Laura in the Kitchen: Favorite Italian-American Recipes Made Easy: A Cookbook Hardcover – October 6, 2015

Ordered the book because I was impressed by two recipes I recently discovered by Laura that were simple to make and a nice twist on common dishes.The book was deliver exactly as described, and I’m looking forward to making many of the dishes.

A Little Background About LauraI LOVE Laura Vitale. I was so excited when this cookbook came out. Laura is a big Youtube star in the cooking world. She is from Italy but has been in the USA since the age of 12. She learned to cook from her family and used to help her father cook in a restaurant the family owned. Her Youtube show has the same name as the book: Laura in the Kitchen. It is a family operation where Laura is the star and her husband Joe is behind the camera lens. You can see a sample of her recipes and cooking segments on laurainthekitchen.com. What I love about her style is that she is not "chef-y". Her recipes are simple and accessible to the home cook. They always taste delicious. This is her first cookbook.Contents of the book:Welcome to My Kitchen, Family Basics, Quick Fix /Suppers, Leisurely entrees, super simple salads and sides, irresistible desserts, the cookie jar, easy breakfast and brunchesWhat I LOVE about this book (Favorite Recipes)Just like the Youtube show, Laura's recipes are not difficult or tedious. She lays out instructions step by step so it is easy to follow along. The food is, as always, delicious. My FAVORITE recipe though is The Cheesiest Ever Broccoli Mac and cheese. This is the best Mac and cheese I've ever had in my life. It is crunch and gooey and the secret ingredient (mustard) just puts things over the edge. I could eat this every day and never get bored. Another fave is her Balsamic Roasted Beets. It such a simple recipe but it is so full of flavor and very good for you.Vegetarian/Pescatarian PerspectiveSo, I have a pescatarian kitchen. That means I cook only vegetable dishes and fish. I do not cook meat in my home. There are a lot of meat dishes in this book. Granted, this is not a vegetarian cookbook by any means and there are some good looking meat dishes in here. Some examples of meat dishes are Goat Cheese Stuffed Chicken Breast and Mama's Italian Meat Loaf. I think a lot of people would LOVE these dishes if they eat meat. But for people that do not eat meat, while there are some vegetarian options and also dessert, I do not feel like there are enough options and you may be disappointed. And if you are vegan, there are even fewer options for you.OverallOverall, I am happy with the book. I really love Laura Vitale and her recipes and I'm happy to be the proud owner of her cookbook. I still enjoy watching her YouTube channel. The recipes in the book are different than the ones she makes on her channel so that is definitely a reason to get the book. Although I can't try all the recipes in this book, all the recipes I do try of hers comes out great and are tasty. She's an excellent cooking teacher.

Laura Vitale is a big name in authentic Italian cooking on youtube. She came to the US from Italy to live with her father. Laura Jhansi lived with her nonna and had developed a flair for cook8ng. To feel more at home in the US she started cooking for her father. She married, and she and her husband developed a cooking show on youtube. They have developed a large audience, and from this she has a show on The Cooking Channel and now a cookbook.Laura discusses her kitchen, and how her cook8n* show came to be in the first couple of pages. She th3n gives us her cooking basics, utensils and such, and on tothe basics of Italian recipes. The book has six chapters on cooking and Recipes.The first chapter is Quick Fix Suppers- soups and simple pastas.The second chapter is Leisurely Entrees- pasta and braised short ribs, Roasted chicken cacciatore.The third chapter is Simple Salads and Sides- into pea salad, cumin roasted carrotsThe fourth chapter is Irrestible Desserts- jammy crime brûlée, momma’s baba al rumThe fifth chapter is The Cookie Jar- lemon almond biscotti, apple danishThe sixth chapter is Eas6 Brunches and Breakfasts- breakfast bruschetta, savory bread puddingAnd, then acknowledgements and the index. A real plus is the beautiful photos, a photo for almost every recipe. This is a great basic Italian cookbook, and from the essential Italian sauce to meatballs and meatloaf, it will draw you in. Reading the cookbook will have you running to the kitchen to start cooking a delicious meal.Recommended. prisrob 03-28-18

