Italian Home Baking: 100 Irresistible Recipes for Bread, Biscuits, Cakes, Pizza, Pasta and Party Food [Illustrated] [Hardcover]

Loved Gino's Fantastico and Buonissimo and ordered this one to indulge in my love of baking. Of course, Gino does not disappoint and provides you with plenty of easy recipes for all your Italian favourites. The recipes are awesome and mostly hassle-free; most breads can be baked in the afternoon and be ready in the evening. Some of the recipes will need a bit of planning as they require Italian products like limoncello, cooked grains, ricotta, Taleggio cheese, fennel seeds, etc and you won't be able to make them from store cupboard ingredients - this goes especially for cakes.

But once you get your shopping done you're well on your way to baking wonderful Italian goodies, a lot of them with a new and original twist. Love the fact that Gino goes booze-mad with most sweet recipes! There's kirsch, limoncello, orange liqueur, amaretto, rum, Marsala, and Grand Marnier to double the pleasure of those sweet desserts.

Just to give you a taste of this wonderful baking book, here's what you can find just in the Bread section:

Ciabatta
Ciabatta with olives and rosemary
Italian style cottage loaf
Spicy loaf with chilli and cayenne pepper
Rustic loaf with olives
Rustic north Italian bread
Tuscan style bread
Rosemary focaccia
Focaccia with tomato, anchovies, capers
Focaccia with pancetta and onions
Stuffed focaccia with olives, spinach, mozzarella
Stuffed focccia with cheeses
Semolina bread
Rolled focaccia with mozzarella and basil
Four cheese rustic loaf
Rye bread
Farmhouse loaf with fennel seeds
Ligurian loaf with potatoes and rosemary
Schiacciata with rosemary
Schiacciata with garlic and parsley
Pumpkin and sunflower seed bread
Bread with semolina and sesame seeds
Barley flatbread with lemon zest
Flatbread with oregano
Flat ciabatta with garlic and parsley
Flat baguette with olives and thyme
Bread rolls with olive oil
Breakfast rolls
Gorgonzola and walnut rolls
Stuffed buns with Taleggio and cheddar
Folded bread with pesto
Rolled bread with cheese and ham
Panini with black pepper topping
Folded bread with semi dried tomatoes
Flat rolls with mint and onion topping
Roasted vegetable and ricotta rolls
sweet soft butter rolls
sweet snail shaped rolls
Milk bread rolls
Pumpkin and walnut bread

I've only had the book for a couple of weeks and have made loads of the recipes in the Breads section. Everything's been fabulous. His banana and hazelnut bread in the Cakes section is absolutely wonderful too. Some of the other sweet treats I loved were the sweet rice cake with limoncello (using risotto rice) and the upside down orange sponge with caramelised oranges... amazing! Can't really find many faults in this book.

The only bit that I found just a tiny bit annoying was his use of some ready made ingredients: sweet shortcrust pastry (honestly Gino, in a baking book!!), shop-bought gnocchi, and cooked grains (which can be bought in Italian delis... not all of us in a small village in Devon have this pleasure and it would have been nice to know what goes into this so I can make it myself). But this isn't a big issue - the book is still so lovely and full of fabulous baking ideas that I just have to give it 5 stars. Great job Gino!

Pre-Ordered and arrived earlier as expected.
What other book could have been on the list missing from Gino. Of course home baking as Britain goes mad with baking at the moment and hope it stays that way.
A fantastic book again. Love the styling, the chapters and the photos from my favorite photographer Peter Cassidy (have a look at his webpage - great).
My favorite chapter will be 'Breads'. There are all the known ones like Ciabatta, Focaccia, and Panini but then there are lots more rolls, rustic loafs and flatbreads.
Under the 'Cakes' section is Panettone, cheesecakes with Ricotta - yum, some pies with Apple or Lemon and there is an almond chocolate cake which is wheat free.
Followed by Biscuits basically all italian Biscotti's.
A chapter even on Pasta which is oven baked at the end. And the very promising chapter on Pizza. Forget take away Pizza and have a try with those lovely easy follow recipes.
The final chapter is on Party baking mixing sweet and savory. Strawberry and almond tart, grissini and others which could have been under the previous chapters.
I am certainly very happy with this book and cant stop turning pages deciding what to bake first.

An enjoyable read that shows lots of recipes that will be practical to make and enjoy dare I say it easily.
Some of the ingredienst whilst they may be available easily aren't likely to be in your cupboards.
This means that if you are like me you are likely to fancy making it but turn the page until you find something you have items for in your cupboard.
All in all Gino makes you want to make these cakes, biscuits, breads and that is the whole idea of a book of this nature.
I got this at a great price £ 3.30 delivered - as cheap as many magazines nowadays therefore it is a bargain to add to the collection.
It gets 5 stars as it can't be expected to be any better for the price.