Italian Food (Penguin Classics) Kindle Edition

Pro: The part Elizabeth David contributed is great. I also have the hard cover version, which was originally written in the 1950s. The recipes are written European style.Con: Regarding the Kindle version, it is a big disappointment. The whole point of a digital version of an old cookbook would be to have the modern benefits of a digital index. Not only is there no list of the specific recipes in a table of contents, the index does not have links, and the pages the index refers to are useless, because they do not match with the digital version's page numbers.

Recipes are pretty good, but the Kindle format is horrible. The index doesn’t link to anything, but that’s OK, because it is 100% wrong. Absolutely nothing I have looked up in the index is on the listed page number.

Love the read

If you're looking for quick and easy Italian recipes this is not the book for you, but if you want to sit down on a Sunday morning and read for a couple hours about the magic of Italian cuisine and then go to the farmer's market to get the ingredients to try some of the things you've learned, this is the book for you.

Another Elizabeth David gem. She approached Italian food with the same superb style as her French cooking publications. Worth the price for the illustrations alone!

This was a present for my son who is a professional chef because I know best as his dad. However he loves it .

The seller did not have a picture for the book, therefore what I purchased was not what I was searching for. I was disappointed & will not purchase without a picture in the future. The book itself was in the condition the seller described, & sent in a timely manor. It just wasn't the book I wanted. Thank you

I picked this book up at a remainder sale- you know- "crown books" kind of thing- about 15 or 20 years ago. It was in the bin that was being almost given away because there was water damage, so I grabbed it and searched for a clean copy. Couldnt' find one so I bought it- really for the illustrations. It's full of details of kitchens, cooking, scullery maids etc by painters from the 1500's (Pieter Aertsen), 18th centurey (Groewenbroth & Carlo Magini), 14th (Tacuinum Sanitatis), 15th (Abulcasis) and on and on including some gems like Jocapo Ligozzi "Mouse and Walnut" which also depicts a mole, Vincenzo Campi's "The Kitchen" showing a decidedly NOT cuddly cat with entrails from a bird or eel scratching a little setter who is hoping to steal the bits- one that makes the book worthwhile if there was nothing else I liked.Luckily for my overflowing shelf of cookbooks (that are underutilised due to cries of "Mom, I don't want duck wings!", etc) the book is handy too. The recipes are more like guidelines than recipes- sort of the anti-recipe to those who need full-color illustrations of each and every item in a cookbook in order to consider purchasing the book. The illustrations show what food looked like when the cooks knew what part of the animal it came from. The guidelines are designed for people who were accustomed to using what they had on hand and judging how the food was cooking by how it looked and smelled, not by the clock or timer.Yes, I love this book- as a cook who substitutes and guesses and makes things up as I go along and make pretty darned good food, despite what my children may think.

Fabulous little companion.First saw it when Andrew Graham Dixon read from it and showed the pic in his travelogue with Georgio the Italian cook while they were in Sicily or somewhere.Elizabeth David's reminiscences and reflections are very warm and informative. The first few chapters, before a recipe is offered, ref her travels throughout the land in the early 50s, are excellent reading, the prose very much a throw back to a more genteel Britain, but also with a noted humility, reflecting post war England's values. Her occasional philosophising is one of the quirks which make this book such cult reading. The writing is excellent, the english at times loquacious but always most apt.Elizabeth tells us for example that as far back as 1930, an italian poet was railing against the dangers of eating too much pasta, before later offering reassurance through another, which can be applied to all things in life: "the important thing is to adapt your dish of spaghetti to circumstances and your state of mind"Bedside reading or practical tipster, this little book should be read by all with even a passing interest in food, people, history and language.

I love this little book. Plenty of recipes. She talks about the wines & cheeses too. Very comprehensive:

My sisters copy was so used it was in bits. This had seen better days but mainly aged yellowing.nb was bought second hand

I had my original copy when it was first published so I am just replacing it. I bought the majority of her books which were so interesting after the war time restrictions were over.

Lovely book and arrived quicker than estimated.