel guide and a tribute to Italian cooks and their culture. Mary Ann Esposito has 10 seasons of cooking on public television and 5 cookbooks to her name, and she still manages to offer 130 new recipes presented in a culinary tour so captivating, you'll read this cover to cover.
The chapters are divided by region, and each begins with a mouthwatering tour followed by recipes that begin with stories--sometimes historical, sometimes personal, sometimes just delectable descriptions. From Tuscany you might make White Beans with Fettuccine and Sage because it sounds so delicious; from Sicily you'll make Swordfish with Spaghetti, Tomato Sauce, and Olives because the thought of enjoying it in a Sicilian seaside community near Palermo makes you sigh; and from Emilia Romagna you'll choose Beatrice's Fried Mushrooms because everything Beatrice makes is "exquisite." Packed with information, this is a perfect book for a novice cook who needs plenty of detail, but it's also a gem for the more experienced chef because so many of Esposito's recipes are region-specific, and therefore uncommon. Esposito shares a wealth of information about the Italian people, their culture and their cooking, and the result is that many of her recipes are interesting and unusual, such as Gorgonzola Cheese with Marmalade, Fried Sage Leaves, or Whipped Cod Venetian Style--all easy to master, impressive to serve, and absolutely divine. Esposito knows how to intrigue her television audience, and this luscious volume proves she can do it in print as well. --Leora Y. Bloom
Book Description
Pescespada con Spaghetti, Salsa di Pomodori ed'Olive (Swordfish with Spaghetti, Tomato Sauce, and Olives)Serves 4 to 6This recipe for swordfish with spaghetti and tomato sauce is one that I enjoyed in Mondello, a Sicilian seaside community near Palermo. It is easy to put together if you have homemade tomato sauce on hand. Whenever I serve it to company, the response is "I never thought to cook swordfish with tomato sauce and spaghetti." Be sure to use fresh swordfish and do not overcook it.1 tablespoon olive oil 1 pound swordfish, in one piece 1 pound spaghetti 1 1/2 tablespoons salt 2 cups prepared tomato sauce, preferably homemade 1/4 cup reserved cooking water 16 black oil-cured olives, pitted and coarsely choppedHeat the olive oil until it begins to smoke, then lower the heat to medium and cook the swordfish, turning it once. It is cooked when a fork is easily inserted into the fish.Transfer the fish to a cutting board and allow it to cool for 10 minutes. With a knife remove the skin and discard it. Cut the fish into 1/2-inch cubes. Set aside.Cook the spaghetti in 4 to 6 quarts of rapidly boiling water with 1 tablespoon of the salt. The spaghetti is done when there is no white flour remaining in the center of a strand. It should be firm--al dente--but cooked throughout.While the spaghetti is cooking, heat the tomato sauce in a saucepan and keep it warm.Drain the spaghetti, reserving 1/4 cup of the cooking water. Return the spaghetti to the cooking pot with the reserved water and the tomato sauce. Mix quickly over low heat. Add the swordfish pieces and stir gently for 1 minute. Stir in the olives and the remaining salt.Transfer the mixture to a serving platter and serve at once. A few whole olives and a sprig of fresh basil make a nice garnish.Riso del Mezzogiorno al Mario (Mario's Mezzogiorno Rice)Serves 4Fellow chef Mario Ragni, who makes his home in Umbria, loves to experiment with regional flavors. Here he combines the lively flavors of the Mezzogiorno (southern Italy) with traditional northern ingredients of butter and cream to create an earthy sauce for boiled Arborio rice, which is used for making risotto. This short-grain, starchy rice can be found on grocery store shelves or in Italian specialty stores or can be ordered by mail (see page347).3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil l small hot red pepper,minced 1 large red sweet pepper, seeded and cut into strips 3 anchovies in salt, rinsed 6 oil-cured green olives, pitted 6 oil-cured black olives, pitted 3 cloves garlic, minced 1 tablespoon capers in brine,rinsed 1 tablespoon butter 2/3 cup sliced mushrooms 1 cup heavy cream 1 cup Arborio riceHeat the olive oil in a saute pan, then add the hot pepper, sweet pepper strips, anchovies, and green and black olives. Saute, stirring occasionally, until the pepper strips begin to soften. Stir in the garlic