Somebody once told me the secret to successful gift giving is to see what the person has a lot of and then give ’em some more of the same. I know that’s true for people who love cookbooks. They never have enough.
Now if you know someone who has no cookbooks, don’t think you can improve her lot in life by giving her one. If she wanted cookbooks, she’d already have them. On the other hand, if you know someone with shelves of them, I suggest giving her cookbooks for Christmas. (And, I know, men like cookbooks, too, but I don’t like getting stuck in that ‘him or her’ construct, and I can’t bring myself to use ‘him’ as a unisex pronoun any more.)
A few years ago, the advertising folks coined the word “giftability.” As I recall, it was to sell small appliances as presents, and the concept never really caught on under that label, probably because normal people don’t go around saying “giftability.” But let me brazen it out here and say that cookbooks have giftability for those who enjoy them. Here are some suggestions for your cookbook lovers. These are books that are big enough to make nice presents, good, solid, proven books with recipes that work and text worth reading.
The newest, published just this year, is “The Glorious Foods of Greece,” by Diane Kochilas ($40). It doesn’t have a picture in it. What it does have is nearly 500 pages of text about the islands, cities and villages of Greece, along with 500 recipes, each reflecting the ingredients of the region where it is commonly prepared. This book taught me some geography and stirred in me such an urge to travel to Greece that you’ll know where I am if I disappear from these food pages for any length of time.
Here is a recipe for sausage and peppers as we’d find them in the taverns of Makrynitsa, in Thessaly, the great plain of Greece. I’ve short-handed the cooking instructions a bit in the interests of space.
Spetsofai (Sausage and Peppers)
This dish would originally have been made with lamb sausage, but these days a spicy beef sausage is more likely.
6 Tbsp. extra-virgin olive oil
1-12 lbs. green bell peppers, cut into 1-inch strips
2 lbs. firm, ripe tomatoes, peeled, seeded and coarsely chopped, or chopped canned tomatoes, drained
Salt and pepper to taste
1/2 tsp. sugar
2 lbs. fresh spicy lamb or beef sausage
Heat 4 tablespoons of the oil in a wide pot over medium heat. Cook and stir the peppers for about 5 minutes. Add tomatoes, salt, pepper and sugar. Cook over low heat for 7 to 10 minutes, until sauce is thick and peppers soft.
While the sauce is simmering, heat the remaining 2 tablespoons olive oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Brown the sausages and cut them into large chunks. Combine the sausage chunks and pepper mixture and cook for about 10 more minutes. Serve hot or at room temperature.
Serves 4 to 6.
Another regional cookbook, “The Italian Country Table,” by Lynne Rossetto Kasper, was published in 1999 ($35). This one has 14 glossy food photo pages in the center and black and white pictures of people and places the author visited. The recipes in this book, like those in “The Glorious Foods of Greece,” reflect the ingredients readily available in the regions where the dishes are common. The subtitle is, “Home Cooking from Italy’s Farmhouse Kitchens,” home cooking, in other words. I’m thinking I’ll have to go to Italy right after Greece to eat like this. Meantime, the recipes really work.
An important theme throughout Kasper’s book is the care Italian women take to cook without waste. They use everything, down to the last crust of dry bread and the rind of Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese. The rind may be simmered in soup to add flavor and the soup poured over the bread in bowls.
I like the Marble Cutter’s Soup served for supper in the homes of cutters who work the Carrara quarries where they say Michelangelo first learned about marble. Again, I’ve written the preparation instructions more briefly than you’ll find them in the book.
Marble Cutter’s Soup
I made just half this recipe, which Kasper says serves 6 to 8, and still got enough soup for 6 large appetites. The amounts here are for the whole recipe.
