Rustico [Hardcover]

Rustico is one of the few cookbooks I have actually sat down with a cup of coffee and read pretty much cover to cover. I felt as though Ms. Negrin was sitting across the table from me narrating a story. She has the unique talent of personable writing that comes across in her anecdotes relating to every region she visited. I trust her extensive knowlege of regional cooking, and feel transported from place to place as the book tells the tales of so many aspects of cooking and living in such different areas of Italy.
From the delicious braised venison with creamy grappa sauce of Val d'Aosta, to the beet-filled ravioli with poppy seeds of the Veneto, to the mint and lemon laced cheese pillows in chestnut honey of Sardinia, this book hands us traditional recipes only someone with uneditied access to kitchens in the homes of Italians of every region could gather.
The book's beautiful photography of both inspiring dishes as well as day to day living in Italy convey a sort of warmth and familiarity reminiscent of Ms. Negrin's writing.
I highly recommend the book to anyone looking to discover the legacy of regional Italian cooking.

`Rustico' by Italian food journalist Micol Negrin is a better than average book of regional Italian recipes in a world filled with good books on regional Italian recipes. The book's subtitle specifies that the book concentrates on `Country' cooking. And, although the book is very nicely done by region, it has no pretensions to being a scholarly work such as Waverley Root's `The Foods of Italy' or even a journalistic coverage of the subject as in Claudia Roden's very worthy `The Food of Italy'. In fact, the absence of pretension adds to the pleasant satisfaction one gets in reading the book, as it is not without merit as an introduction to the culinary world of Italy.

In my mind, the book is immediately superior to Susan Herrmann Loomis' very good book `Italian Farmhouse Cookbook' in that it does deal with recipes by region with an introduction that explains the geographical, historical, and climactic reasons for the prevailing cuisine in each region. Rome (Latium), for example, is all about sheep (as the city was founded by a tribe of nomadic sheepherders) and pigs (since from the time of the Roman Empire, the city of Rome was the center of hog butchering for the region. Similarly, Genoa and its region, Liguria, is shown to have a cuisine which is very similar to southern Italy due to the role of Genoa as a major medieval port and source of imported foods.

In addition to recipes and culinary history, the book gives an excellent overview of the wines and cheeses of each region. The coverage of cheeses is especially interesting to someone who knows a lot more about cheeses and the differences between cows and sheep than he does about grapes. The book makes clear, for example, why a cheese like Fontina is a distinctive product of the alpine region of Val d'Aosta, tucked in the seam between France and German speaking Switzerland. Good Italian Fontina is a great cross between the semihard Swiss Gruyeres and Emmentalers and the soft French bries. The book also gives some sidebar coverage to the types of breads native to the regions. These comments are a bit frustrating, as it seems it would have been almost as easy to give us the recipe for Grissini (Piedmontese breadsticks) as to tell us the historical origin of these little lovelies. But, bread is a very big subject and Carol Field's superb `The Italian Baker' has five pages devoted to Grissini recipes.

All of Negrin's other virtues would still leave us with a rather thin book if she had chosen to give us recipes for the well-known specialities of each region. Another book with spaghetti Carbonara, artichokes ala Judica, saltimbocca, and potato gnocchi in the chapter on Latium would have been very dull indeed, as these four recipes show up in every book I have seen on the cooking of Rome, and there are many of these books already available. Some well-known regional classics are here, such as Campania's (Naples) Pizza Margherita and Venice's Risi e Bisi (rice and peas), but many of the dishes are not only unfamiliar, but break some rules I learned at Mario Batali's knee, such as the fact that cooks in Campania, Sicily, and Sardinia have no qualms about combining fish and cheese, although the excellent recipe to which this observation is a headnote combines a very mild cheese, Mozzarella, with a very strong tasting fish, salted anchovies. In any case, this recipe is a great variation on the quick Spaghetti Puttanesca style of dish.

The selection of dishes in the book as a whole is a very nice mix of pasta, breads, soups, braises, salads, roasts and frys. As the book is organized by geography rather than by course or type of dish, a supplementary table of contents organizing all dishes by type of dish would have been a very nice addition. This is not a book from which you will want to learn how to make bread or pasta. For those, I suggest you go to Carol Field and Marcella Hazan respectively, but the bread and pizza recipes in this book are pretty good. It's just that if things don't work out, you have no guidance on how to correct your mistakes.

The recipes end with an excellent little chapter on basic Italian recipes for broths, sauces and doughs. The veggies in the chicken broth are cooked a bit too long for my taste. I am pretty sure you have sucked all the goodness out of your carrots, celery, and onions in three hours, so why go stew them for six. The book ends with a very nice list of American sources, most of which are located in New York City.

The introduction to each region includes the addresses of restaurants, shops, and culinary schools in that region. If you are a foodie and are planning a trip to Italy, this information can be invaluable. Even if you simply want to access these establishments over the phone and can trust your Italian, this is useful, as telephone numbers for each establishment are given. No web sites, unfortunately.

I notice that almost all acknowledgments are to Italian sources. This inspires a lot of confidence in me, as does the facing bibliography which lists many Italian language sources plus many English language sources, all of which I recognize as important culinary authorities such as Clifford Wright, Alan Davidson, Fred Plotkin, and my favorite Claudia Roden.

My knowledge of Italian is not up to the task of knowing whether this is correct, but I am puzzled by the fact that every other writer I know refers to the modern region around Rome as Lazio, while Ms. Negrin uses Latium, which sounds very archaic.

I strongly recommend this as a first book on Italian regional cuisine, to be read before taking on Roden's or Root's classic works.

Micol Negrin's wonderful new creation "Rustico: Regional Italian Country Cooking" has two qualities that set it apart from other cookbooks that I've used. The first and most important is the way recipes are showcased. The recipes are so well written and focused that any cook from novice to chef can appreciate the way ingredients come together in each dish. Some of the recipes are basic favorites while others are unusual, tempting, and inventive. The added cultural notes, cooking tips, and gorgeous photography really shows the cultural importance and deep connect to food that the author has experienced in her travels.

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