• Eat Your Books

  1993 International Association of Culinary Professionals (Cookbook of the Year)

• ellabee on November 17, 2016

  Cookbook of the Month on chowhound: http://www.chowhound.com/post/october-cookbook-month-2011-splendid-table-recipes-emilia-810102. {deep sigh} eta Jan 2023: The loss of the archived Chowhound forums when the site shut down was a real erasure of tons of valuable information and experiences shared by cooks. Reading over the COTM threads was instructive, an almost irreplaceable kind of window into a book. It's also how/where I and a lot of long-term members first heard of EYB.

• DKennedy on March 23, 2014

  Such a wonderful book. So many great recipes and lore.

• DKennedy on May 26, 2013

  Made most of the ragus from this book with consistently great results.

• crjoburke on December 26, 2009

  Great history of Emilia Romagna, and wonderful recipes. One of the few cookbooks I have read cover to cover. One of my "go to" books.

Notes about Recipes in this book

• Gramigna with wine-braised sausage (Gramigna alla salsiccia e vino)

  • Breadcrumbs on October 16, 2010

    p. 114 - calls for Italian sausage without fennel. Sauce is seasoned w sage.

  • Breadcrumbs on December 04, 2010

    p. 114/5 - First use of this recipe. Sweet Italian sausage is sliced and browned then removed from the pan. In go the diced carrots and onions along with fresh parsley. The sausage then added back in along with chopped garlic and the lovely sage leaves. Once the wonderful garlic aroma permeates the air, tomato paste, wine and . . . get this, ground cloves are added. When the pasta is almost cooked, a 14oz can of tomatoes are added to simmer slowly. Pasta and parmesan are tossed in the sauce and, served family-style. With the assistance of the food processor, this dish essentially comes together in the time it takes to cook the pasta (including the time to bring the pasta water to a boil) and you’d never know this since the sauce is so rich with deep flavours. Finely diced, the carrot and onion just melt-away to thicken the sauce. Rich, delicious and oh-so-tasty, this was a lovely pasta dish that we hungrily devoured and will definitely be made again.

  • twoyolks on December 18, 2017

    There are a lot of recipes for sausage based pasta sauces with tomato. This version if fine but isn't particularly special. I've made easier versions that tasted better.

• Thumb pasta and tomato braised beans Piacenza style (Pisaréi e fasô)

  • Breadcrumbs on October 16, 2011

    p. 229 - This delicious dish came together in no time once the individual components were made. I purchased my fresh pasta and, used fresh borlotti beans vs dried so my cook time and method differed somewhat.The tomato sauce is the heart and soul of the recipe in my view. Pancetta is rendered in olive oil prior to adding parsley and onions to the pan to cook to a rich brown colour. Garlic and basil are then added along w some tomato paste and all is mixed together prior to adding in 28oz of tomatoes. This mixture then simmers for 5 mins prior to adding in the beans. In my case I simply allowed the sauce to simmer for 1.5 hrs prior to adding my cooked borlotti beans.This made for a rich, hearty, simple and delicious meal. I was surprised that the pancetta flavour was discernable in the final dish given that only 2 oz were used. The flavour of the pancetta definitely added to the richness of the sauce. I’d recommend this recipe without reservations.

• Balsamic roast chicken (Pollo al forno con aceto balsamico)

  • Breadcrumbs on August 21, 2011

    p. 179 - This was a tasty and different way to serve roast chicken. Chicken is rubbed w a garlic/salt/rosemary/evoo mixture and rosemary sprigs are placed in its cavity prior to wrapping and refrigerating overnight. After roasting the bird the following day, cut pieces of chicken are drizzled w high quality balsamic. Such a simple preparation but the quality of these ingredients take this dish from good to outstanding. What I especially love about this book is all the extra info that accompany's each recipe. From wine recommendations to regional variations, LRK has it covered. Another wonderful dish from this book.

  • Lee on January 04, 2015

    Agreed!

  • jahqdruh on May 28, 2017

    Agree that this is a simple preparation -- and because of that, quality of your ingredients is important. I splurged on organic, air chilled chicken and the best evoo/balsamic I could afford. Boy, were the results worth it.

