(Gerry Furth-Sides) Amy Rioli’s Italian Recipes and Mediterranean Lifestyle for dummies books both need to be up there on your bookshelf with Julia, The Joy of Cooking and New Larousse Gastronomique.  She is a writer after my own heart, seeking out and sharing fascinating individual facts and trends about global cuisine and the cooks who create them.

As an award-winning, best-selling author, chef, television personality, Mediterranean Lifestyle advocate,
considered one of the world’s foremost authorities on culinary culture. For more information, please see her website, http://www.amyriolo.com/web/about/ We covered another book of author Rioli: https://localfoodeater.com/italian-diabetes-cookbook/

Her compact, accessible, and affordable hard-cover paperback cookbooks hold encyclopedic breadth and depth into Italian culinary culture and a dazzling array of recipes— all with the charm of a favorite, very glamorous, internationally renowned relative. 

In Amy’s  youtube presentation hosted by Melissa’s Produce, Amy explains  how a “lecture at the Smithsonian” on the Mediterranean diet (!!) prompted the book.  You can watch  the presentation on https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c5ikLguxiLI)

The books are divided into parts of a meal and nutritional themes. One of the gifts and joys of Amy’s books is confirmation of our own Mediterranean cuisine preference.  Thoughtful icon-marked REMEMBER and TIPS line the content. 

Caution:  The page-turner 300-page books also lead to side research to her descriptions of the difference in traditions between America and Italy, such as the Seven Fishes.  It is a wonderful “rabbit hole” you won’t regret.

Recipes are natural, clear, scrumptious and appealing, each with tens of variation she encourages. A salad, espresso and homemade pesto on pasta is used to illustrate her work.

We used Chef Amy Riolo’s privately-labelled Italian Extra Virgin Olive Oil is made by Fatttoria Italiana Martelli – an award-winning, fourth generation family-owned estate in a region of Italy, where Amy also leads tours.  

Her blend is individually and carefully  crafted with two olive cultivars indigenous to Abruzzo, an area known as “The greenest region in Europe.”  Gentile di Chieti and the Intosso olive varieties are harvested directly from the plant and milled immediately, allowing harmonious, sweet, fresh, and fruity characteristics to permeate the oil.

This prompted us to esearch on the difference between Spanish and Italian olive oil.  It turns out that Spanish oil has a nuttier, fruitier taste and is yellow-gold in color; it’s also more widely available Italian live oil is typicallv a darker green, with a grassier taste and herbal smell, and authentic bottles are harder to find. So Amy’s oil IS A FIND.

We tried it in a variation of an Amy recipe, and my own, with romaine lettuce. Inspired to research, we learned that the Romans first naming it “COS” from the Greek Aegean Island where it originated and brought it to England and Europe, where the buyers labeled it after the purveyors. Next, neutral appearing Artichokes are actually low in fat, high in fiber and loaded with antioxidants, vitamin C, vitamin K, folate, phosphorus and magnesium.  It was perfect in this Mediterranean salad.

Amy answered an age-old question of mine with this salad: how fiber in foods takes satisfies hunger.  This answers why dishes, such as our artichoke, walnut salad is not only satisfying for taste and texture, but filling enough for a meal.  She also reminded us that a squeeze of lemon or the zest not only can spark a dish.  It adds an antiviral and antimicrobial property!

The Pasta section of Italian Recipes is filled with history, how-to-make illustrations (including trofie!), descriptions, dried pasta information and recipes.  

A confirmed trofie and pappardelle-only eater, I prepared a sort of penne out of convenient box because it was sort of “baby” small and cute, also thinking that the pesto made with Any’s Olive oil would fill in the holes and indentations.

In her description, Amy adds the fun fact that Penne is “called ‘pens’ because they are shaped like the quills once used as writing instruments. “ She also points out that penne is now “more commonly eaten outside of Italy!  

And, ah, espresso.  The thought was enough for me to down a fresh little cup – you never linger over espresso.  Again, there is a complete listing of variations,  full history and customs, including roasting, plus a how-to section on making and making sweets to accompany caffe.

I was so happy to read that caffe (the affectionate term Italians use for all coffees, is indeed served after every meal.  And that espresso does, indeed, have less caffeine than regular coffee.  I cannot wait to make the anise biscotti.  Bon Apetito!

A graduate of Cornell University, Amy is a food historian, culinary anthropologist known for sharing history, culture, and nutrition through global cuisine as well as simplifying recipes for the home cook. In 2021 she co-founded the international organization A.N.I.T.A. (National Italian Academy of Italian Food).

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For more terrific coverage please see @tableconverwsation @fayelevy @melissa’s and the SOCAL radio show: https://socalrestaurantshow.com/media/podcasts/show-490-september-10-2022-chef-amy-riolo-with-italian-recipes-for-dummies/

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