The Tuscan Sun Cookbook: Recipes from Our Italian Kitch… (2024)

4.5 oh my tastebuds are dancing!

Love the recipes in this book, and everyone I've made so far has been delicious. Can't wait to try even more.

Very nice book with wonderful photos of food and Tuscany, interesting text and good recipes. Frances Mayes and husband Edward spend part of each year in nearby Hillsborough NC, so we have managed to meet and visit with them. Worth owning as a visual feast, but the recipes are good too!

Delicious recipes sit side by side with beautiful photographs and evocative prose. Exactly what one would expect from the poet and author Mayes.

I do love my cookbooks! When a message about cookbooks, popped into my inbox, I immediately started looking at my local library to see if they had any of them, as I like to sample them before I actually buy them. They had 4 of them so I felt very lucky. The Tuscan Sun Cookbook looked promising but I wondered how complicated the recipes were and how exotic the ingredients might be, but I remained hopeful. After looking through the book though, I was surprised at my finding.

First off, let me say, that the pictures inside this book are beautiful. Imagine a nice summer day, you’re in the hills of Italy enjoying lunch with your friends. A photographer has stopped by to take some shots and now, those pictures are inside this book. Although there aren’t pictures of every recipe in this book, the ones that are there, look very appealing.

Each recipe does come with how many it serves, the ingredients list and step-by-step instructions. Accompanying each recipe, is a small paragraph or two that describes a bit about that recipe. The book consists of recipes that would actually be served in Tuscany according to the authors. The book is broken up into many sections. The Essential section had a few recipes that I enjoyed. Tomato Sauce (with bay leaves -I love bay leaves!), a Soffritto (looks delicious), Besciamella, a Brine, and Pesto. The Antipasti section contained appetizers. The Primi section was pasta and it began with making pasta and Giusi’s Ragu which looked nice and hearty. Angry Pasta? Oh yes, black olives and red pepper flakes made this recipe stand out. Lasagne with Ragu, using the same ragu, as mentioned before but adding it to a lasagna. Next was the Second section which was meats and I found Chicken Under a Brick and Chicken with Olives and Tomatoes. The Contorni section was salads and vegetables and the last section was Dolci which consisted of desserts. There is an Aperitivi E Digestivi section which is the closer for their meals: the bitter elixirs. There are 2 recipes in this section (Nocino and Riccardo’s Limoncello) which accompany the author’s comments on this topic

What I didn’t find in this book was exotic ingredients or complicated recipes. That was a win for me. I did come across some new words, such as Fascicles of Summer Vegetables but as the author pointed out in their paragraph, fasces in Latin actually means a bundle of iron sticks. The author continued on in their comments, talking about Emily Dickinson’s fascicles of poems. Strawberry Semifreddo? I’d never heard of Semifreddo before but I learned that this dessert is not gelato or sorbetto but that it’s easy to make and doesn’t require a fancy machine.

I did find some recipes that wouldn’t work for me but might for others. Recipes that included ingredients like fish, lamb, veal, and rabbit. All-in-all, this cookbook was a great find for me. If you’re into Tuscan dishes or want to try something different, this is one cookbook you should check out.

I bought this cookbook before we went to Tuscany for a month 5 years ago so we could cook local recipes. I discovered some true gems on that trip that became favorites both I and my friends would turn to many times over the years. We went back to Tuscany for a month this year and I found that I made some of the gems but also continued to find new recipes to try and love. For me, that is the story of an amazing cookbook. Plus it’s wonderful to read the anecdotes around each recipe on where they found them.

Most cookbooks I have provide 2-4 recipes that I add to my repetoire (with the exception of about 4 which have multiple bookmarks protruding from their pages) so I was delighted to read, and try several of the recipes from this book having enjoyed Frances Mayes Tuscan series of books. I adored the pasta shells with shrimp and 3 cheeses and the Brodetto was enjoyed by all as was the Fennel and Citrus Salad. I will be trying several more of them.
Recommended

Nice book

This is a nice book that brings the reader to Italy. But
The recipes are hohum - nothing special. Recipes that
anyone who cooks Italian already knows.

Great sounding Italian recipes and the text and photos are wonderful!

Beautifully illustrated, great recipes. Good for gardeners with an over-abundance of tomatoes!

Great cookbook to make the Italian foods mentioned in the book Under the Tuscan Sun by Frances and Edward Mayes!

Enjoyed this...copied two recipes for later.

A beautiful book. Every recipe I have made has been SO good!

Read on Kindle.

