Hi. My name is Tami...and I am a cookbook addict.
You think I'm kidding? Ask me how many I have coming to me from Amazon right now.
I need an intervention. Seriously.
I received a copy of Adventures of an Italian Food Lover by Faith Heller Willinger months ago. I got it right at the tail end of the blog event that Cath over at A Blithe Palate hosted. If you missed it, go check it out here...so many great entries.
Anyway.
I made a thing or two out of it after reading through the entire book. It's an interesting mix of travel guide/storytelling/recipes that was, at first, hard to get into. Once I got going, though, I couldn't help but keep reading. I love the rustic and charming illustrations throughout it, too...
...and then it sat...and sat. On top of it went Bittman (man he's heavy), Flay, Hay, and the 4 Ingredients and 10 Minutes cookbooks I found in the sale bin at TJ Maxx. Wait till you see what I cook in just 10 minutes with only those 4 ingredients. MacGuyver, look out.
Today...I re-visited Adventures of an Italian Food Lover and made something tasty and delicious: smoked mozzarella cutlets. How can fried, gooey squares of smoked cheese ever be bad? Grown up cheese sticks? Yes, please. The recipe was super easy, delicious, and worth my house smelling like fry oil for the time being.
To soften the blow of eating a block of fried cheese, I topped them with a quick salad of roasted red & yellow peppers, capers, good balsamic and extra virgin olive oil. It gave a little fresh zing to them, which was appreciated. I'll be working my way back through this book again to try out some of the seafood dishes, for sure.
Now where did I put Alice Waters...
