Jack Bishop (1)

I love this cookbook. My brother started using this cookbook about twenty years ago. He would quote the weird ideas that the author has, like you have to pat mushrooms with a paper towel, and you have to sift sand off spinach and then daintily remove each stem. Consequently, at first I thought this cookbook was ridiculous. But I was won over with a series of tremendously delicious pasta sauces. Eventually I drank the Kool Aid and became fully converted to the Jack Bishop way. Usually with a cookbook I only make one or two recipes, but I use this one constantly, practically daily. It focuses on fresh, simple Italian pasta dishes. Like the Ballet Cookbook, there are no photos of food. (I prefer that because food photography makes me feel small and inferior.) So it is a real cookbook, not a coffee-table book. I am a vegan and most of these vegetarian recipes are easy to convert. From a literary POV, my favorite part is when he describes going to Paris at the age of twenty and eating an artichoke for the first time. I would go a little easier on the red hot pepper flakes than the proportions called for in this book.… (mer)

This is by the author of my favorite cookbook, [b:The Complete Italian Vegetarian Cookbook: 350 Essential Recipes for Inspired Everyday Eating|484382|The Complete Italian Vegetarian Cookbook 350 Essential Recipes for Inspired Everyday Eating|Jack Bishop|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1347343552s/484382.jpg|472702], so I had lofty expectations. Given the wider range of styles in this one, I'm not disappointed that I don't love it QUITE as much - there are still a lot of good recipes here. It's on the wishlist!

Ones I will make again or for the first time eventually:
-radish and white bean salad
-baked chard stems with tomatoes, garlic, and parmesan
-roasted beet and arugula salad with feta and garlic pita crisps
-grilled vegetable and kidney bean salad with sherry-orange vinaigrette
-radish and st andre sandwiches with lettuce
-fettuccini with caramelized onion sauce… (mer)