I am new to italian or italian-american cuisine and this really helped me to get an idea of how to pair ingredients as well as making/storing sauces. I'm a new mom just looking for simple and practical recipes throughout the week, this cookbook serves my needs. This may not be very helpful if you are well experienced with italian ingredients... just check the table of contents in the sample before you buy. I purchased the Kindle version, so I had no problems jumping around/searching recipes (another reviewer said the recipes were poorly grouped together).You could probably just google recipes like this yourself, but I don't even know the names of these types of dishes to even begin a search. I definitely don't want to open 10 tabs on my browser trying to figure out what is practical to cook next week. This cookbook gives me a variety of dishes I have never heard of (but keep in mind I am not familiar with Italian dishes) and makes it easy for me to plan out the month.The Pantry Basics section was nice to know, she lists out items she keeps in the pantry and makes a big shopping trip each month. What would be a nice addition though, is knowing if she ever buys meats in bulk and freeze them? Or how she stores those pantry items? I didn't subtract a star for this though, because it's not really the focus of this cookbook.Overall, it is well written. I've only watched a few of laura's videos, so I didn't buy this cookbook just because i'm a youtube fan. I enjoy her energy and the cookbook is not a chore to read. I've been through other famous chef cookbooks and sometimes I just don't "click" with the author and I end up skipping most of the text. This cookbook seems good so far.

The food is relatively simple but still mouthwatering

Laura tiene una gran personalidad en youtube y disfruto mucho de la mayoría de sus recetas. Técnicamente, el libro es muy conciso en cuanto a instrucciones: no hay fotografías de los pasos a seguir, son solo pequeñas instrucciones que explican qué se tiene que hacer. Creo que esa es la finalidad del libro: recetas fáciles de hacer. El libro viene con varias recetas entre entradas, ensaladas, pastas y postres, así como una página final con tabla de conversiones. Ya otro usuario agregó el listado de recetas.Creo que lo único que me dejó a deber el libro es una sección de panes (ciabatta, focaccia, etc.); aún y cuando tiene algunos en su canal de YouTube, hubiera sido bueno tenerlos a la mano en el libro.La impresión de las fotografías se ve un poco apagada pero no les miento, van a ver las fotos y se les va antojar todo.Si buscan recetas puramente italianas, no es el libro a comprar. Como lo dice en la portada, son recetas italo-americanas y yo creo que tirándole más al lado americano. Si buscan un libro para empezar a cocinar algo rico, vale completamente la pena.

以前、この著者の動画をyoutubeで見てからドはまりしてしまい、もはや動画をコースメニューみたいな感じで見始めてしまいました（笑）このひとは、本当に人に伝える力に長けていて本当にどんなズボラでも出来る様に、簡単で分かりやすく、しかし手抜き感が無い仕上がりで、しかも色とりどり！上級者用にも、細かくこだわる所はこだわり、季節やイベントごとにレシピがあり（勿論簡単に作れます！）飽きずに読める様になっています。簡単なサラダや軽めからガッツリ系のご飯、忙しい日の簡単レシピやちょっとオシャレなディナーメニューなど勿論デザートもあります。それにピザも作れちゃいます！なんでも、この人のお父さんがピザマンだったそうで子供の頃から食べるのが大好きだったとか。この値段でこのクオリティーはなかなか日本でもお目にかかれないと思いますよ！オールマイティーな料理本です！

El libro llegó antes del tiempo esperado y en condiciones perfectas. Con respecto al contenido, todo está perfecto

yo soy fan de Laura, desde hace años, su libro es bonito y de buena calidad, pero me queda a deber en las recetas que eligio para su libro, en lo particular no he cocinado ni una sola, y eso que muchas de sus recetas de youtube son ahora recetas de mi familia, que horeno una y otra vez, es bonito para adornar tu cocina, pero no me veo usandolo mucho en preparar las recetas, son simplonas y algunas con ingredientes complejos dificiles de encontrar