Mietta's Italian Family Recipes

Product Description

'Who were the subtle Europeans who showed a raw young Australia how to eat well and enjoy the food the land produced? How did they perform that exuberant labour of kitchen love, the Italians who began arriving in Melbourne three or four generations ago? Mietta's Italian Family Recipes interweaves a loving story of Mietta's own family and friends with a clear and practical exposition of all the good Italian sense she learned in the kitchen at home - the secrets Mietta drew on as one of Australia's most celebrated restaurateurs. The social history is fascinating, the kitchen wisdom beyond praise, and Mietta's family snaps are a delight.'

- Peter Robb

'The dishes in Mietta's Italian Family Recipes are drawn from Italian chefs who had worked with the family or established their own restaurants within the Italian tradition. These apparently simple recipes are as close to the food you find in Italy as is possible in Australia. The proportions are precise and the taste true. These classic dishes are as relevant today as they were fifteen years ago.'

- Tony Knox

'Mietta died suddenly in 2001. We don't speak of her death, not even of what it demonstrated or how much she was loved and admired, of how many lives she had changed; although there was and is great consolation in that. We talk only of her loveliness and her life, the joy of it all and the good in it all.'

- Patricia O'Donnell

Mietta's Italian Family Recipes presents over 185 recipes, covering antipasto, soups, risotto, pasta, fish, meat, pizza and desserts. Together they demonstrate the ways in which original Italian recipes can be re-interpreted to suit modern Australian life, ingredients and equipment. This new edition includes a foreword from Mietta's sister, Patricia O'Donnell, and her partner, Tony Knox, a publisher's note and unseen photographs.