Lidia's Italian Table by Lidia Bastianich (1998, Hardcover)

I bought "Lidia's Italian Table" after faithfully watching her shows on PBS and attending her restaurant in Kansas City. I was thoroughly pleased! I love the easy-to-follow recipes and instructions as well as the full-color photographs that are extremely motivating! My husband and I tried many of the recipes and found many new favorites here. The book opened our eyes to new flavors and got us away from our everyday eating rut!

I bought this book because I enjoy Lidia's TV show on public TV. One of the things I enjoy about the show is the simplicity of her recipes and the fact that she uses common (and inexpensive) ingredients to prepare what I consider to be everyday meals. I have cooked many of the meals she demonstrated and been very pleased with the results.
The book was somewhat disappointing as the recipes were much more complicated and the ingredients included items like squab and venison, as well as more ordinary food. If I had seen the Table of Contents I probably would not have bought this book - but I did save a considerable amount of money buying it on-line. On the plus side - the narrative by Lidia and the photographs are terrific - well worth the price I paid.