and capers and cook together until the peppers are very soft. Cool the mixture slightly, then transfer it to a food processor. Pulse to make a smooth puree. Transfer the sauce to a bowl, cover, and set aside.Melt the butter in the same saute pan and stir in the mushrooms. Saute them until they no longer give off any water but are not brown. Stir in the heavy cream and the reserved pepper sauce. Keep the sauce warm and covered while the rice is cooking.Cook the rice in 3 cups of water until it is al dente and has absorbed most of the water. Drain the rice in a colander and add it to the warm sauce. Stir to blend the mixture thoroughly. Serve immediately. Funghi alle Erbe(Mushrooms with Herbs)Serves 4For this preparation, Beatrice dices the mushrooms and cooks them with mentuccia (wild mint), garlic, and parsley.1 pound fresh portobello or button mushrooms 1/2 to 2/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil 1 large clove garlic, minced 1/3 cup minced mint 1/3 cup minced parsley Fine sea salt for sprinklingUse a mushroom brush or damp paper towels to clean the mushrooms. Trim the woody part of the stems of the portobello mushrooms and discard them. Dice the mushrooms and set them aside. If using button mushrooms, trim off any woody stem parts, then dice the mushrooms and set them aside.In a saute pan heat 1/2 cup of the olive oil, add the garlic, and saute slowly until it begins to soften. Add the mushrooms and cook slowly until the mushroom pieces begin to soften. Stir in the mint and parslev and continue cooking for about 2 minutes, stirring occasionally.Transfer the mushrooms to a serving dish, sprinkle them with salt, and serve immediately.Maccheroni alla Bolognese (Macaroni with Bolognese Sauce)Serves 4 to 6This robust Bolognese sauce made with ground pork, pancetta, and chicken livers is perfect for short cuts of pasta such as rigatoni. The sauce ingredients simmer for 30 minutes; this is in sharp contrast to other types of Bolognese sauces that need to cook slowly for at least two hours or until they are very concentrated. Resist the temptation to add too much salt to this sauce, as the pancetta provides just enough. 1 tablespoon butter 1 pound lean ground pork 1/4-pound piece pancetta, diced 1 onion, peeled and diced 1 carrot, diced 1 rib celery, diced 1 1/2 tablespoons flour 1 1/2 cups hot chicken broth 4 chicken livers, washed and diced Fine sea salt to taste Grinding of coarse black pepper 1 pound short-cut pasta, such as rigatoni or ziti with lines 4 tablespoons grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheeseIn a 10- or 12-inch saut6 pan combine the butter, pork, pancetta, onion, carrot, and celery, and cook the mixture, stirring often, until the pork has turned gray in color and the onions have softened.Sprinkle the flour over the mixture and stir in. Pour in the chicken broth, cover the pan, and simmer the mixture for 30 minutes. Uncover the pan, stir in the chicken livers, cover the pan again, and cook for an additional 5 minutes over low heat. Season the sauce with salt and pepper to taste. Set it aside and keep it warm while the pasta is cooking.Cook the pasta in 4 to 6 quarts of salted, boiling water until it is al dente; pasta should retain its shape and not collapse on itself and when cut into, no trace of white flour should remain. Drain the pasta and transfer it to a serving dish. Pour the sauce over the top and toss it well. Sprinkle on the cheese and serve immediately.
Customer Reviews:
Ciao Italia --Bringing Italy Home.......2007-02-09
a well-written cookbook. It provides many authenic recipes for the everyday table.
Traditional Italian Cooking (?).......2006-01-30
It was OK, though my wife and I are more used to the "Americanized" versions of some of these dishes. Maybe we just don't know what real Italian cuisine is. For intermediate to advanced chefs.
Valuable for the tour of Italian gastronomic regions.......2003-11-04
Mrs. Esposito focuses on the regional cooking of Italy, with an emphasis on ingredients indigenous to each section. And the recipes are not the standard Chicken Cacciatore, Spaghetti Bolognese and lasagna. These are recipes garnered from individuals and they are authentic but unusual, like Rabbit in Balsamic Vinegar, Halibut with Mustard greens, plus plenty of breads like foccacia and sweets like pizzelle cookies. It's interesting reading, and definitely not your run-of-the-mill pasta and tomato cookbook.
