Lottie Lomme
If there caponata, Grandmother's cake en turnovers being in a cookbook, is it really Italian? Not according to Homemade happiness: Italian cooking. Some classics of Italian cuisine are missing in this book. But the taste palette is unmistakably Italian. And there are also nice recipes that are really Italian but that you don't see in other cookbooks for one reason or another.
For example: how to make the simple one bellini cocktail? An addition with Italian cocktails as an alternative to the Dutch aperitif.
No fuss in Italian cooking
There is also a wonderful recipe for a rose bread with apricot. Those are those rolls of dough with yeast and a filling that you put next to each other in a mold. The marsala has turned it into an Italian bread. I want to make it like this. Yummy! The makers don't fuss with Italian names. Is it allowed in Italy torta di rose In this cookbook they just call it apricot buns. The Bagna cauda just called an anchovy dip. That's a plus, I think.
Dutch hipness
The ingredients are quite hip: plenty of room for beans and lentils that have made a comeback. These are also widely used in Italian poor kitchen, the delicious poor man's kitchen. There are no recipes for that in this book. Lentils and beans are used for luxurious salads and soups. Also tasty.
The author of the book also mixes ingredients in a modern way, which many Italians are not yet ready for. Like mascarpone in the soup or on the pizza. An Italian himself will not easily come up with that, but it also seems quite tasty to me. Foreigners are sometimes allowed to think along about modernizing Italian cuisine, but don't do that in the presence of a nonna (the Italian grandma)!
Not specifically Italian
Lots of green and healthy dishes, which are also not specifically Italian. Instead of a peperonata the peppers are simply grilled and the Baked chicken (which suddenly gets an Italian name: chicken from the oven was apparently not so nice after all) is actually Italian by adding a little Parma ham. Parma ham is also delicious with fish, so there is also a recipe for dorade with Parma ham.
Still a must-have cookbook?
There are beautiful pictures in Homemade happiness: Italian cooking. A neat layout with the recipe on the left and the photo on the right or vice versa (still my favorite layout for a cookbook). The brain behind the recipes and the photos is Floor van Dinteren (Floorabella), not a known cook. She does have a beautiful website and a nice company that presents itself with a French slant. Will she take the Mediterranean with her!
Or not?
When I tried the cannoli recipe, the quantities and ingredients were wrong. When checked at a number of Italian sites, the egg was found to be missing. A strange story. Of course I presented this to the publisher, who also thought it was strange and promised to find out.
Homemade happiness: Italian cooking is a nice cookbook with tasty recipes. But if you want to eat like an Italian does, I would rather The Silver Spoon of Cooking with Amore recommend.
Homemade happiness: Italian cooking
by: Floor van Dinteren
240 pp.
€ 17,50
Image Book Factory, 2016
ISBN 9789463330022
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