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Learn to COOK - Mario Batali Holiday Food
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List Price: $25.00
Our Price: $24.50
Your Save: $ 0.50 ( 2% )
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Manufacturer: Clarkson Potter
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Average Customer Rating:  
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Binding: Hardcover
Dewey Decimal Number: 641.568
EAN: 9780609607749
ISBN: 060960774X
Label: Clarkson Potter
Manufacturer: Clarkson Potter
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 144
Publication Date: 2000-10-10
Publisher: Clarkson Potter
Release Date: 2000-10-10
Studio: Clarkson Potter
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Editorial Reviews:
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Never is the generosity and spirit of the Italian table more evident than at the holidays, when great food and good times are on the menu in every household. In his new book, Mario Batali captures all the flavors of this festive season with enticing recipes that showcase the brilliance of simple Italian food at its best.
Four complete menus offer abundant meals for the holidays, starting with the seafood extravaganza known as the Feast of Seven Fishes, traditionally served on Christmas Eve. Mario's rendition includes almost a dozen delectable fish and seafood dishes, from delicate sea bass ravioli to the indispensable baccalà, here served in the Vesuvian style. A magnificent boned and rolled turkey breast stuffed with roasted chestnuts is the centerpiece of a lavish Christmas Day's menu, while an assortment of alluring finger foods and a showstopping ziti-and-meatball-filled pasta dome set the tone for a lively New Year's Eve celebration. For the relaxed entertaining of New Year's Day, Mario suggests a procession of marinated salads, pastas, and stuffed vegetables, all served at room temperature, capped off with fresh homemade sausage with sweet peppers.
One of the great pleasures of cooking at this time of the year is baking, and Mario Batali Holiday Food includes recipes for a dozen irresistible holiday cookies, some authentically Italian and others family favorites Mario has relished since childhood. You'll also find a host of delectable tortes, custards, cakes, and confections as well as wine suggestions and a refreshing aperitivo to round out each holiday menu.
Whether you're creating a full-blown Italian spread or simply adding a touch of Italy to your own family traditions, Mario Batali Holiday Food will make your holiday gatherings memorably delicious.
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating: 
Summary: "Four Menus, Four Festive Meals."
Comment: This is a compendium of distinctive recipes designed for four holidays, from Christmas eve through to New years day in elegant Italian style. The recipes make use of seasonal ingredients & shows a modest cross section of the regional variety of Italian cooking traditions. But, it is on the whole a book on the region of Campania. It includes color pictures of the food itself that are both more numerous & of finer quality than in his other books. Like many Asians, Italians truly revel in small portions of several types of dishes.
This is cooking from scratch, no breezy shortcuts here. But, the instructions are direct & the results are very worthwhile. The sixty recipes are adaptable so that they can be mixed & matched for any occasion one wishes. From the Christmas day turkey breast stuffed with Prunes & Chesnuts to the vibrant Tangerine juice Aperitivo, you will find all these recipes mouth watering. Lastly, the wine suggestions helped in the celebratory enjoyment that is the "heart & soul of Italian cuisine."
Customer Rating:
Summary: A Treasure!
Comment: I just re-ordered this book as I lost the first one I bought. Contrary to what some other reviews have said, I like the fact that it is a small book with special or holiday recipes. I have several other Italian cookbooks, including the Silver Spoon and Essentials of Italian Cooking, and while I really like those books, the volume of recipes is often overwhelming when I am looking for a special holiday dish. So far I have made the broccoli saffriti, spaghetti all cozze (spicy spaghetti with mussels), Strangulapreti all sorrentina (Gnocchi with tomato sauce and Mozzella) and the pizzelles and they have all been great! Since I haven't made the other dishes I can not say how they will turn out, but so far I have not been disappointed. As for the book itself, it is truly beautiful and I enjoy looking at the pictures and reading about Mario's personal holiday experiences.
Based on my experience with this book, I am eager to buy Mario's other cookbooks.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Excellent as always
Comment: While we ultimately didn't have the opportunity to make any of these recipes for the holidays, my wife and I read through most of them and they look wonderful. We own every cookbook Mario's written and we've eaten in two of his NYC restaurants, so we're very familiar with his style and the quality of his work. In fact, the "Feast of the Seven Fishes" in the book is very much like his Christmas Eve menu at Lupa, his place on Thompson St. in the Village.
Very high recommendation from real Italian "foodies" (we spent 3 weeks in Italy last year....)
Customer Rating:
Summary: Fabulous cookbook on Italian holiday food
Comment: I was really surprised by this small cookbook. Now when I saw small, it means that it isn't your typical full sized cookbook with in excess of 200 pages, it is a nice hundred pages or so cookbook. Some wonderful features of this cookbook are the pictures, the wonderful recipes, and the text that is written with the recipes.
Perhaps you are like me and enjoy cookbooks with vivid pictures. I like to know what my efforts are going to look like. This book has some of the best food photographs that I have seen. Some of this is the chosing of attractive dishes, some of it is just fabulous photography.
While I really enjoy the photographs in this book, some of that is the skill of the photographer, while the larger part of that is the choice of recipes. Mario Batali, seems to like earthy, rustic food. I like that you do not have to measure everything so exact. I like that there are natural flexibilities added into the recipes, like if you don't have xxx, use this instead. Italian cooking is all about the freshness of the ingredients, and you see this theme throughout his book.
I also like that he explains why he chose those recipes, what the significance of those recipes are. This is helpful is chosing what drinks you will serve with the food, what side dishes or desserts you will pare with the food and so much more.
I highly recommend this book to you, it really isn't just about holiday food, but more. I rate this book with 4 stars simply because the book is smaller, and for the money, if your just starting out with him, I would go with one of his standard cookbooks if you are looking for a greater resource of Italian recipes.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Lots of great recipes
Comment: I enjoy Mario Batali's quality work, both his interesting/funny TV shows and his interesting/beautiful books (the photographs are beautiful). Often when you buy quality Italian cookbooks with traditional recipes you get the feeling that it's been produced for professional chefs only. The recipes are too advanced and time consuming, and often require access to an Italian food market in order to get all ingredients. The recipes in this book range from uncomplicated to advanced but is "possible" for regular hobby chefs. Most of the ingredients are available at regular grocery stores. However, this doesn't mean that the food and all the dishes are too basic or uncomplicated; it's just that they are "within" reach for us regular guys. I'm sure that both hobby- and more advanced chefs also can appreciate and learn a lot from this book.
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