cover image Modern Italian Cooking

Modern Italian Cooking

Biba Caggiano. Simon & Schuster, $17.45 (0pp) ISBN 978-0-671-55330-2

Caggiano (Northern Italian Cooking, a northern California restaurateur, offers an appealing array of some 200 recipes. Rigatoni with mushrooms, prosciutto and cream, and chicken with herbs are typical of the delightfully fresh dishes that can be prepared with a minimum of fuss. Experienced cooks will enjoy more challenging fare like pasta roll stuffed with spinach and cheese, which calls for homemade pasta to be rolled out by hand. Many will be pleased by the variety of regional recipes represented, from alpine pasta and chick-pea soup or apple strudel with raisins, pine nuts and jam to Neapolitan fusilli with meat sauce or calzone stuffed with cheese. Caggiano confidently nudges at the cuisine's boundaries, presenting cucumber and pink grapefruit salad as a logical variation of classic Sicilian oranges and fennel, and cold roast beef with capers and anchoviesthe Italian version of a quintessentially English dish. The division of the recipes into spring/summer and fall/winter sections is only a minor nuisance. Illustrations not seen by PW. (March 31)