I am an Italian American who grew up helping my mother cook. While I was a professional chef for many years and have maintained my interest in food after I moved on to a non-cooking career, I lost my touch with the foods of my youth. Lidia has given all my childhood memories back to me and then some.

The recipes are authentic because they turn out perfectly and they taste like I remember them. Best of all is their utter simplicity. Lidia's talent comes from combining a few very fresh ingredients using proper technique into a mouth watering dish.

Anyone who has seen the show knows the passion that Lidia has for food. Just watching her enjoy the dish she has prepared can make you hungry. Well, this passion spills over to the book in every recipe and in every description or cooks note in the book.

If you love Italian American food and want to get as close to authentic as you can get, then buy this book.

Recently made Lidia's Shrimp Scampi, the first Italian dish I've made besides spagetti and meatballs and it was awesome. My gourmet friends joined my wife and myself in a five star meal that would rate up there with the best my wife and I had in Italy this past fall.

You like Italian, you have to try this book!!

I've watched Lidia for quite some time on Public Television in Philadelphia. One of my in-laws received her cookbook for Christmas last year. So for the past year, I was debating whether to buy the book or not for myself. But, lucky for me, this cookbook found it's way under the Christmas tree this year.

Hopefully over the next couple of weeks I'll have the time to make a couple of the recipes. I'll update my review and let you know what happens. I'm sure I won't have any horror stories. Lidia is great!!!

This is the best Italian cookbook I have.It is worth its weight in gold. I could never make good spagetti and meatballs. Now, thanks to Lidia's easy to follow directions, I am making wonderful Italian dishes. My husband says my meatballs are the best he has ever had. I can't wait to try all the other recipes. If you love Italian food but can't get the hang of it, this is the book for you. Thanks Lidia!

Wow, what a great Italian cookbook, the best I have seen-ever.
The directions are fantastic, if you follow everything she says you will make the most unbelieveable tasting dishes, you almost feel high from the flavors you can create with this book. You will not want to, nor will you have to go out to dinner. There are tons of recipes that I have always wanted to make - chicken scaprellio, fried mozzarella, calzones, every scallopine dish ever, grilled and marinated calamari. All these and so much more are in this book. So far (in the past week) I have tried;
Calzones, Gnocchi, Tomato sauce, Ravioli with spinach, Chicken scallopine with peppers, mushroom and tomato, Chicken breast in a light lemon-herb sauce (was like an oreganto), stuffed artichokes. Every dish was like a dream, I can't wait until I can prepare new recipes. Nothing is too heavy, the oil amounts are perfect, not too rich, or too weak. Can't say enough good things about it, just buy it and you will see!