One Pot Italian Cooking: More Than 100 Easy Authentic Recipes.

Steve Pitt is a Toronto-based freelance writer and an award-winning journalist. He has written many young adult and children's books, including Day of the Flying Fox: The True Story of World War II Pilot Charley Fox.

Massimo Capra spent many years training as a Masterchef in Europe before coming to Canada to open two high-end restaurants and appear in numerous Food Network television shows. In this, his first cookbook, he returns to his roots by offering recipes based on the simple techniques and seasonal ingredients he learned to use in his grandparents’ kitchen in Cremona, a town in the Lombardy region. Because Capra grew up in northern Italy, the recipes are not dominated by pasta and tomato sauce. Yes, you will find a little pasta and tomato sauce, but Capra also uses polenta, chestnuts, beans, rice, cabbage, and apples to great effect.

The content is divided into Zuppe e Minestre (soups), Insalate e Uova (salads and eggs), Risotto and Polenta, Pasta, Pesce (fish), Pollame (poultry), Carn (meat), Legume (vegetables), and Dolci (sweets). Recipes include Tuscan Cabbage Soup, Chestnut Soup, Squash and Rice Soup, Autumn Salad with Radicchio, Red Onion and Crispy Shallots, Winter Salad with Potatoes and Apples, Grilled Polenta Clown Buttons and Sausage, Home Made Noodles with Ragu, Mediterranean Sea Bass Fillet and Fennel, Sweet Shrimp and Cannellini Beans, Florentine Fried Chicken, Roasted Pheasant with Green Grapes, Duck Breast with Mushrooms, Rabbit in Apricot Sauce, Balsamic Glazed Lamb Ribs, Pan-Seared Pork Chops with Lemon Sage, Caramelized Chestnuts and Winter Vegetables, Balsamic Roasted Pears with Whipped Goat Cheese, Mixed Berry Pudding and Classic Zabaglione.

Although Capra leans toward tradition with his recipes he still likes to throw in a few surprises to shake the menu up a bit. For example, his favourite signature dish is risotto, and he offers several recipes in this collection including beet, chestnut, and lobster—and then offers an exotic chocolate version for dessert.

Almost all the recipes are simple enough for readers with basic cooking skills. Dozens of gorgeous colour photos accompany the text, and a full index is included at the back. Technically, some of the dishes are more than “one pot”; the Spaghettini with Seafood, for example, needs one pot to make the pasta and a skillet to cook the sauce. But even if two pots end up in the sink, these 100 recipes are well worth checking out.