Books that offer a dash of celebrity with dinner
As much as Americans love their food, they seem to enjoy it best with a dash of celebrity.
Luckily, the celebrity food world loves to keep people well fed. There is a stack of new books by big names to keep you sated through fall.
Super chef Mario Batali's "Molto Gusto" (Ecco) offers up perfect suppers and ideas for casual entertaining. Fava beans straight from the farmers market pair with zesty lemon and ricotta, and cherry tomatoes meet creme fraiche in elegant antipasti, most of which can be made well ahead of time.
Fresh sardines get a cinnamon-scented marinade and well-toasted bread topped with peppered chickpeas or succulent eggplant makes for crunchy-moist bruschetta. An entire chapter on pizza will please obsessives with its promises of a crisp yet pliant crust, and cooks who live on pasta will find a quick but satisfying meal in egg-bathed penne alla papalina.
True to Batali's signature emphasis on fresh, wholesome food, most recipes apply simple techniques to a handful of well-chosen ingredients. Bright, white-background photos of the dishes, redolent in greens and reds and purples, let you eat first with your eyes. A great book for anyone who likes good food without the fuss.
You know eating local has gone mainstream when Emeril Lagasse is leaning on a garden tool. In "Farm to Fork: Cooking Local, Cooking Fresh" (Harper Studio) the king of "BAM!" sniffs herbs and caresses tomatoes. Recipes for corn fritters and escarole soup with crushed red pepper promise good eating. Meanwhile, pumpkin pie gets extra mystique from a dash of cardamom. But despite the book's handwriting font and a few enticing dishes - lemon-crusted halibut? Yum! - nothing really screams fresh-from-the-farm.
In "Sara Moulton's Everyday Family Dinners" (Simon and Schuster) the executive chef of the former Gourmet magazine offers tempting dishes such as eggs and creamed spinach in phyllo cups, tandoori chicken wings, and appetizers like chorizo-stuffed mushrooms and panko-crusted scallops.
But the eggs require more than a half-dozen steps, including buttering phyllo. The chicken wings have to marinate for 8 to 10 hours. And scrumptious as the appetizers sound, I don't know any working mom or dad who's going to dish up three or four of them to "dazzle one and all with the variety," as Moulton suggests. A lovely collection of recipes, but very few that you're likely to tackle on a weekday.
But Tex-Mex tuna casserole? That could happen on any given Wednesday. The salsa-and-cilantro-spiked staple joins other simple, out-of-the-box ideas in "Cat Cora's Classics with a Twist" (Houghton Mifflin Hartcourt). The first and only female Iron Chef America puts a fresh spin on old favorites while keeping things simple.
Greek-style nachos feature pita chips, olives and yogurt, and clam chowder gets glammed up with bacon and sweet potatoes. But the book's crowning achievement? It's got to be tomato soup with grilled cheese croutons. Like self-adhesive stamps, it makes you wonder why no one thought of it sooner.
And then we've got burgers. In "The Good Stuff Cookbook" (Wiley), "Top Chef" veteran Spike Mendelsohn reveals the secrets of his Washington eatery, where Capitol Hill staffers line up well before noon to score his farmhouse burgers made with local beef, rosemary-sprinkled fries and toasted marshmallow milkshakes.
Good Stuff sauce - a twist on Thousand Island dressing - shares the pages with chipotle pesto, Old Bay mayonnaise, and other burger-enhancing accoutrements. There's a salad chapter, if you care. And how do you make a burger even better? "Add cheese, add bacon," says Spike. A man who understands.
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<li><a href="/story/?id=407781" class="mediaItem">Penne alla Papalina</a></li>
<li><a href="/story/?id=407780" class="mediaItem">Seared Scallops and Butter Lettuce Salad with Grapefruit Vinaigrett</a></li>
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