Pete Evans, Marc Vetri, Tamasin Day-Lewis and more…
By Andrea Pafitis-Hill
FOOD YOU CAN’T SAY NO TO
(Quadrille Publishing, R398)
Aptly titled, Tamasin Day-Lewis’s latest release focuses on making the most of seasonal ingredients for easily made meals. Every taste is catered for, with dishes ranging from Middle Easterninspired chicken tangia with smoked aubergine and red pepper couscous to primavera and prosciutto pie.
FISH
(Phaidon, R494)
Over 200 simple Italian recipes are offered in this book, which demystifies the process of choosing, preparing and cooking all kinds of fish. Warm up with hearty comfort dishes like threecolouredseafood lasagne or salmon and spinach pie.
FOUR SEASONS
(Hardie Grant Books, R454)
A year spent travelling to the Costa Smeralda, Lugano, Piemonte, the Swiss Alps and Sicily has resulted in Manuela Darling-Gansser’s compilation of favourite seasonal recipes like rolled lamb with asparagus, ricotta and Parmesan tarts, and food lover’s polenta. And with as many mouthwatering flavours to take in as stunning visuals of Italian landscapes and architecture, this is one to pore over with a glass of vino.
ADVENTURES WITH CHOCOLATE
(Kyle Books, R220)
With both drool-inducing recipes and an education on the fine art of chocolate, it’s no surprise that this book won the World Gourmand Cookbook Award for Best Chocolate Book. Paul A Young spins an alchemy of fusions like fig and date tarts with cumin-chocolate syrup and rosemary-poached pears with Stilton ganache and walnuts.
RUSTIC ITALIAN FOOD
(Ten Speed Press, R365)
Trained in Italy, acclaimed American chef Marc Vetri, in collaboration with food writer and editor David Joachim, serves up classic regional Italian food with step-by-step instructions to making terrines, dry-cured salami, bread and pasta. While some quantities come with metric conversions, you’ll need a chart for others – a small price to pay for producing mouthwatering meals like veal cannelloni with porcini béchamel sauce.
MY KITCHEN
(Murdoch Books, R314)
Celebrity Australian chef Pete Evans pays homage to down-to-earth, honest food, “letting the true nature of the ingredients speak for itself”. Dishes like eggplant and pork hot pot and lamb ragu with rigatoni are meals you’ll want to linger over in the company of family and good friends.
* June 2012 prices
