Masterclass in Italian Cooking by Maxine Clark

If you want to get to grips with Italian cooking and gain a fuller understanding, then Masterclass in Italian Cooking is the book you should buy.

It brings together between two covers, twenty-one of the most celebrated chefs who are happy to dispense with some of the tricks of the trade. The list of chefs reads as a who's who of master chefs from Franco Taruschio, Valentina Harris, Alistair Little, Claudia Roden, Ursula Ferrigno, Anna del Conte and Mary Contini, to name just a few. Each chef presents three of their most favourite dishes, one of which is selected in each chapter to be a Masterclass.

Maxine Clark is a successful food stylist and cookery writer, specialising in Italian food and cooking, which makes her the ideal person to tackle this particular masterclass. She teaches cookery in Tuscany and Sicily. Gus Filgate's photography brings together the true feeling of Italian food: comforting, luscious and glistening with olive oil.

How should one approach this book? As a cookery course, taking it chapter by chapter. The introduction gives a geographical overview of this richly inundated country, discussing the wines and produce that each region is famous for. The store cupboard provides a glance at what you might expect to find in an Italian kitchen. It is a shame that there isn't an introduction to each chapter. Instead you go straight to the recipes but there is a tit bit of background information, along with some helpful tips. Did you know that Bocconcini are baby bite sized mozarelle? But how easy is it to find ingredients such as this? The book may have benefited from a list of suppliers where you can source some of the more unusual ingredients.

The recipes are mouth watering. Try Arancine di riso, little rice oranges, which is a national dish of Sicily, eaten as street food. Valentina Harris's Crostata di pomodorini makes an excellent brunch or supper dish. It is a type of omelette, baked in the oven. While the Masterclass Recipe in the meat chapter, tackles Stracotto alla Fiorentina, pot roast, Florentine-style. Once you have diced all the vegetables, this silverside beef pot roast looks after itself.

There is lots more besides.

Publication details:
192 pp. Photography by Gus Filgate. £25
ISBN 1862054347. Published by Pavilion.
2002

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