It’s a classic. There are a lot of recipes here, many of which I am not familiar with. The book is full of recipes but does not have all those good porn photos of today’s coffee table cookbooks. It’s no nonsense and you have to read, not look at photos.

I did thorough research before ordering this book. This book is the culmination Marcella Hazan's works. She explains that this combined two of her previous books into this one and updated it to be easier to understand and with illustrations to guide us. I've only had it for a week but you can tell that she has passion for her traditional Italian cooking. It's NOT Americanized Italian cooking. This is the real deal with explanations based on history and Italian culture and why every little thing is the way it is. I have absolutely zero skill in the kitchen and this has been an exciting and eye opening read to me. She even has a whole chapter on the fundamentals of Italian cooking which include a description on every single main ingredient you will ever use and how best to prepare, preserve, clean, timing, and buying the right ingredient in the right way that Italians cooks use them. You won't be lost in the grocery market trying to decide which ingredients to use and if you should get one brand over the other because you can throw all that processed garbage out of your life FOREVER! I never knew how horrible I used to "cook" until I read the first two chapters. TRUST ME YOU WON"T BE LOST. If you're worried about it not having many recipes or if you might have to supplant this book with some other ones' DON"T BE. The book is 688 pages of easy to read text with even easier to read headings. Everything is laid out very well. I'm thoroughly impressed. Here are the following chapters of this book just incase you had any doubts. Section/Chapters: Introduction Fundamentals (awesome read by the way) Appetizers Soups Pasta Rissoto Gnocchi Crespelle Polenta Frittate Fish and Shellfish Chicken, Squab, Duck, and Rabbit Veal Beef Lamb Pork Variety Meats Vegetables Salads Desserts Focaccia, Pizza, Bread, and Other Special Doughs At Table (a chapter explain the entire Italian table in their culture) Index Don't worry about the Italian words in the book she thoroughly explains every single word you will come across. So you will learn some Italian as well. I shall update this post after a month or two of thoroughly diving into this book. BUY IT!

Great recipes. Comforting food.

I will never buy pasta sauce in a jar again. Who would've thought that you could saute some onions and/or garlic in extra virgin olive oil, then add a can of chopped-up Italian plum tomatoes, simmer for 20 minutes, and have the best pasta sauce you've ever created? I certainly didn't, and I've spent years doctoring jarred sauce with sugar and various spices to make them palatable. The recipes in this book are simple, mostly inexpensive, and supremely delicious. Among my favorites are the Minestrone alla Romagnola, Red and Yellow Bell Pepper Sauce with Sausages, and Tuna Sauce with Tomatoes and Garlic. I love tuna, but when I saw a recipe for tuna in a red sauce, I wasn't sure what the outcome would be. But man oh man, it turned out to be my favorite way of preparing tuna. Another great thing about this dish is that it only costs about $7 to make 4 to 6 servings. For those of you who require photos in your cookbooks, I have good news and bad news. The bad news is that there are no photos, and there are very few illustrations. The good news is that you really don't need photos if you look at the recipes. They are all simple, as all great Italian cooking is. They use very few ingredients, and the steps are easy to follow. I would have to say that they are foolproof, idiotproof, and bulletproof. I don't really see how you could mess them up unless you weren't really paying attention to what you're doing. The "Fundamentals" section which begins the book is also a great read. Here the author explains how Italian flavors are created, the do's and don'ts, and how to select and use the ingredients. I think most people would pick up at least a couple of useful hints about cooking in general from this section. If you are at all serious about cooking Italian food, this book is a must-have. I have a lot of what are considered all-time great cookbooks, and this one might be the one I'd pick for the desert island scenario.

Love the directions. They are very descriptive and well written. Nice to have recipes from all over Italy. Every recipe has a description of its origin. I was astonished with how delicious every recipe, so far, has turned out. Do yourself a big favor. Get this book. It’s absolutely worth it.