From acclaimed Philadelphia chef Marc Vetri comes a celebration of handcrafted, regional Italian cooking that advocates a hands-on, back-to-the-basics approach to cooking.

Slow-cooked meats, homemade breads, and flavorful pastas are the traditional comfort-food classics that Italians have been roasting, baking, curing, and making in their own kitchens for generations--dishes that people actually want to cook and eat.

Home cooks of every skill level will revel in the 120 recipes, such as sweet Fig and Chestnut Bread, rich Spinach and Ricotta Gnocchi, savory Slow-Roasted Lamb Shoulder, and fragrant Apple Fritters. But Rustic Italian Food is much more than just a collection of recipes. With detailed, step-by-step instructions for making terrines, dry-cured salami, and cooked sausage; a thorough guide to bread and pasta making; and a primer on classic Italian preserves and sauces, Rustic Italian Food is also an education in kitchen fundamentals.

In this book Marc Vetri connects us directly to the essence of Italian food.

The Cake Mix Doctor meets Everyday Italian! In this book, best-selling author David Joachim presents 170 creative recipes for easy dinners that start with bottled pasta sauce, like pesto, alfredo, and clam sauce in addition to plain old marinara. Everybody gets tired of pasta sauce on pasta, but we eat it because it-s easy. David will show you how to use jarred sauce in innovative ways to create dishes that look complicated but are really a snap to make. With all the new gourmet pasta sauces available at every grocery store, it's easy to make sophisticated food that goes way beyond lasagna and baked ziti.

With full-color photos and a fun package, this book is the ideal gift book for the creative cook.