• Parsley-stuffed shrimps (Gambieri ripieni)

  • JoanN on October 05, 2011

    These were just terrific.They were a bit fussy, but because you can prepare them ahead of time, by the time you eat them you’ve forgotten anything that annoyed you during the prep. I can imagine piling these on a platter and serving them as an hors d'oeuvres. With plenty of napkins. Mmm-mmm good.

• Modena rice pudding (Torta di riso)

  • Lindacakes on April 24, 2011

    This is excellent, best warm. Use a regular cake pan, not springform, the batter is too runny. Try it with grated orange zest and chopped orange peel.

• Espresso and mascarpone semi-freddo (Semi-freddo di espresso e mascarpone)

  • DKennedy on August 31, 2012

    Wonderful!

• Imola's risotto of the Vigil (Risotto della Vigilia de Natale)

  • DKennedy on March 06, 2017

    Excellent.

• Giovanna's wine-basted rabbit (Coniglio di Giovanna)

  • DKennedy on January 16, 2014

    This is a lovely dish. The roasted rabbit is cooked whole. Total cooking time is 1 hr, 45 minutes. The timing was perfect for a 3.5 lb. rabbit. I've never cooked a whole rabbit before, all my other recipe calls for parts. After the first 30 minutes, I added new potatoes and baby carrots to the sauce and a few extra whole garlic cloves. Served it with the Garlic Sauteed Cabbage (p. 331).

• Pappardelle with lentils and Parmigiano-Reggiano (Pappardelle alle lenticchie)

  • TrishaCP on May 04, 2015

    I was worried that this would be too much starch upon starch, but the lentils as prepared are really delicious- possibly the best tasting lentils that I have ever made. Definitely a keeper.

• Tagliatelle with balsamic radicchio (Tagliatelle con radicchio e aceto balsamico)

  • nicolepellegrini on March 24, 2021

    I really enjoyed this pasta. Immediately reminded me of similar dishes I had while in this region of Italy, very authentic.

• Tagliarini with fresh figs Franco Rossi (Tagliarini ai fichi Ristorante Franco Rossi)

  • nicolepellegrini on April 08, 2021

    Very easy yet deliciously decadent and rich. If you love figs, this is a great way to use them!

• Country-style ragù (Ragù alla contadina)

  • ntt2 on February 09, 2012

    This is one of the best Ragu's ever!

• Poultry/meat stock (Brodo)

  • twoyolks on January 01, 2019

    This is a great broth. It has a lot of depth of flavor and works very well in a soup. I used beef back ribs, turkey necks, turkey wings, and a capon neck to make the stock. I brought the meat to the boil in water, strained and discarded the water, and then pressure cooked the ingredients in fresh water for 4 hours.

• Tagliatelle with prosciutto di Parma (Tagliatelle al prosciutto di Parma)

  • twoyolks on January 29, 2018

    I used brown chicken stock and found that it rather dominated the flavor of the sauce. The prosciutto seemed almost like an afterthought.

  • jahqdruh on May 28, 2017

    This was fabulous. Served with the asparagus Parma-style from the same book.

• Tortellini in broth Villa Gaidello (Tortellini in brodo Villa Gaidello)

  • twoyolks on January 01, 2019

    This is one of the best things I've ever made. It was very popular as a first course for our Christmas dinner. The tortellini are bursting with flavor and the broth is amazing. I ended up with lots of extra filling and a lot of pasta scraps so it would be easy to make a larger number of tortellini.

• Christmas capon (Cappone Natalizio)

  • twoyolks on January 01, 2019

    The capon turned out very well. It was tender and juicy. That said, I'm not really sure this recipe really added a whole lot as it's rather simple.

• Roasted beets and onions (Bietole e cipolle al forno)

  • twoyolks on September 28, 2017

    I was really surprised by how much I liked this. The flavor was good without being overwhelmingly earthy. I did use orange beets. I think this would be especially pretty with chioggia beets.

• Torta Barozzi

  • twoyolks on January 01, 2019

    This was a nice enough cake but I felt it was a bit dry and, while I normally like peanut butter a lot, it didn't really work for me here.

