Limoncello and Linen Water [Hardcover]

This is much more than a cookbook: it is a treasure-house of inspirational recipes and evocative photographs. A book to covet, to linger over, to cook from and to keep.

Tessa Kiros has developed such an appealing format for her cookbooks: the binding, the covers, the beautiful quality of the paper and photography. But this, I think, is her most beautiful book yet.

She dedicates it "to all of the wonderful matriarchs I have been lucky enough to meet" and she prefaces each chapter with "sapiente parole", a few wise words. Some may find this a little twee but some of the words are wise indeed.

Photography throughout is truly breathtaking. All the recipe shots are mouth-watering, the atmosphere and setting shots sublime. Then there are also black and white and faded colour snap-shots of young women who were to become the matriarchs who have had such a strong influence on Tessa. The overall effect is utterly charming.

Just one caveat and that is the type. True, it is clearer than her Greek cookbook Food From Many Greek Kitchens and at least it's grey on white which is an improvement but it's too small and spindly to be really legible. Tessa, please sort out the typography issues in your cookbooks for all your readers' sakes!

I thought with all the photography that the book might be a little light on actual recipes but the reverse is true. There are plenty of irresistible Italian dishes many of which I hadn't come across before. A pantry section includes flavoured oils, salts and perfumed sugars as well as preserves and - of course! - limoncello. A section on breads and a wonderful recipe for sweet pizza. There are tempting snacks and vegetable dishes such as her salt and balsamic vinegar sautéed potatoes. An amazing pasta section includes such unusual offerings as a non-meat spag bol (she makes it with a lentil ragu), another non-meat spaghetti with aglio, olio, peperoncino and avocado and - at last! - a solution to left-over pasta in the shape of her torta di spaghetti.

Amongst the fish main courses, her persico with lemon, capers and green olive mash was amazing (though I made it with cod rather than perch). Chicken and lamb are well represented and there are many other main course dishes that I am looking forward to trying.

And as for the desserts, my goodness! These are temptation beyond endurance. There's Filomena's wow of an Apple Cake, Nonna's Dolce di Marie and Granny Joy's Marmalade Cake - who could resist?

It would be fair to say that this is a very `female' book - right down to the pink velvet bookmark. I cannot imagine there would be a woman anywhere who wouldn't be delighted to receive this as a gift (I am going to get another copy for my daughter-in-law who is a keen cook and a big fan of Tessa Kiros.) But if needs must, bestow it as a gift to yourself!

I found Limoncello and Linen Water by Tessa Kiros to be beautifully presented, and it has a wide range of practical and delicious-sounding recipes. However, if I had known of the font issues before buying it I would not have made the purchase. The small font size and use of light grey text make the content very hard to read. THIS IS MY MAIN ISSUE WITH THE BOOK (80 percent of the reason for giving it a two-star rating). Use of small light-grey font may have been exciting for the designers but it serves the reader very poorly. If you are looking to enhance your knowledge of Italian language for recipes (which I was) this book will not help you much. I felt let down by the mixed use of language for recipe titles. This is my secondary and only other issue with the book (is 20 percent of the reason for giving it a two-star rating). The majority of recipe titles appear in English language only, some in Italian and a few in a combination of the two languages. It would have been great if all recipe titles had been given in English followed by their Italian translation. It is surprising that this wasn't done by the author given she is an Italophile.

yes, the pics are gorgeous (as usual in a Tessa Kiros' work) and very many of the recipes sound good + the basic idea is brilliant - a book that celebrates all the wonderful women in Tessa's life & their food.
However this is for me a boring book in the end. Every recipe has a glorious pic, and of course there are more, and more, and more pics here and there... too much! it becomes sickly - like having a chocolate ganache on a chocolate cake, topped with chocolate and vanilla ice crem+ chantilly.... Of course this is just a matter of taste - I find TK's style too much in the end. The pics are over-styled too - too much going on in them: p 164, for instance: chicken with peppers - the lovely pic on the next page.. with same sage leaves near the chicken! they are not even part of the recipe... of course, it could be objected that this IS TK's style...Ok, I accept it, but It leaves the reader felling rather "full" and overwhelmed.

what I really object to is the choice of font: rather small and a faint grey coloured .. on a white background, it makes the page very difficult to read. after few pages I get frustrated and I give up. Maybe it is just me getting old...
... all in all, I would still recommend this book, but with the above caveat