The ANNOTICO Report
Well maybe not Dummies, but actually it seems like it
would be an Excellent
book for Beginners.
Detroit Free Press
By Susan Selasky
Free Press Test Kitchen Director
April 5, 2005
Giada De Laurentiis is on a mission to simplify Italian food.
De Laurentiis -- granddaughter of film producer Dino De
Laurentiis -- is on
a nationwide tour promoting her book. She makes a stop
in metro Detroit
Friday and Saturday for cooking demonstrations and book
signings.
This is a can't-miss book of 125 recipes, interesting
whether you are a
cookbook reader or someone who loves to cook. The recipes
are easy to
understand and the cooking advice is plentiful. (And
for those who like to
glimpse the eye candy, there are about 40 photos of De
Laurentiis looking
quite sassy in plunging tops often accessorized by crisp
white aprons.)
But don't look to "Everyday Italian" to be the authority
on Italian food.
It's not. There's no pasta from scratch and the recipe
for marinara sauce
uses canned tomatoes. What De Laurentiis delivers in
the book is recipes
that look great, taste great and inspire the home cook
to actually cook.
In a recent phone interview before her trip to Detroit,
De Laurentiis
chatted with us about the book, now No. 6 on the New
York Times' hard-cover
advice best-seller list, and food in general.
QUESTION: What is this book about, and where did the recipes come from?
ANSWER: The book is a compilation of recipes from the
show, some of my
favorites, some of my family's favorites and some of
my viewers' favorites.
Q: How authentic is your Italian cooking when it is targeted
to Americans?
A: It's very authentic. I'm just trying to simplify the
steps and
ingredients. I try to use ingredients that Americans
can easily find.
Q: Are you a purist when it comes to Italian cooking?
A: The way I cook on the show is the way I was brought
up and the way I do
it at home.
Q: Are the recipes easy or doable for the at-home cook
or those on the go?
A: I tried to pick the recipes that were the simplest.
It's simplifying
Italian food without sacrificing the flavor. A few dishes
in my cookbook
I've simplified, I've also made lighter and simpler,
but some, like the
béchamel sauce, a traditional Italian white sauce, I
can't. On cooking the
recipes I've tried to give people a variety of different
levels of cooking
without sacrificing the flavor of the original dish.
Q: A lot of people think Italian and think pasta. Yet
there is no recipe to
make fresh pasta in this book. Why?
A: My Spinach and Mushroom Ravioli has you making ravioli
from scratch, but
without using fresh pasta, and using egg roll wrappers
or using wonton
wrappers instead.
I think it's unrealistic to expect people to make fresh
pasta and marinara
sauces because it's not something they can do on a regular
basis. There's
probably time on special occasions, but not for everyday
cooking.
Q: What do you recommend that Italian food fans keep in
their pantry?
A: Dried pastas that are different shapes. Long pastas
like linguine and
short pasta like penne and farfalle (bow ties).
Favorite jar of marinara, extra-virgin olive oil, garlic,
balsamic vinegar,
capers, canned cannelli beans and canned Italian tuna.
Dried herbs -- rosemary, thyme or blends like herbes
de Provence that comes
from the south of France.
Q: With all this talk of diets, especially the low-carb,
is Italian food in
trouble?
A: I think people are starting to realize these diets
are fads, but not a
way of life. Europeans and Italians have been eating
pasta for a long time.
....and There's a lot more to Italian food than breads
and pastas.
Q: Do you have a favorite dry pasta?
A: My favorite brand is Barilla pasta. What I like about
it is the pasta
holds its shape after it has cooked and has a nutty taste
to it.
Or I use the De Cecco
Q: How do you recommend cooking pasta?
A: You need to have lots of water. Use 6 quarts for 1
pound of pasta.
The water needs to be at a roaring boil before you add
the pasta to it.
Salt it before you add the pasta, a couple of handfuls.
It sounds like a
lot, but it does season the pasta.
Give the pasta a couple of stirs with the spoon. You
need to make sure the
pasta has enough room to swim. If there's not room for
it to move it will
clump together, because pasta absorbs water and inflates.
Q: What's your favorite memory of cooking?
A: I have many of them.
I think the first time I realized I was going to grow
up and work in the
food business is when my grandfather opened a store.
The store was on the
first floor and there was a small restaurant upstairs.
I was 12 years old
and realized I wanted to do something in food.
My grandfather brought in chefs from Naples to work there.
I would go there
every day after school. One was Los Angeles and the other
in New York. It
was called DDL Food Show.
Q: Why did you like going there?
A: It was an unbelievable experience.
For the first time I realized how extraordinary it was
and how happy it
makes people. There's no better satisfaction than seeing
a smile on
people's faces after they've tasted something fantastic.
Q: What's the first thing you learned to cook as a child?
A: Making tiramisu and dipping the cookies (ladyfingers)
in the espresso.
We made it with my grandfather a lot of times.
My brothers and sister were in charge of dipping in the
ladyfingers. I was
5; we ate a lot of ladyfingers.
Q. What are your top three favorite ingredients?
A: Chocolate. A day doesn't go by without out any, and
extra-virgin olive
oil and garlic.
Q: Have you ever had any complete disasters?
A: The worst was when I was catering a Thanksgiving meal
for clients. I had
taken care of the turkey, carved it and put it on this
beautiful
platter.When I brought it out, I tripped over the dog.
The dog got to the
turkey before I did.
Q: What happened then?
A: The client was understanding. I just cooked a pasta
dish and had all the
rest of the Thanksgiving trimmings with the pasta.
I try not to cook with dogs or animals around.
Q: Do you have a favorite meal to cook at home?
A: Whenever I need comfort food I make baked rigatoni
with bechamel sauce.
And when I want something with a little flavor it's chicken saltimbocca .
Q: How do you stay so thin?
A: It's three things:
One is portion control.
And I move. I get outside when I'm home. I live by the
beach and go out
roller blading.
And it's genetics; my mother is small.
Q: What do you hope readers take away from this book?
A: The ultimate goal is to get people comfortable in
the kitchen. The fact
that it's simple enough and straightforward enough that
they will get in
the kitchen and make it.
Contact SUSAN SELASKY at 313-222-6432 or selasky@freepress.com.