Love Italian Food: Recipes for friends and family from a home in Asolo - Hardcover

Stefano Scatà is an internationally acclaimed food and interiors photographer who has won many honours for his work, including the ADUTEI (Association of Official Representatives of Tourism in Italy) prize for best photographer. Producing stunning food photography in locations all around the world, he and Maddalena have built up a unique creative partnership over the years.

Despite a surfeit of Italian cookbooks on the market, there’s always room for another specialty collection. Asolo (a town northwest of Venice) resident and first-time culinary author Caruso, when paired with high-tone photographer Stefano Scata, produces a beautifully executed recipe book, which is rather amazing when considering that neither her mother nor her grandmother was ever a kitchen dabbler, and she appears to have had no formal training. Yet the more than 100 recipes are about as uncomplicated as the seasons; each of her four sections features those ready-now, found-in-the-garden ingredients. Spring’s focus is asparagus. Summer, it’s figs—and so on. For the most part, recipes are easy to follow, except for some items that simply don’t translate into U.S. grocery-store availability (for instance, teal and pane carasau). Traditional dishes nestle with local menu items: lasagna with hare sauce, asparagus with Parmesan crisps, and sweet basil dressing, contrasted with rose-and-mint-scented watermelon gazpacho and tabbouleh with aubergines and pomegranate seeds. Color photographs surpass expectations; this is a book to keep far, far away from spills and splatters. --Barbara Jacobs