A Taste of Modern Italy (Fantastico!: Modern Italian Food - Gino D'Acampo)

Member Name: gingerella

Product:	Fantastico!: Modern Italian Food - Gino D'Acampo
Date:	19/06/09 (33 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Delicious recipes for unusual cuisine

Disadvantages: Not very healthy

I picked this up for £5 when The Book People came to sell books at my work.
It appealed to me because I love Italian food but was interested in something a bit different from the traditional dishes I am used to cooking and eating in restaurants.

Gino introduces you to the Italian way of cooking and some of his advice is useful - such as spend less time on cooking a dish and more time on buying the right ingredients. His arrogance can be grating at times, though, and there are some dishes that I think he just put in to show how he could put his "Gino- spin" on something when the traditional way tastes better. It was refreshing to hear him say you should do more exercise instead of trying to make diet versions of his dishes although in some cases you would have to do a half marathon! I counted the calories in one dish and it came to over 1000 - half of what the average woman should eat a day. I find that the recipes make very over generous portions so if a recipe says "serves four" I usually divide it into six to avoid there being a lot of waste/damage to the waistline!

The book is divided into sections:
*Late Breakfast
*Aperitivi & Antipasti (cocktails and canapés)
*Sunshine & Salads
*Pasta, Soups & Risotto
*Something Fishy
*Legs & Feathers (meat and poultry)
*Veg Out (vegetarian)
*A Bit on the Side (side dishes)
*Sweet things (desserts)
*Say It With Food (dishes he suggests cooking for your loved ones for special occasions).

My favourite recipe out of the entire book is the Double Chocolate Mousse with Pistachio & Chilli. It's deliciously naughty with a drop of Grand Marnier in it. My mum wasn't keen on the chilli though so I would leave that out if you were making it for anyone who's not keen on spice.

The French Bean with Sun-dried Tomatoes, Feta & Mozzarella salad is also great and went well with a BBQ we had.

Cannelloni with Courgettes, Rocket & Mascarpone was disappointing. This is one of those dishes I mentioned above, which is better the traditional way with spinach and ricotta.

All the recipes in here are the type of stuff I would make when entertaining. The ingredients aren't cheap to source and I think someone who was a novice would struggle to follow some of the recipes. All in all, a fabulous book though that is great for your taste buds but maybe not for your friends and families waistlines!

Summary: Great for the occasional treat