• Braised pork ribs with polenta (Puntine di maiale con polenta)

  • runoutofshelves on March 17, 2018

    This was delicious. Sometimes I think red wine overwhelms the flavours in a braise, and maybe next time I might try white wine, but it was a lovely dish with creamy polenta, a bit reminiscent of a Greek stifatha with the spices.

• Meat ragù with Marsala (Ragù di carne e Marsala)

  • jahqdruh on May 28, 2017

    Served this with the homemade tagliatelle pasta from this book. Excellent -- my only caveat is that I won't use gizzards with the giblets any more. Hearts and livers were fine, but the gizzards had an unpleasant texture.

• Asparagus in the style of Parma (Asparagi alla Parmigiana)

  • jahqdruh on May 28, 2017

    Very tasty -- makes a great accompaniment for the tagliatelle with Prosciutto di Parma.

• Cappellacci with sweet squash (Cappellacci con la zucca)

  • ashallen on July 27, 2019

    I made the mistake of picking this recipe for my first attempt at making stuffed pasta - it exceeded my skill set! The shape isn't as straightforward to form as a ravioli. Also, I didn't roll the pasta thin enough to account for the many overlapping layers in the cappellaci and there were chewy bits after cooking (even after cooking for longer than recommended in the recipe). They also had a higher squash-to-pasta ratio than I'd hoped for. The butternut squash-sweet potato filling is very good, however. The leftover filling froze well and worked great in raviolis I made weeks after trying the cappellacci.

• Risotto of red wine and rosemary (Risotto al barbera)

  • ashallen on October 05, 2019

    Great risotto with elegant flavors!

• Tagliatelle with caramelized onions and fresh herbs (Tagliatelle con cipolle e erbucce)

  • ashallen on November 09, 2019

    Really delicious pasta dish and easy to customize since you pick the mix of herbs you'd like from the ones suggested in the recipe. I like the herb texture best when finely chopped. Rich homemade chicken stock worked well for the "meat broth" specified in the recipe.

• Spiced spinach with almonds (Spinaci in padella del settecento)

  • ashallen on December 13, 2019

    Really delicious!

• Fresh garlic soup Brisighella (Zuppa di aglio fresco)

  • ashallen on December 06, 2019

    This is a delicious soup. It's quite simple so the flavor of the broth is important for the overall flavor of the dish - we used a good homemade chicken stock.

• Creamy polenta

  • ashallen on September 27, 2019

    Super-easy, largely hands-off method for making polenta that takes advantage of the gentle heat of a double boiler. It does take time, however - I think my relatively coarsely ground, stone-ground cornmeal needed 2-3 hours to lose all hints of rawness in the flavor. Making this recipe with milk vs. water creates an extra-creamy texture.

• Romagna mountain bread (Spianata)

  • ashallen on July 23, 2019

    This bread turned out OK for me - but not fabulous. It was finely textured and a bit dry. Perhaps my technique was off (e.g., rising times, baking time) and I need to give it another try. I used butter vs. lard and King Arthur all purpose flour.

• Spianata with spinach and cheese topping

  • ashallen on November 29, 2019

    The spianata bread turned out OK but not fabulous. It was finely textured and a bit dry. Perhaps my technique was off (e.g., rising times, baking time) and I need to give it another try. I used butter vs. lard and King Arthur all purpose flour. The spinach and cheese topping, however, was really delicious and would go well with a wide variety of breads!

• Polenta

  • ashallen on September 27, 2019

    Super-easy, largely hands-off method for making polenta that takes advantage of the gentle heat of a double boiler. It does take time, however - I think my relatively coarsely ground, stone-ground cornmeal needed 2-3 hours to lose all hints of rawness in the flavor.

• Ugo Falavigna's apple cream tart (Torta di mele Ugo Falavigna)

  • ashallen on November 24, 2019

    Great tart - excellent crust, yummy custard, and tender apples. The flavor of the apples dominates the dish so it's good to use flavorful ones and/or add flavor with some cinnamon or nutmeg. Pears might be good, too.