Venezia: Food & Dreams is a love letter to Venice. Reading it and cooking from it is a bit like looking at a Caravaggio painting. The dreamlike colors of the photos, the lovely setting of Venice, the simple yet forthright recipes. This book is written, photographed and designed in a dreamlike fashion; one that is so often associated with Venice. Tessa Kiros knows her subject well.
In addition to the wonderful recipes, Kiros sprinkles in her thoughts, and comments; her experiences in the city in the form of poetic moments. Many of the photos are of the city itself and its citizens, or of the colorful buildings, or of Carnival; not only of food and recipes. This book is one of the most beautiful cookbooks I have come across in a long time. And the food and recipes, as I came to find out, are as delicious as the book is beautiful.
Kiros divides the book into sections that mirror an Italian menu: Antipasti, Zuppa/Pasta/Gnocchi, Risotto, Secondi, Contorni, and Dolci — with additional sections on Essential Recipes and Cicchetti, small bites unique to Venice.
Having lived and traveled in France repeatedly over the years I know pretty well the regional differences when it comes to food. Like what the specialty of a region is, or where a specific dish hails from. Italy is another matter completely. I have a general sense of the regional differences, north versus south, Tuscan, Roman and Sicilian. Those differences also vary widely from village to village and province to province. The longest stretch of continuous time I’ve spent in Italia was two and half months. I spent that time in the region of Umbria — smack, dab in the middle of the country. Food there was unfamiliar, and I could easily have used the wonderful book “Italy Dish by Dish” to guide me and answer unending questions I had about the region’s food.
In our house, we think Jamie Oliver walks on water. Every recipe from Jamie Oliver’s Jamie’s Italy rocks. And all you have to do is follow the directions. The variation on spaghetti carbonara with chicken instead of ham is genius. The Prawn and Parsley frittata is totally great (and I don’t even like frittatas and neither does Jamie Oliver).
One of the nice things about this book is that every thing in it takes 45 minutes or less to prepare. And the other nice thing is, most of the recipes are actually easy to make on a budget – Spaghetti with tomatoes and anchovies (let’s face it, you either like anchovies or you don’t and some of us do!); Red Snapper with Fresh Tomatoes and Black Olives; Chicken Braised with Tomatoes and Black Olives; Veal Stew with Green and Yellow Peppers; Savory Three Meat Loaf with Simple Tomato Sauce; Red Cabbage Slaw; Marinated Green Beans – you get my point. And everything we’ve tried, anyway, is perfect!