If you want a cookbook that reflects the perfect environment in which to dine with friends and family – in a stimulating and deliciously Italian atmosphere – this it!
Big Mamma Cucina Popolare!
With a cocky cover and weight nodding towards Big Mamma herself, this beautifully illustrated 370-page pillar of pasta, pizze, piatti and aperitivi… is fresh off the press thanks to those hungry folk at Phaidon!
The book is a catalogue of recipes, tips and cheats from Big Mamma, a chain of 10 modern Italian restaurants in London and France.
The recipes are simple to follow, and every single one of the 130 methods has its own superb image, either the dish teasing you off the page or of an enthusiastic chef (the average age of chefs in the group is a fresh 24-years) gleaming over his real tomato sauce, puckering at his Chantilly cream, applauding her own sponge mix, weighing up the black gold that is wild truffle, focusing on a cacao e pepe sauce, juggling gnocchi, whipping pasta into shape and kneading the perfect pizza dough – each chef with their own kitchen provenance, and talking of kneading – your kitchen needs this recipe book! For that matter your bestie needs this book to ensure your satiated satisfaction when it’s their call… It’s a great gift – and it just keeps on giving!
For those that have experienced the energy in London’s Gloria or Circoloa Popolare – the book will be an extension of the fun and passion that you’re familiar with and give you an opportunity to recreate some of their unique Mediterranean magic ‘a casa’!
You can glean tips on choosing your fresh fruit and veg, fish, meat and it pushes the meal boundaries into brunch – a section dedicated to the ever-growing culture that is developing somewhere between 10am and 1pm with a cheeky livener to accompany – and that is something else – there is a chapter on cocktails, lovely touch – welcomed by the Enjoy-It head office! Cin cin!
What a fabulous book – easy to operate with a simple key of icons denoting dairy and gluten-free, one-pot, vegan, vegetarian, 30 minutes or less and five ingredients or less…
More or less to conclude – we love this book, it smells as delicious as it looks, it is thoughtful, colourful, and insightful and Italian through and through – it evokes an impression of the Italian flair in Big Mamma’s kitchen, her belly and now, we trust in yours!