Review: A Tavola! Traditional Italian Home Cooking
Review by Kristin Ewing
A Tavola! Traditional Italian Home Cooking
by Gianni Scappin and Vincenzo Lauria
2009, The Culinary Institute of America
ISBN: 978-0-86730-928-7
If when you think of Italian food, the Olive Garden and Macaroni Grill come to mind, you are missing out on the traditions of Italy. A Tavola!, meaning at the table, takes you on an exploration of what it meant to grow up in Italy. Life revolved around the family dinner table and authors Gianni Scappin and Vincenzo Lauria share with us a combination of recipes from different regions of Italy, memories of their homeland and how Italian restaurants in America have changed our perception of what Italian food is.
While I must admit, I was expecting to see more Americanized recipes, I was happily surprised at what I found inside. The first recipe that I tackled was Fresh Egg Pasta. After several tries, from errors on my end, the pasta was successfully completed. Now that I’ve had pasta from scratch, I doubt that I will be purchasing boxed pasta from the grocery store. Of course, sauce was needed for the pasta, so I prepared the Quick Tomato Sauce. It is here that I must confess that tomatoes are the one food that I try to avoid at all costs. The tomatoes gave off a delicious aroma as they simmered on the stove leaving me excited to try the sauce with the pasta. The taste of the sauce matched the delicious aroma as I tried it on the pasta.
Other dishes that I prepared included the Stuffed Crispy “Ravioli” Snacks, Mock Pizza “Margherita,” Chocolate “Salami,” and Ricotta Fritters. I wanted to make Livio’s Licorice Liqueur for the review, but it takes over two months to prepare, so hopefully by New Year’s I will be enjoying that liqueur. My sister prepared the Spaghetti Pizza for her family and with a few modifications for my four-year-old niece; it was quite the hit in her family.
Overall, all of the recipes were easy to follow and understand. Some of the ingredients were difficult to find here in Chicago, even when I was at the Italian market. A hidden bonus in the book is all of the information that Scappin and Lauria provide about Italy and the food and drinks from there. The information helps the reader understand the Italian culture and the role food and drinks play in it. Despite my initial disappointment at the selection of dishes, I was quite pleased with A Tavola!, which helped me expand my horizons and understand there is far more to traditional Italian dishes besides pasta.
Katherine Lynch
As the editor of Dine South Florida and the publisher of Dine Magazine, Kate is usually extremely busy. She'll taste anything once and loves taking adventures in food whenever possible.