"Italian Food" by Elizabeth David

[nakji]

We have a topic on Elizabeth David's works here.

I picked up this particular book and have enjoyed reading through it, as I do with most regional cookbooks, with a particular eye for sourcing ingredients. It's fascinating to get a look into a time and place where sourcing Parma ham would have meant a trip to Soho and explicit exhortations to not trust butchers trying to pass of Bayonne ham as the same product. I imagine there might still be places where this is the case.

I've only gotten through some of the antipasto chapter, but have already decided I'm going to blame Ms. David for my British father's love of making salads with raw button mushrooms. Of course, his were always made with Kraft dressing and not good olive oil and lemon, as her recipe calls for, so perhaps my blame should be tempered. It's one of the first recipes I'm going to try, I think.

It's nice to read through, just as a book, without getting tripped up with standard recipe format over lists of teaspoons and weights; I'm wondering if it's equally easy to cook from?

[Carlovski]

I've never got the appeal of raw mushrooms either, I'll eat them but will always thing how much nicer they would have been with a little cooking!

Like with most of the Elizabeth David books (with the exception of English Bread and Yeast Cookery)I use it mainly for inspiration and reading pleasure, If I like the sound of a recipe I am more likely to try and find a more up to date recipe.

[weinoo]

A good read, but nothing that I would actually cook from.

[plum tart]

I have cooked from Elizabeth David's Italian Food for years. I will go to my grave with that cookbook. In fact I taught myself to make pasta from that book and I have many favourite recipes that I return to again and again. The hare (or rabbit) paparadella is the best recipe there is for that dish and I have tried many. Her spinach gnocchi are delicious as is the raw muchroom salad.

She doesn't spell everything out, which leaves room for your imagination and she assumes a certain level of technical competence but the recipes all work and are delicious, and, the writing and descriptions are to die for.

[prasantrin]

. . . I'm wondering if it's equally easy to cook from?

Since you actually have the book, why not give a few recipes a try and let the rest of us know?

[nakji]

I guess I could.

[CucinaDiva]

I read all Elizabeth David's books more for a sense of time and place than for actual recipes. She creates a world out of time as much as providing recipes - character sketches, vignettes about places she's visited, meals she's eaten - really a wealth of knowledge.

You have to keep in mind, too, that at the time she was writing, recipes were not formatted and delineated down to the finest detail. If you can get hold of an old Gourmet magazine from the same period, you'll see their recipes follow that non-format, too. It's just an indication of how things were done then - maybe giving the cook credit for a bit more sense and skill than we do now. Her recipes work just fine, but they expect a certain level of competence or willingness to learn from the cook.

I haven't looked at Italian Food in a long time, but my favorite of hers, Summer Food, gave me an idea that led to one of my signature dishes when I was catering. It was a small part of the dish, but her recipe, the combination of ingredients, was so unique, it knocked my socks off. There's a lot of that in her books. Great reads and great resources.

[ruthcooks]

I haven't looked at Italian Food in a long time, but my favorite of hers, Summer Food, gave me an idea that led to one of my signature dishes when I was catering. It was a small part of the dish, but her recipe, the combination of ingredients, was so unique, it knocked my socks off. There's a lot of that in her books. Great reads and great resources.

Do tell--what was the dish?

TIA

[nakji]

Yes, please do tell, at least the original dish, if not how you modified it.

[plum tart]

I made Elizabeth David's Paparadella con Lepre from her Italian Food this weekend. It is a wonderful autumnal dish. I cut up two rabbits and marinated the pieces in red wine, juniper berries, pepper, bay leaf and a little onion overnight.(This part is not from Italian Food, but I do it to make the rabbit taste more like hare - gamier). I cut the flesh from the bones to make the pasta sauce and I used the bones to make stock. I lightly sauteed the pancetta, followed by the rabbit pieces, onion and celery. Then I added the chopped boletus (previously dried and then soaked) and some fresh marjoram, sprinkled flour lightly over the mixture and then added dry marsala wine and reduced it. Then I added the stock and simmered to mixture for an hour. Delicious on fresh paparadella. Since this is such a fiddle, I make enough to freeze for later. It freezes very well.

All other recipes cook the rabbit meat on the bone and then shred it,which is easier,but the result is a drier less integrated meat.

While Elizabeth David does give quantities, I find this recipe very forgiving in that regard as many of her recipes are.

[Jenni]

I think it's a wonderful book, but perhaps not for the beginner cook. I actually quite like the style of quite loose ingredients and instructions - this is cooking like our grandma's did. I also really like the way she gives background information and little tidbits about her experiences and so on - this is my favourite part about any cookbook.

[plum tart]

I think it's a wonderful book, but perhaps not for the beginner cook. I actually quite like the style of quite loose ingredients and instructions - this is cooking like our grandma's did. I also really like the way she gives background information and little tidbits about her experiences and so on - this is my favourite part about any cookbook.

I absolutely agree. I love the combination of food writing and recipes. It makes the whole experience of cooking a dish much richer; and it allow you as a cook to participate in the evolution of a dish. You definitely feel like your part of a lineage, in my case a Danish Canadian Nonna following in the steps of the many Italian Nonna's that Elizabeth David evokes.

I love Julia Child but I don't feel as free to depart from the precision of the recipe.