Book Review April 2010: Katie Caldesi's The Italian Cookery Course
  
You may already recognise the name, Katie and husband Giancarlo Caldesi were featured by the BBC in a recent television series celebrating Italian cuisine – Return to Tuscany.  Katie’s latest book, The Italian Cookery Course is a joy for anyone who has holidayed in Italy or eaten in an Italian restaurant and come away wishing they knew how to make that seafood pasta or focaccia. The entire book, 511 pages in all, is peppered with the most glorious food imagery, dishes, ingredients and shots of some of the most beautiful parts of this great food-loving country. Katie’s spent a great deal of time travelling around each of the many different regions, gathering authentic recipes, from the sun-drenched Mediterranean south to the land-locked, mountainous regions of the North. Her book covers all 20 regions of Italy, with 400 recipes and chapters on Pasta, Meat, Fish, Dolci and Cheese.  There’s also 40 master classes on cooking techniques too so if you wish you could bake your own breads and pizzas or make your very own tortelloni this book has it all.
Katie and Giancarlo own three top Italian restaurants in London and also run their own Cookery School.  So she’s expertly qualified to guide you through in an interesting and easy to follow manner the joys of cooking some of the best loved Italian dishes.  This cookery book isn’t just a bible of all things Italian, Katie takes you inside the homes of the families she’s met during her research and shares with you their tips and secrets, sometimes handed down through generations of traditional Italian cooking. One of the messages from the book is to cook with love, Giancarlo, agrees ‘If you don’t make it with love, it won’t happen.’
 
The book also covers the wines of Italy, yet to be discovered, Katie says ‘Italy has managed to maintain a vast array of unique wine styles, suddenly the world is ready to lap them up.’
 
The book begins with Pane: Bread, Pasta and Savory Tarts.  The Italians wouldn’t dream of eating a meal without bread so fitting that the book starts here.  Antipasti is next, which means before the meal and not as often thought before the pasta. Next comes soup and stock, pasta, rice and polenta. Then it’s onto fish, meat, poultry and game.  There’s an entire chapter on vegetables and salad, followed by Dolci: Desserts including a couple of pages on how to make chocolate leaves, curls and piping chocolate too, plus a section on making your own ice cream and custard-based ice creams. Finally its cheeses and preserves.
 
The Italian Cookery Course has already received rave reviews;
 
“Open the book and you’ll find fabulous recipes, but passion Caldesi has put into it that makes it come alive, divulging the essence of this food-obsessed country”Delicious Magazine
“Katie Caldesi’s book, which shows you how to make traditional Italian food using recipes handed down over generations with relatively cheap cuts of meat, is very timely”Saturday Telegraph Magazine
Book of the week - “The book’s selling point is that it is sumptuous, an evocative slide show about Italy and its gastronomy that you could relish even if you have people to do the kitchen thing for them”Sunday Telegraph, Seven Magazine
 
 
The Italian Cookery Course is published by Kyle Cathie Ltd and available from www.caldesi.com, www.amazon.com, www.kylecathie.com and all good book shops priced at £30. The Caldesi's are on a Food Safari in Suffolk this weekend and Suffolk Cottage Holidays are delighted the Caldesi's have chosen to stay in one of their properties.