One of my favorite "mindcations" is "Under the Tuscan Sun". In my version, everything has the beautiful glow of Renaissance reds and golds. Even I am beautiful and glowing. Rustic, yet regal, my villa is filled with light, laughter, gorgeous food and great wine, good times and good people. Acclaimed writer Frances Mayes set the wheels of my mind in motion when I saw the film version of her book, "Under the Tuscan Sun", and then I added to my enjoyment of the film by reading her books and following her blog. Now Frances and her husband Edward Mayes, an accomplished poet, have given their readers a very special gift: "The Tuscan Sun Cookbook: Recipes From Our Italian Kitchen". Cooking and reading are two of my favorite pastimes. The more complicated your life, the more demands made on your time, the more you need to take the time to care for yourself. Food is not just a necessity for life, it is a pleasure for all of our senses. Cooking should be something that you enjoy, never just a chore. "The Tuscan Sun Cookbook" celebrates the food and lifestyle of a region both simple and spectacular, a glorious combination of earth, sea, and sun. The well-stocked pantry, the bounty of the sea and the soil, basic, well-used pans and utensils, and timeless food preparation techniques are all highlighted here along with incredibly beautiful, vividly-hued photographs. My favorite photo in the book is the first one, which shows Frances and Ed in the kitchen of "Bramasole", their home in Cortona, Italy. Their love of each other, and the joy of their extraordinary life together clearly shines in the appealing, inviting image. Then there are the recipes, which are organized by course and expanded and illuminated by the involving stories and delicious images spread throughout the book. All of your senses will be engaged and satiated. Inhale the aromas, treat your eyes to the visual feast, and then savor the flavors of food, fabulous food such as: "When-in-Rome Artichokes"; "Fiorella's Red Pepper Tart"; "Pasta Shells with Shrimp and Three Cheeses"; "Angry Pasta"; "Minestrone: Big Soup"; "Risotto Primavera"; "Pizza with Caramelized Onion and Sausage"; "Chicken Under a Brick"; "Beef Tenderloin with Balsamic Vinegar"; "Sea Bass in a Salt Crust"; "Peach Gelato"; "Folded Fruit Tart with Marscapone"; and "Fig and Walnut Tart". There are wine suggestions for many of the recipes, and a special chapter on wine and other libations closes the book. Frances and Ed Mayes will capture your culinary imagination and leave you longing for the golden warmth of the Tuscan sun.

Review Copy Gratis Clarkson Potter Publishers

Absolutely fabulous cookbook. Great photos and wonderful recipes with so many tips and cross references. But the delight of the stories of life in Bramasole and the new house, neighbors and village life, mix with the joy of life and great ingredients of the seasons making for some truly memorable and easy cooking. So far only made a few dishes, from the earlier books and articles and a couple from this book but they are all repeats and excellent. Recommend all her books for the shear joy of living, color and texture of wonderful Italy and Tuscany and her wonderful descriptions of food, culture, herbs, flowers, art, people and generally all things....

I expect to use this book over and over again for years to come and many good meals.

Really lovely and very thorough cookbook of local Tuscan cooking. The pictures are just beautiful which makes it simply a joy to peruse on its own, cooking aside. None of the recipes are overly complicated, all are simple ingredients, and manageable to cook in nearly any kitchen, considering the author and her husband cooked many of them with a barely functional stove in a demolished kitchen when the house was being remodeled. Italian kitchens are pretty small as the norm but they manage to churn out some amazing stuff. I've been to this specific area of Tuscany, and these are true authentic recipes, not Americanized, and Mayes has a lovely way of writing about the food as well that makes the book a pleasure to browse through before you start cooking.

This is a gorgeous book. Even if all you do is page through it to look at the pictures, it's worth reading. Check it out of the library if you want to try it before you buy it. There's a nice section on making pasta. There is just enough writing to be complementary but not so much as to be a distraction from the recipes and the pictures. The recipes are organized by course. You don't have to be a reader of all of Frances Mayes books to appreciate this one.

Fun to read, contains several Mediterranean recipes I’d like to try. Worth looking at just for the gorgeous table settings. Definitely a lifestyle cookbook, as evidenced by the suggestion that three types of pecorino should be included in your pantry staples. The recipe instructions are beautifully concise – I don’t think a single recipe took up more than one page, and often there were two per page.

If you've NEVER read a cookbook along these lines, EVER, then this will be great for you. However, I have two dozen exactly like it, so I would have preferred more recipes, less dull storytelling. I did very much appreciate the warnings about expired olive oil, however, but she should have gone even further...since most people don't know that most of it is not even olive oil anyway. I think I got one recipe from this entire book.

Is it possible to give a book more than 5 stars? I loved this for the writing,the photos, the stories and then the food! My shopping list this morning is incredibly long and as hot as it is, over 95*, I am craving the hearty soups of roasts and chestnuts of winter as I am the lemony seasoned veggies and gelatos! I am hungry!!!

This is a beautiful cookbook that turns simple ingredients into spectacular, colorful dishes. Gorgeous, inviting photographs and funny, heartwarming anecdotes are intertwined with 150+ Italian recipes, none of which take up more than a single page. Love it! Try the Chicken with Sun-Dried Tomatoes, Artichokes & Chickpeas -- YUM.

Thought about not including it here but since it actually had some light stories included and I actually sat down to read it cover to cover before I attempted anything in the book, I figured I could. Pretty good, the food reminds me of my travels to Italy... I have found something else for the Christmas list this year!

This is a glorius cookbook. Not only do the recipes seeem enticing but it is jammed packed with gorgeous pictures and beautiful writing. This goes beyond the typical regional cookbook by giving us insight into the people who actually cook and eat the recipes in the book.
Bravo!

Lovely book with great recipes and beautiful photos. Makes you want to pack your bags and go to Italy. The recipes are supposedly pretty simple for the authors, but not your average ingredients or skill level for someone with next to no culinary skills (like me).

A sensory experience. Not necessarily a book I'll use to cook, but certainly a very pleasurable armchair trip to Italy, complete with food! I had thoroughly enjoyed her other books, so I already had the reference, and enjoyed revisiting her experience.

This has become one of my favorite cookbooks, partly because very recipe I've tried has been delicious, but also because it is filled with beautiful photography that takes me back to the one trip to Italy I've made (so far). It's perfect!

I can not rate this book yet, but I know it will be good. I plan to pre-order it, You should too. Let me know when you can come to dinner.

Still haven't received this book, although it was the 1st giveaway book I won. My friends and I are anxious to get into some serious Tuscan cooking when it arrives. Thank you again!