The procedures are easy, the flavors are satisfying and the food is attractive.

The recipes are varied enough to please everyone, from kids who will clamor for Italian-style s'mores to busy cooks who will find a quick marinara sauce a godsend. Even a novice could handle the pastry base.ĭespite the glitches, I wouldn't hesitate to recommend this book. The crostata is wonderful with or without the juice, however. It's frustrating to find errors that recipe testers and proofreaders should have caught, especially when you're in the middle of preparing a dish.Īn apricot crostata recipe, for example, lists the juice and grated zest of a lemon as ingredients, but the directions never explain how the juice is to be used. Unfortunately, the book seems hastily put together, perhaps in a rush to capitalize on De Laurentiis' popularity. In the soup section, every recipe calls for purchased broth, sometimes in prodigious amounts (a beef lentil soup calls for six 14-ounce cans). The recipes are straightforward and require no special techniques or equipment, except for pots large enough to hold big amounts of soup and pasta.Īlthough there's no skimping on rich ingredients such as butter, cream, goat cheese and mascarpone, and freshness is important, De Laurentiis frequently makes use of convenience ingredients. 'This is the kind of unpretentious, authentic, down-home Italian cooking that my family loves,' she writes in the introduction to Giada's Family Dinners. Her food isn't cutting-edge, but that's not the point. In October, De Laurentiis started a second show, Behind the Bash, in which she examines the makings of great parties. There she watched chefs from Italy create pastas, pizzas and other dishes for the shop, including a baked angel hair timbale that she has revamped for the book.įascinated by what she had observed, De Laurentiis went on to train at Le Cordon Bleu in Paris, work at Spago and establish her own catering business. As a youngster, De Laurentiis hung out at the DDL Food Show, a gourmet shop that her grandfather opened in Beverly Hills in 1984. She's slim, gorgeous and thoroughly grounded in cooking. No wonder the Food Network sought her out.

Her famous grandfather, movie producer Dino De Laurentiis, was born in Naples into a family that owned a pasta factory. Born in Rome, De Laurentiis grew up in Los Angeles and lives there now.

Some of the recipes are straight from Italy. This one moves on to food that's a bit more ambitious, including Italian holiday dishes, grilled meats and party-sized food.

Giada everyday italian pasta recipes