Bean Books

`Fagioli' by professional cookbook writer Judith Barrett is quite clearly subtitled `The Bean Cuisine of Italy', as it is all about cooking with Italian beans.

This book immediately succeeds at the first and most important task of a special purpose cookbook in that it has made be really care about and be interested in its subject. It accomplishes this feat first by being a very attractively designed hardcover book with a very well sewn binding which nicely lays flat where you want it to. Next, it's modest artwork and typography complements its presentation so that it is simply a pleasure to read. No eye strain here. Congratulations to the Rodale Press for packaging a very nice volume. Finally, the all the introductory material is accurate to the best of my knowledge. There are no lingering myths about the risks of salting cooking beans, there is no doctrinaire approach to having to soak beans, and there is a tolerance, with warnings, about using a pressure cooker to cook beans, as the sine qua non of bean cookery is like barbecue, `low and slow'. The only hint of elitism I detected was the statement that somehow, the Italians have mastered a secret to a tasty cooking of beans which is beyond we poor New World neophytes who have been cooking beans for less than 400 years. I will concede that the knowledge of good bean cooking is probably a bit harder to find outside of Boston, but I think we have the hang of it.

One of the most liberating revelations was the fact that Italians actually cook a lot with dried beans imported from the New World, as North America exports much more than it consumes, and Italy consumes all it produces, so no dried Italian beans sit on the grocery shelves beyond a year of harvest, especially as date of production is stamped on the bean packages just as we do for bread and milk.

While my hero, Alton Brown has remarked that bean cooking is remarkably uniform, far more consistent across species than with grains, he certainly did not take into account the variety of beans covered by this book, which deals with at least fifteen (15) different species of beans, some of which have no substitutes if the real thing is not available. Fortunately, the unique varieties of beans, the chickpea and the fava are commonly available in the United States. Every other type of bean has more than one commonly available substitution, which is important since there are some beans which are available only in Italy and which do not travel well.

The recipes are organized in exactly the way one would expect from an Italian cookery subject, with chapters on:

Primi Piatti, divided into sections on Antipasti, Insalate, and Contorni (Side Dishes)
Zuppa di Fagioli, divided into sections on Minestre, Zuppe (Thick Soups), and Passali (Creamy Soups)
Pasta e Fagioli, of course
Secondi Piatti, divided into Fagioli e Farinacci (Grains), Fagioli con Carne (Meat), Fagioli con Selvaggina (Poultry), and Fagioli con Pesce (Seafood)

I have never, up until today, been quite clear on the difference between Minestre and Zuppa. I always thought of Minestre as a relatively thick soup, especially as prepared in Florence, for example, but the Tuscan bean soup recipe trumps all visions of soupy thickness by including six different varieties of beans.

This division of recipes does not mean there is no seafood in the salads or antipasti. In fact, the salads include tuna, shrimp, and octopus as co-conspirators in the salad recipes.

This book gives an excellent discussion of non-bean ingredients for its size and does the especially good service of telling us where we can get these ingredients at the same place where their use is discussed. This may not be the best arrangement when we pick up the book later as a reference, but it gives a very good sense of how easy or how hard it is to get some of these things such as bottarga, guanciale, and porcinis.

One could argue that if you have a library full of books by Marcella Hazan, Lydia Bastianich, and a platoon of other Italian cooking writers, what do you need with this book? My first answer is that unlike most general works written for Americans, it tells you what kind of beans are actually used in these recipes. Next, like every special subject book, it is simply a lot easier to find a recipe to fit your need for beans than rummaging through the index of six other books.

As expected from a professional cookbook writer, all the recipes are exceptionally well written and there is a delightful variety in the selection. I cannot guarantee that this book will remove the pasty flavor of beans from your preparations (especially since we have no way of knowing how old our dried beans are), but it will make every effort to do so. The rest is up to you.

Very pleasant, very informative, and very tasty read. Recommended.

This book is excellent for five year olds who are learning to read. The pictures are photos from western Sudan and are extremely well-done in displaying accurately what life in a small village is like for a Sudanese child.

This book is amazing! I especially loved the section about the eight stages of love! I have used it with clients and they love it also. It is very helpful in terms of issues with relationships and money!

Food for Fitness is a concise sports nutrition guide, an invaluable menu planner and a comprehensive recipe book, all rolled into one. Written for sportspeople and everyone leading an active life, it is packed with top nutrition tips, eating plans and quick and easy recipes made from basic foods.

Nutrition guide
* Boost your energy
* Construct your own sports diet
* Eating on the run
* Fast food guide
* Essential vitamins and minerals
* Your fat counter
* Healthy snacks

Eating plans
* Diets for different sports
* Bulking up
* Healthy weight loss
* The vegetarian athlete
* Competition meal planner

Recipes
* Snack bars
* Pasta, rice and potatoes
* One-minute meals
* Healthy fast food
* Brilliant breakfasts
* Breads and muffins
--- from book's back cover

I am an early elementary school teacher. I love reading this story to my classes. Its enjoyable for me to read and they love it. It has such a great moral and its written in verse so the children adore it. It takes place in Australia, so it helps open discussion about other countries as well.

This is the only kids' book I know about the Red Sox-Yankees rivalry. My 8-year-old son just loves it! The story is divided into 9 innings (or chapters) so that it can be read through by older kids or read one inning at a time to younger ones.

A field mouse moves from the country to Fenway to follow his favorite baseball team. But when he finds a Yankees-loving cat, an oriole and a blue jay trying to sabotage the season, Frankie teams up with his friends to help the Sox out. It's a great story with good lessons and cute illustrations. Highly recommended - especially for young Red Sox fans!

This book was a pleasure to read. Part of the enjoyment derived from the delightful writing style which is rare in academic books explaining complex topics like this. However, a great deal of the pleasure came from the author's comprehensive research, including extensive interviews, and her extremely sophisticated analysis. Among other things, she explores the historical bases of two contemporary global networks trading in highly perishable vegetables and clearly demonstrates the continued influence of colonial ties in the contemporary links between African vegetable growers and European retailers. This is something often mentioned but rarely demonstrated in such convincing detail as it is here. I was also particular impressed with the author's detailed exploration of the contemporary social and cultural factors (including media influence) that have produced quite different fresh vegetable retailing behavior in France and U.K. She shows how this, in turn, contributes to different sets of relationships between growers, middlemen and retailers and among African growers themselves. It is one of the most interesting books I have read to date in the area of global horticultural chains and networks and establishes a very high standard against which to measure similar publications. Anyone interested in globalization, food studies, horticultural production in Africa, contemporary European food retailing and supermarket chains, would learn a great deal from this book.

This book catalogued the show at Salem's Peabody Essex Museum in 1994. It provides a very comprehensive study of textiles - a highly revered commodity - in Bhutan. Illustrations of every textile type, from wearables and costumes to rugs to thangkas, are of high quality. Excellent resource for weavers, dyers, and fiber artists in general, as well as theater.

I found a copy of this book about 15 years ago and have routinely used it -- many of the recipes are old friends by now. Having lost the book in my divorce, I'm now looking for my own copy.

This is not haute cuisine: this is simple fare. Yet, it has an elegance of it's own. The international breadth is delightful and serves as a conversation starter with friends who get to share these dishes. The recipes are simple and straight forward and lead to impressive entrees. Result: this is a book the novice can readily use, the experienced cook will delight in, and which all lucky diners will enjoy.

GARFIELD BOOKS ARE ALWAYS THE GREATEST, AND AMAZONS SERVICE IN PURCHASING AND RECEIVING WERE EXCELENT AS ALWAYS.
PENNY HERNANDEZ