2 medium red onions
1/2 medium carrot
1 small stalk celery with leaves
4 sprigs fresh Italian parsley
Extra-virgin olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste
3 large cloves garlic, minced
1/2 C. fresh basil leaves, chopped
2-3 lbs. fresh tomatoes, peeled and chopped, or 1 28-ounce can plus 1 14-ounce can whole tomatoes, drained
Water
Mixed-grain country-style bread, sliced and dried for a day
Shredded Asiago cheese, if you can get it
Mince the onion, carrot, celery and parsley fine and saute in the oil over medium heat until golden brown.
Add the garlic and basil and cook briefly.
Crush the tomatoes and add them. Simmer 10 minutes, then stir in 6 cups water and simmer 10 minutes longer.
Break the bread into bite-sized pieces and put a handful into each soup bowl and ladle the soup over it. Sprinkle cheese on top. Soup is good either hot or at room temperature.
Serves 6 to 8 generously.
Still in Italy, Patricia Wells’ “Trattoria,” has been around a while and is available in paper ($15). It features food “inspired by the small family restaurants of Italy.” These recipes come closer to what we tend to think of when we say “Italian food,” and have as their charm the fact that they’re all pretty easy to make. I’ve tried for years to find a recipe for
chicken cacciatora that I thought was any good and had just about decided there was no such thing, until I found the one in “Trattoria.” It’s wonderful. I halved the recipe and liked it so much, I wished I’d made the whole thing, which is what I’m giving you here.
1 3-4 lb. chicken cut into 8 serving pieces
Salt and pepper to taste
3 Tbsp. extra-virgin olive oil
1 Tbsp. unsalted butter
1 small onion, minced
2 ribs celery, thinly sliced
1/4 tsp. crushed hot red pepper flakes
1 28-ounce can peeled Italian plum tomatoes in juice, or 1 28-ounce can crushed tomatoes in puree
Parsley, bay leaf, rosemary, celery leaves, tied in a bundle with cotton twine
Sprinkle the chicken with salt and pepper and brown it on all sides in the oil and butter over high heat in a large skillet. Work in several batches to avoid crowding the chicken in the pan. When all pieces are browned, transfer them to a platter.
Add the onion, celery, crushed pepper and a pinch of salt to the fat in the pan and cook over moderate heat until the onion and celery are soft, 4 to 5 minutes. If using whole canned tomatoes, puree through a food mill into the skillet. Add crushed tomatoes right from the can. Put in the herb bundle and simmer about 5 minutes.
Bury the chicken in the sauce and simmer, partially covered, until the chicken is cooked through, about 30 minutes. Discard the herb bundle.
Serve the chicken immediately, along with the sauce.
Serves 4-6.
If you could buy the previous books just for the text and recipes, this one is worth having just for the pictures. “Artisan Baking Across America,” by Maggie Glezer, with photographs by Ben Fink, was published last year. You can read the book as a travelogue, enjoy it as an art book and cook from it, too. Glezer traveled around the country visiting American bakers and came back with a collection of pictures and mouthwatering recipes. She goes into detail about grains, flours and baking techniques. She’s scaled down the recipes to home kitchen size, with recipes graded for difficulty from beginner to advanced.
“Barbara Kafka’s Soup — A Way of Life,” ($35) with 18 glossy food photos in the center, combines chatty family reminiscences and recipes for some family favorites, along with chapters on vegetable, bird, meat and fish soups, as well as instructions for making stocks and soup additions such as noodles, dumplings and meatballs. The soups range from quick, light broths to full meal concoctions with meat and vegetables. Many recipes have suggestions for turning them into vegetarian recipes. I believe you could use this book every day or so year around and never be bored.
“The Way to Cook,” by Julia Child. ($39.95 paper, $65 hardcover.) What can I say? Any lover of cookbooks who doesn’t have this compendium of techniques, recipes, master recipes, personal opinion and illustrations, simply doesn’t have it all. For simple perusing, the paperback is fine, but for actual kitchen use, I’d recommend the hardcover as being sturdy enough to stand up to repeated handling.
Contact Sara Pitzer at spitzer@salisburypost.com
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