The Stories from The Italian Country Table: Exploring the Culture of Italian Farmhouse Cooking | 
 enlarge | Author: Lynne Rossetto Kasper
Publisher: Audioworks
Category: Book
List Price: $13.00
Buy New: $0.96
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Rating:  30 reviews
Sales Rank: 1593026
Format: Audiobook
Media: Audio Cassette
Number Of Items: 2
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.4
Dimensions (in): 7 x 4.5 x 0.8
ISBN: 0671047027
Dewey Decimal Number: 641.5945
EAN: 9780671047023
ASIN: 0671047027
Publication Date: November 1, 1999
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Condition: New, unread, publisher over-stock copies. Ships out by NEXT Business Day. We have shipped TWO MILLION+ Amazon orders to-date. 100% Satisfaction Guarantee!
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| Editorial Reviews:
Amazon.com Review
Lynne Rossetto Kasper's authoritative first book, The Splendid Table, explored the food and culture of Emilia-Romagna, Italy's culinary heartland. In The Italian Country Table, a collection of 200 regional recipes gathered from farmhouse cooks, Kasper once again provides cultural investigation and authentic, workable recipes. The resulting cookbook-cum-chronicle will appeal to anyone seeking delicious, down-to-earth dishes and an introduction to cherished culinary traditions. Covering every course of an Italian meal--from antipasti through pasta to vegetables and, of course, dessert--the book weaves recipes with vignettes exploring, for example, Puglia's ritual drying of winter tomatoes. Included also are notes on buying tips, special cooking techniques such as glazing, and discussions of culinary moment, like the nature of a true risotto Milanese. The immediately inviting recipes include such temptations as Mushrooms Stuffed with Radicchio and Asiago, Hot and Spicy Eggplant Soup, Leg of Lamb Glazed with Balsamic and Red Wine, and Espresso Ricotta Cream with Espresso Chocolate Sauce. Kasper also offers a chapter on focaccia, pizza, and bread, as well as menus, shopping sources, and a useful discussion of ingredients. (Taste before you buy, and then pause, she advises. "Aftertaste can reveal how a food's been stored, careless production, or foods going from mature to over the hill.") Concluding with a guide to Italian guest farms, folk life museums, and places to eat and shop, the book is a comprehensive introduction to basic but inspired home cooking and the traditions that both contain and nurture it. --Arthur Boehm
Product Description
Lynne Rossetto Kasper, author of The Splendid Table and host of PRI's award winning radio program of the same name, is a master at transporting her readers and listeners into the fascinating world of the Italian countryside. In Stories from The Italian Country Table, Lynne brings to life her adventures in rural Italy. Stories from The Italian Country Table illustrates how, in Italy, eating well and coming together around the table are inseparable from the folklore, history, handmade foods, and storytelling so dear to the hearts of country people. You'll enjoy polenta with new zest after hearing "Cheater's Gold" and "Honeymooners and Corn Husk Mattresses." Step into a Sicilian shepherd's hut and practically taste the fresh-made sweet ricotta. Hear "How a Capon Became a Father," celebrate gathering "The Dew of Midsummer's Eve," and learn the art of complaining Italian-style with "Eating White." To make your Italian experience complete, Stories from The Italian Country Table comes with the first 30-minute Italian lesson in the Pimsleur Language Program -- the revolutionary audio-only language learning system -- as an added bonus. A perfect audio companion to the recipes featured in Kasper's book, The Italian Country Table, this unique experience will immerse you in the culture and cuisine of the Italian countryside.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 25 more reviews...
 My Favorite Regional Italian Cookbook October 5, 2008
The Italian Country Table has been one of my all time favorite cookbooks. I love the tender stories and information she included about Italian food, ingredients, food history, and Italian culture. The recipes are not always easy or quick to prepare. But as one who truly enjoys her time in the kitchen, I am not at all intimidated. However, the results are always knock out delicious. Having travelled several times in various regions of Italy, I find Ms. Kasper's knowledge of the very real distinctiveness of the foods peculiar to each region quite interesting. I have purchased this book as a gift, and would recommend it as a fine representative of regional Italian cooking as well as culture.
Loving it! July 26, 2008
I have been carrying this book around with me for several days, opening and reading at every opportunity. This is a friendly cookbook. I didn't need another cookbook, I told myself! But I'm delighted to have ignored my own advice. There is so much diversity and variety to absorb in these pages, and it reads with a beautiful flavor. Full of tips and enthusiasm, just like her radio program, Splendid Table. I have used Post-It "flags" in abundance to remind me to try out selected recipes.
not a bad dish yet March 30, 2008
I have had this book for years, and I have yet to make something out of it that hasn't been delicious. This one is a staple on the cookbook shelf.
I've lived in Italy for a total of about 1.5 years (off and on), and this book really captures the flavors of "real" Italian food.
 I wanted to like it ... February 25, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Let me preface this by saying that I love listening to The Splendid Table and I think Ms. Kasper is fantastic. She obviously loves Italian food and she's done a lot to teach folks how to cook it properly. I enjoy reading the little vignettes which accompany so many of the recipes and all of her recipes sound delicious (at least by looking at the ingredient list).
That being said, I unfortunately found The Italian Country Table to be overly complicated and fussy at times. Sometimes her techniques are legitimate (for example, her technique for polenta -- long but worth it). Many times, however, they are not (in my humble opinion). Every time I want to cook something from this book, I am discouraged by something starting with, "Mince together 1 onion, 1/2 cup of parsley, 4 sages leaves and a slice of pancetta." Even to me, an avid cook, this is too much trouble. I agree that rolling your own pasta is the gold standard but for working stiffs such as myself, how about some reasonable alternatives such as buying fresh pasta and putting it through the machine a few times?
Disclaimers: I have been spoiled by "Red, White and Greens" by Faith Willinger, which was my first primer to Italian food. All of her recipes are easy and almost all of them are delicious. Also - I am vegetarian so I can only comment on the vegetable and grain dishes in this book, which perhaps are not its strong point.
Again, I still want to like this book -- In fact, I am trying the Tuscan Mountain Supper tonight!
 Blah! December 4, 2007
1 out of 19 found this review helpful
This book is as dull and annoying and pretentious as Lynn Rosetta Kasper's voice on the Splendid Table on NPR. Everytime I hear her I want to commit suicide. The recipes are full of things you can't really get, they're kind of dull, and basically nothing to write home about. Did I mention how dull and pretentious her stupid radio program on NPR is? This is NPR to the nth degree. Dull, dull, dull.
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