A Book I Would Buy Twice

The first cookbook I ever bought was titled "Italian Family Cooking: Unlocking a Treasury of Recipes and Stories" by Joseph Orsini. I think I purchased it at a most-likely-now-defunct-or-taken-over-by-Borders B. Dalton in the Copley Square mall about 8 years ago, and the only reason I picked it up is because it was $5 (ok--I liked the photo on the back too).

For such a random selection, the book was fantastic, and taught me a lot about the ingredients in and the history of Italian cooking. I found the recipes to be accessible and practical. And, most importantly, very tasty. Before long many of the pages were spattered with olive oil and marinara sauce; I also added my somewhat incoherent notes in the margins. ("Need more lemon"..."try this without anchovies"..."+ 1/2 salt"...etc.)

Unfortunately, this book as mistakenly given away (with a number of other cookbooks that were just taking up shelf space) a couple years ago. I was sad at the time, but then I fell in love with my slow cooker, and Orsini's fine recipes slowly faded from my mind.

But I was reminded of how good this book was when I was looking for recipes for this week. I wanted to make tomatoes stuffed with rice to accompany a quick pasta dinner. I remembered that Orsini's book had a wonderful stuffed tomato recipe that called for arborio rice, raisins, some cheese, and a few other ingredients. So I googled and binged and food networked looking for a comparable recipe, but the one I ended up with was an ultimately unsatisfying replacement. The flavors didn't mingle well, and it didn't have the punch of the ones I had made a few years back.

So I think my only recourse is to buy the book again! I have little hope of finding it lying about at a big chain bookstore, so Amazon may be my best bet. I will have no problem paying twice the amount that I did originally if it means I can get these recipes back.