I love POLPO. If I can get it at the library, then VENICE too.
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I wouldn’t normally think of Italian as great, light Spring fare. But Polpo and Venice are SO summery and fresh to me. I am thinking of some of his white anchovy dishes and his other seafood dishes. Like the scallops in their shells and stuff. And plus, he has some great Italian cocktails as well.
I’m going to dig a little deep. These are books I haven’t used in a while, never got very deep into, or never cooked from at all. Each one remains appealing and worthy of a revisit or deeper exploration.
ISRAELI SOUL
SABABA
A UPSETTING BOOK ABOUT SANDWICHES
FRESH INDIA
ADVENTURES IN STARRY KITCHEN
CHEERS TO THE PUBLICAN
ISRAELI SOUL is a great book.
I second SMITTEN KITCHEN KEEPERS and
GO TO DINNERS
as I have been on the library hold list for SKK
and am getting close to my turn
and got GTD as a gift and need inspiration to find something to make so I can thank the giver
I also have CHEERS TO THE PUBLICAN.
@articshark, have you cooked from Venice? If we do Polpo and Venice, I would mainly be cooking from the latter because I cooked soooo much from Polpo when it COTM before that there just isn’t much new for me to try in there.
I have cooked a few things. I did the polenta triangles with various toppings. I LOVED the mushroom one. And I served them at a large party an everyone LOVED them. I have to go dig out the cookbook and look through.
I know, I’ve cooled from Polpo so much as well. But weirdly, there are dishes I still haven’t made. I would probably split my time. I can taste the battle of two Risi e Bisi in my near future.
I am extending nominations until 5pm tonight. Right now we have a lot of nominations, but little consensus, and I don’t really want to put 5 books with two nominations each into the voting round.
And I’ll go ahead and throw in for POLPO & VENICE.
For any of you who weren’t around in the Chowhound days, Polpo was probably the most popular COTM of all time. I cooked over 30 recipes from it, all fantastic. Completely unexpected, because at first glance the book didn’t seem particularly exciting. But it had a way of drawing us all in, and once you got started, you would see the genius in it and just want to keep cooking and cooking.
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Slightly sad that my library doesn’t have Venice. Still, plenty to make from Polpo.
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Mine doesn’t either, but based on my experience with Polpo, I’m willing to buy the book. IIRC, when Polpo was COTM I started off with a library copy, but quickly decided the book was worth the price.
ISRAELI SOUL
FRESH INDIA
CHEERS TO THE PUBLICAN
I have all three, so I know I could do a little cooking next month.
And it’s only $19 right now on amazon … I think I’m going to bite.
My Vermont Kitchen
It bugs because they are literally the only Italian cookbooks I don’t have, but I’m such a pushover…and broad beans with watercress sounds divine right now
VENICE & POLPO
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So I haven’t seen Venice (just ordered it!), but Polpo is definitely worth having. It’s a beautiful book, well-bound and well-designed. And the food is fantastic. If Venice compares, it will be well worth the $19 including tax I just dropped on it.
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Sadly, they changed publishers, I think. Venice is not as nice as Polpo. His Spuntino cookbook is bound the same way, however, it’s an inferior cookbook.
Venice is billed as his “home cooking” book. Where I think Polpo was his restaurant book. So some of his recipes in Venice are little simpler (not by much because I don’t think his Polpo recipes were too complex which is what was so surprising about how delicious it all was), but the bang for the buck is still there. He has the recipes sectioned off by season.
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Nominations are closed, and here is your voting thread:
Time for May nominations.