Delicious Food with a Bonus History Lesson!.......2001-10-24
I not only cook from this wonderfully written book (with full sample menus [appetizers, salads, main courses, and desserts] categorized by region), but I also love to simply sit and read about the various regions of Italy and gain some insight via Mary Ann Esposito's story-telling. Not only a wonderful cookbook, but actually a joy to read!
Ciao, Italia does it again!.......2001-04-24
Mary Ann Esposito's new book has rounded out my collection of her cookbooks with a great new bunch of recipes. I'm already planning my next "trip to Italy" in my own kitchen with her cookbook by my side.
Book Description
Mary Ann Esposito, best-selling author and host of public television's popular cooking show Ciao Italia, returns with an all-new collection of recipes and reminiscences. In Nella Cucina, America's favorite Italian cook combines cooking and customs, tradition and travel as she reinterprets the best of traditional Italian cooking for today's cooks.
Nella Cucina features 170 simple Italian recipes that rely on the freshest ingredients and a well-stocked pantry. There's everything from last-minute antipasti, pastas accompanied by a wide range of creative sauces, and hearty main courses, to homemade pizzas and breads, and of course, Italian desserts.
Customer Reviews:
Fantastic cookbook!.......2001-10-29
I've started cooking using this book and the recipes are varied and delicious. I just cooked the "Shrimp with Spicy Tomato Sauce" for guests last night and everyone loved it. It was a really simple but wonderful recipe. Most recipes in the book are not difficult and the explanations and layout of the ingredients are very clear and easy to follow. Ms. Esposito's writing style is entertaining and approachable. If you like cooking Italian food, I'd get this book, "Mangia Pasta", "Ciao Italia" and "Ciao Italia -- Bringing Italy Home" by the same author as I have done. I have been reading them every day since I got them. Great fun!
Great Italian Recipes!.......1998-12-07
Mary Ann Esposito's cookbooks are EXCELLENT. Nella Cucina, Ciao Italia and her Celebrations books all contain very authentic recipes that are easy to follow and delicious. Depending on what part of the country you live in, a few ingredients might be hard to find but overall the recipes are well adapted for a typical American kitchen. If you grow your own vegetables in the summer, there are some wonderful ideas on how to use them.
Great Italian Cookbook!.......1997-05-07
A great cookbook. Directions are easy to understand and the recipes are wonderful. This is a cookbook I use often
Average customer rating:
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Ciao Italia
Manufacturer: Italian Tourist Board
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000FXSWZW |
Book Description
What could be welcoming in your kitchen than a big warm pan full of lasagna, a pot of braised short ribs or a casserole dish holding fragrant mussels, tomatoes and herbs? When you think of comfort food, the first cuisines that comes to mind is Italian.and nobody knows that better than Mary Ann Esposito, host of the longest-running television cooking show in the U.S., Ciao Italia. In Ciao Italia Slow and Easy, Mary Ann tells us how to slow down, take it easy and fill the kitchen with Italian slow-cooked goodness. By braising, baking, roasting and simmering, she gives readers a treasure trove of wonderful dishes like
-stove top lasagna with artichokes
-prosciutto-wrapped chicken baked in parchment
-tomato braised short ribs with rigatoni
-pasta shells stuffed with a ragu of pork and cream
-one-skillet chicken supper with tomatoes and green beans
-layered polenta pie with mushrooms and sausage
-mussel, potato and tomato casserole
Ciao Italia Slow and Easy is filled with Mary Ann's sensible advice, knowledgeable asides about the history of Italian cuisine and, most of all, a sure sense of what tastes good.
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- Cover & Bake (A Best Recipe Classics)
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- DAISY COOKS!: LATIN FLAVORS THAT WILL ROCK YOUR WORLD
- DietMinder Personal Food & Fitness Journal (A Food and Exercise Diary)
- Don't Get Too Comfortable: The Indignities of Coach Class, The Torments of Low Thread Count, The Never- Ending Quest for Artisanal Olive Oil, and Other First World Problems
- Dr. Pitcairn's New Complete Guide to Natural Health for Dogs and Cats
- Everyday Pasta
Books Index
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General
| Cooking, Food & Wine
| Subjects
| Books
Ciao Italia in Tuscany: Traditional Recipes from One of Italy's Most Famous Regions
Ciao Italia
Ciao Italia Pronto!: 30-Minute Recipes from an Italian Kitchen
Umbria: Regional Recipes from the Heartland of Italy
Ciao Italia--Bringing Italy Home
