Lovely cookbook with recipes from all regions of italy and Sicily.It also includes Italian food festivals! Most of the recipes are quite simple and ingredients readily available in American grocery stores. Some very interesting food combinations in this book. ( )

Absolutely beautiful food in a beautiful book. This is the way I like to eat, too, with a lot of different tastes that aren't too main course-ish and not too appetizer-y but just right in the middle. I could cook 10 of these recipes and graze all day. I need to stop torturing myself though, because these are (mostly) things to make with summer bounty. I need for it to be Spring soon. ( )

When I saw this big beautiful book sitting on the new books shelf in the library with it’s attractive artwork of tomatoes on the cover, I just had to pick it up and take it home.

It contains almost 400 recipes, mouth watering photos plus some gorgeous pictures of the Italian countryside. I’ve been to Italy and I can definitely say they take their food and wine seriously and love to eat leisurely outdoors. The recipes in the book range from antipasti, main courses, fish, meats, salads, sauces, vegetables and the most scrumptious looking desserts I’ve seen in a long time. There are simple salads, recipes for the grill such as fish kebobs and more exotic dishes like sweet-and-sour rabbit. Many can be served cold, be prepared ahead of time and are easy to transport to picnics or get-togethers.

The instructions are simple and easy to understand. Anyone with a little cooking experience should be able to do well if they can procure the ingredients. All the recipes call for fresh foods which can readily be found in summer and often year round if you live near a major shopping area. ( )

Recipes from an Italian Summer a collection put together by the Editors of Phaidon Press... A Beautiful FAT cookbook with warm weather recipes. The emphasis here is fresh, wonderful ingredients that are abundant in the summer. Fresh produce, fruits and berries, and herbs. 380 recipes for lighter, easy-to-follow summer dishes with big beautiful photographs. I can say it meets all my expectations and more! It's the perfect summer companion!

When you first open up Recipes from an Italian Summer, besides noticing the beautiful artwork, you'll see where the cookbook is going to take you.. Picnics, Salads, Barbecues, Light Lunches and Suppers, Summer Entertaining, Desserts and finally Ice Creams and Drinks. At the beginning of each chapter is a wonderful introduction to what you're about to tempt your taste buds with and it's relevance to summer,

"The huge range of antipasti, appetizers, and salads in the Italian summer repertoire provide a wonderful source of inspiration for picnic food. Dishes such as frittatas, cold risottos, pies and terrines are easy to transport, and work very well at picnics alongside the more traditional filled sandwiches, cold meats, cheeses and salads." ...intro to picnic recipes

The recipes that follow are easy, with easy to find fresh ingredients that should satisfy our summer eating. From making your own mayonnaise, to making a delicious Tomato tartare with basil. Using the fresh apples you have, there's a recipe for Apple strudel, which you can make the day ahead. Or how about Baked ricotta with sun-dried tomato pesto as an appetizer for summer entertaining that's in the oven for only 10 minutes! The range of recipes is amazing, going from simple salads to more exotic dishes such as Swordfish carpaccio with caper sauce. There's a recipe for Summer stuffed peppers that you can serve hot or cold that looks delicious, and a traditional Italian recipe for Sweet and Sour meatballs. And there are plenty of desserts , such as Blueberry tart, or Peaches with summer zabaglione! This is a cookbook that can satisfy that urge you have in the summer to cook a little lighter, refreshing meal with fresh local grown ingredients! If you love fresh ingredients, italian cooker and summer you'll enjoy this book! ( )