Easy Tasty Italian [Illustrated] [Hardcover]

There's actually a very good cookbook fighting to get out here from under the weight of an excruciatingly irritating manner and overly chi-chi style.

The irritating manner can be demonstrated by the example of Santtini's discussion of the umami flavour. She christens the use of umami in Italian cooking as "U-Mamma!" (sic), which coinage she then proceeds to use at frequent intervals throughout the rest of the book.

It's not exactly authentic traditional Italian; ingredients used include Worcestershire sauce, Tabasco, barberries, pomegranates, sumac, chemoula, Szechuan pepper, soy sauce, green tea and so on and so forth. A number of recipes even include edible gold or silver leaf (like the "vark" of Moghul cooking); sensibly the small print on the copyright page says "This is a suggestion and not a recommendation, and the use and consumption of such metals is at your own risk. Neither the author nor the publisher accept any liability for any illness, harm or injury arising from the use or consumption of such metals". Moghul emperors wanted to demonstrate their wealth but I'm not sure that I would want to eat such heavy metals.

One of the best parts of the book is the section with numerous recipes for various flavoured mayonnaises, pestos, salsas and relishes, trifolati, flavoured butters, marinades, rubs, pastes, "elixirs" (oils and sauces), crumbs and stuffings and so on, many of which are used in the later recipes.

This is a book packed with ideas and sophisticated flavours, and will be of immense use not just for Italian food lovers. Just a pity about the style.

I should start by saying that this book is incredibly `Italian' in terms of design; it is stunning to look at and the pictures are worthy of a coffee table book - which is perhaps where it's best to keep it!

Having grown up in a house with Italian grandparents and a father who is an Italian chef, I was surprised to find that the recipes were largely unrecognisable, time consuming and fussy. I'm sure that if you have a great deal of money to spend (someone has already mentioned the huge amount of ingredients required) and limitless amounts of time then this is the book for you, otherwise I'd try and go for something more substance over style!

From first impressions, Laura Santtini's beautifully presented Italian cookbook 'Easy Tasty Italian' appears to be a very elegant and contemporary looking book, with a cunning secret of a cheat's guide lurking behind its glossy pages. Indeed, Simon Wheeler's pristine photography that appears for almost every recipe, really manages to capture the true essence of the book. This is a cookbook for people who are either keen (and somewhat knowledgeable) cooks, or for those who plan to pull out all the stops and impress someone with some quality Italian dining.

The book attempts to take the reader on a trip through the culinary history of each of the dishes and their respective key ingredients. This is not only an interesting little insight into the individual dishes (if you so choose to learn a little more than how to cook each dish), but also allows the cook to recite these snippets of information during the meal afterwards, as a way of further impressing their audience.

The vast majority of the dishes are (what we are at least led to believe) very authentic and traditional Italian dishes, with a contemporary angle to the cooking to simplify the process somewhat. The ingredients are hardly 'everyday ingredients', but then this book isn't really about everyday cooking (despite the constant references to 'everyday food' both on the cover and repeatedly in the book itself).

Here is a basic breakdown of the book's contents:

THE TOOLS OF TRANSFORMATION
- Kitchen equipment
- Typical Italian larder
- The umami larder
- The alchemic larder

BASIC PROCEDURES & PREPARATIONS
- Whipping it up (basic mayonnaise)
- Hey pesto! (basic basil pesto)
- Chopping & changing (basic salsas & relishes)
- The kindest cut (basic trifolati)
- Compound interest (basic compound butters)
- Love me tender (basic marinades)
- Rubbing it in (basic rubs)
- Food bling (edible noble metals)
- Tasty pastes (basic flavouring pastes)
- Elixers & potion notions (basic savoury & sweet sauces)
- Crumbs of comfort (basic breadcrumbs for coatings & suffings)

AIR 'I WAS RAW'
- 10 Easy tasty antipasti
- Rich & thin (carpaccio)
- Ceviche & tartare
- Seren-dip-ity (basic dips)

WATER 'I WAS COOKED'
- Soups
- Pasta
- Tomato sauces exposed
- The top 10 classic pasta sauces of all times
- Risotto
- Poaching
- Bagno-maria

FIRE 'I WAS BURNED'
- Grilling
- Frying
- In umido top stews
- Baking & roasting

EARTH 'I AM TASTY'
- Slow cooking
- The top 10 Italian vegetable dishes

AFTER THE MEAL
- 12 Quick & easy desserts
- Spirit & ether: the fifth element

All in all, the book delivers some truly tasty and diverse dishes that although the secrets behind their cooking have been revealed and dissected somewhat, still remain slightly out of the reach of the average cook on an everyday basis. However, for those seeking to up-skill their culinary talents, or put the time and effort in to create a truly impressive and authentic dish, then this book delivers this in abundance.

Laura Santtini (or the book's publishers) seems to be aiming for the wrong target audience with this book. It's stylish look and audacious contents are for a braver cook than those seeking everyday cuisine. But taken for what it should be, it really is an insightful and inspiring cookbook delivering a litany of hints and tips to add a bit more pizzazz to a traditional Italian dish.