A Tuscan in the Kitchen: Recipes and Tales from My Home

By Pino Luongo

Book Overview

This exuberant, delightfully unconventional cookbook is a warm, personal collection of recipes and reminiscences of the author's native Tuscany and a guide to a spontaneous way of cooking based on good taste and common sense rather than rigid rules. In A Tuscan in the Kitchen, Pino Luongo, the creator of New York's successful Il Cantinori restaurant, presents 140 of his favorite recipes, from soups and antipasti to salads and desserts. The recipes include such tempting dishes as trout with balsamic vinegar, peasant-style risotto made with sausage and peas, roasted quail with tarragon, spaghetti with sea bass sauce, radicchio and orange salad, and baked peaches stuffed with walnuts and chocolate. Interspersed throughout in a spirited narrative are tales of his adventures as well as stories of family celebrations and the local traditions of the people who live in Tuscany's dries, hill towns, and fishing ports. Mr. Luongo shows us how to cook the Tuscan way, using a small repertoire of ingredients and a few basic techniques to create dishes that taste delicious and can be endlessly varied. The ingredients in each recipe are broken down into a three-part list: pantry staples, like olive oil, pasta, and canned plum tomatoes; cold storage items such as eggs, butter, and cheese; and a handful of market foods that need to be purchased fresh. In the recipes, he gives basic instructions and guidelines for making each dish but does not give exact quantities. For instance, a recipe for tagliatelle with fresh garden vegetables suggests a variety of vegetables and herbs; the cook decides how many and how much of each to use, according to taste. Mr. Luongo teaches us the kind of flexibility good cookshave always practiced and encourages us to create our own personal style of cooking -- and have a wonderful time in the kitchen, too. Filled with warmth and an irrepressible enthusiasm for life's pleasures, A Tuscan in the Kitchen is an original and inspiring cookbook.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0517569167
• ISBN13: 9780517569160
• Release Date: October 1988
• Publisher: Clarkson Potter Publishers
• Length: 240 Pages
• Weight: 1.71 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 7.5" x 9.6"

Customer Reviews

Refreshing, fun, delicious

Pino is so refreshing, so much fun. His recipes have no quantities. Forget that, he says, be creative, abandon your inhibitions, trust yourself. A good Italian lesson in or out fo the kitchen! Although I'm an average cook, I find his recipes straight forward with ingredients organized in three columns--pantry, cold storage & fresh from the market. He chats away with you on little tips like how to make your bean salad ever stronger tasting, on episodes from his childhood, on the Tuscan way of life in the old days. With the polenta recipe you read about the "heartbreaking imagination" of the poor people who made endless varieties of polenta dishes for all three meals. He makes you laugh throughout the book with tales like his first kiss with his face among the stinging nettles--just before the grilled vegetable recipe. A full of life book! You'll have a good time cooking and soaking up the Tuscan culture around food and love. What else is there?Margaret Cowan, author of Your Guide to 133 Decadent Cooking Holidays in Italy.

Placed in Tuscany

I bought 'Tuscan in the Kitchen' years ago and find myself turning to it continually. I have tried 99% of the recipies and find each one bursting with flavors not found in any local retaurant. Measurments for the ingredients are not given, leaving the recipe in the hands of the cook. This requires a bit of wisdom in cooking and inspires all sorts of improvisation. Not for the beginner! But worth the fun.

THE BEST

I have enjoyed using this cookbook for almost ten years. Not only is the book visually beautiful, with wonderful anecodtes, the recipes are amazing. The stains on the pages attest to that. More than a few of the recipes have become my "comfort food" favorites, yet they still draw compliments when prepared for guests. Pino Luongo has taught me a philosophy in cooking that has spilled over into all of my food preparation--and I thank him for it. This book is a joy to read and especially to use.

Authentic and good reading.

I have lived, eaten and cooked in Italy, primarily in Florence, for over six years. For the most part these are dishes you eat in the homes of Tuscany, not the restaurants. The ingredients are authentic, the recipes honest and simple. Of all the cookbooks I own this one has the most bookmarks; a sure sign that it holds a disproportionate number of favorite recipes. That it contains gentle reminiscences of life, Tuscany, family, and food is a bonus. As to the lack of precise measurements for some of the ingredients, no self-respecting nonna is going to measure much of anything with tools more precise than eyes, hands and a convenient spoon. With dishes like panzanella some days you have more bread, some days more tomatoes; adapt accordingly

A superb cookbook for experienced cooks, not beginners

This is a great book but he does not include quantities, so if one isn't a confident cook it'll lead to problems. I strongly recommend this book