Annual Cookbook Issue : The Italian Bookshelf: Required Reading

Glance through the indexes of even a couple of the flood of Italian cookbooks you can choose from at any decent book store, and you’ll quickly find that they have a lot in common. Like all the same recipes.

That’s not literally true, of course, but it sometimes seems that way. To help simplify your search, here is one extremely opinionated list of the Italian cookbooks with which every member of the cognoscenti should be familiar.

GENERAL

“Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking,” Marcella Hazan (Knopf: $30; 512 pp.).

Though there are more general Italian cookbooks than might seem possible, this 1992 revision of Hazan’s first two cookbooks is probably the best. Certainly few know the material better than Marcella Hazan--who wrote the first serious American look at modern Italian cooking some 20 years ago. You can find most of the greatest hits of the various regional cuisines in this book--remarkably even-handed treatment considering that this is Italian cooking we’re talking about. Still, I like it best for the good cook’s tips and tricks rather than the recipes themselves, which tend to seem a bit underseasoned for my taste.

“Trattoria Cooking,” Biba Caggiano (MacMillan: $25; 352 pp.).

At the opposite extreme is this very unpretentious little book. Biba Caggiano does not pretend to have written the authoritative anything; this is nothing more than a recipe collection. But almost everything I have cooked from it has been delicious--the kind of dead-on translation of a sense of taste that should be the aim of every cookbook.

REGIONAL

“Celebrating Italy,” Carol Field (Morrow: $25; 544 pp.).

This isn’t a regional cookbook in the strictest sense, since it examines the important food holidays of many different areas. But still, there is enough scholarship and insight here for a series of regional cookbooks. The recipes vary from OK to pretty spectacular. Predictably, Carol Field is at her best with breads and desserts, in which she most successfully captures that sense of “there-ness” that makes regional food so wonderful.

“Pomp and Sustenance,” Mary Taylor Simeti (Knopf: $25; 352 pp.).

If only every Italian region could get the kind of loving attention Mary Simeti lavishes on Sicily. As far as giving a larger sense of the food, its history and the way it fits into the larger cultural matrix, this might be one of the best regional cookbooks around--of any country. Simeti views Sicily and its cooking with a scholar’s eye and extensively quotes from relevant sources back to medieval times. One is left wishing, though, that she was a better recipe writer. Many of the dishes here seem a little flat and probably could have done with more thorough State-side testing.

“Foods of Tuscany,” Giuliano Bugialli (Stewart, Tabori & Chang: $45; 304 pp.).

This is a difficult choice, not because it is not a worthy book, but because in a very real sense, almost everything Giuliano Bugialli has written has been a regional Tuscan cookbook. So, do you pick “The Fine Art of Italian Cooking” (Times Books: 1989; $25.95) (which doesn’t even include a recipe for Bolognese sauce, something that most non-Florentines would certainly agree qualified as a classic recipe) or this one? The pictures are better in this one, and I like the recipes better too.

SPECIALTY

“The Italian Baker,” Carol Field (Harper & Row: $24.95).

It is hard to believe that this book, published in 1985, is the oldest on this list (Marcella Hazan’s early works and Giuliano Bugialli’s “Fine Art” are now available in more recent, revised forms). But even these days, when good bread is no longer strictly a do-it-yourself project the way it was when this was written, “The Italian Baker” is still be an admirable achievement. It is a book that both reads and cooks well (though I tend to think the desserts translate a bit better than the breads, which, perhaps, are more site-specific).

“Bugialli on Pasta,” Giuliano Bugialli (Simon & Schuster: $24.95; 352 pp.).

The only problem I have with most of Giuliano Bugialli’s books is that they seem to rely on ingredients like cock’s combs. Granted, they might be necessary for absolute historical integrity, but they’re a bear to shop for. There is a bit of that here, but considering the amount of information that is transmitted and the detail with which he describes pasta making, it is blessedly little. And the recipes taste great.

REFERENCE

“Eating In Italy,” Faith Heller Willinger (Hearst: $14.95).

How in the world did we ever get around Italy before Faith Willinger? Granted, this book is probably of only limited use to the non-traveler (the descriptions of regional dishes are good, but there are no recipes), but if you’re going to Italy, or hope to go to Italy, it’s a must. Even the most knowledgeable Italy-hands I know carry this in the car when they’re traveling.

“Gastronomy of Italy,” Anna Del Conte (Prentice Hall: $35).

Given our seemingly bottomless appetite for Italian food, it’s odd that this book hasn’t attracted more attention. Almost anything you can think of is covered--from abbacchio to zuppa. Granted, this is more of a reference book than a cookbook, but the recipes work pretty well too.

THIS YEAR’S CROP

If you’ve got all of the above and still want more, here’s the best of the 1993 vendemmia.

“The Heart of Sicily,” Anna Tasca Lanza (Potter: $40; 256 pp.).

This is a beautiful recipes and lifestyles book from the countess of the well-known Sicilian estate Regaleali. Beautifully photographed, it is still surprisingly accessible--like the combination of rustic and Frenchified monzu cooking that makes up Sicilian cooking. I particularly like her trick of adding some mild goat cheese and a bit of pecorino to ricotta cheese to more accurately mimic the earthy, full-flavored version they make at her farm.

“Italy in Small Bites,” Carol Field (Morrow: $23; 320 pp.).

Ostensibly about merende (the little between-meal bites so loved in Italy) this is a good general cookbook full of recipes for everything from pastas to desserts. Not surprisingly, it turns out, the Italians will snack on almost anything--as long as it tastes good.

“Patricia Wells’ Trattoria,” Patricia Wells (Morrow: $25; 288 pp.).

To be perfectly frank, my first reaction to this book was: “Owning France wasn’t enough for her?” But the proof is in the cooking and “Trattoria” is full of the kind of simple, good-tasting food that made Patricia Wells’ “Bistro Cooking” and “Simply French” so popular.

“La Dolce Vita,” Michele Scicolone (Morrow: $23; 272 pp.).

I have the feeling Italian desserts probably take more editing on the part of the recipe-writer than almost anything else. On their home ground, they are usually, frankly, too sweet for most American palates. This book does a good job of translating the complexity and making it work for our tastes.