The Home Cook: Recipes to Know by Heart

In a sentimental introduction to this solid cookbook, Guarnaschelli, executive chef at Butter Restaurant in New York City and a familiar face from the Food Network, lists the cookbooks that constituted her mother’s reference section. That list includes The Silver Palate Cookbook, which this book certainly emulates in the way that it sits squarely at the crossroads of the need to get food on the table and the desire to make meals as enjoyable as they are reliable. Rather than the standard breakdown by courses, chapters here are theme based: there’s one on sauces and dressings that contains nine different vinaigrettes and another titled “Supermarket Mushrooms Made Sexy.” A chapter on Italian-American classics (a logical inclusion for someone who identifies as “the daughter of two Italian Americans”) includes eggplant parmigiana, but the chapter on Italian-American cookies confounds somewhat with oatmeal cookies that incorporate quinoa and fairly standard brownies and chocolate-chip cookies. While the recipes here are not particularly innovative, a Caesar salad with black-pepper steak and a hearty bowl of brisket soup with dumplings certainly appeal. The instructions are clearly conveyed, and Guarnaschelli nicely chronicles the changes in a shifting culinary landscape. [em](Sept.) [/em]