Complete Italian Vegetarian Cookbook: 350 Essential Recipes for Inspired Everyday Eating Hardcover – 9 Sept. 1997

I love Italian food because of its simple celebration of great ingredients. At first I was a bit suspicious of this book as the author doesn't sound at all Italian but I need not have worried. The recipes are inspired by travel, Italian relatives and indeed living and cooking in Florence.The book gives ideas by the place in the meal such as antipasti (the rosemary nuts are a particular favourite) and by the staple the dish is based around - rice, polenta, pasta. The ingredients list have been adapted to suit the (US) supermarket shopper and most of the dishes are also fairly low in fat.The instructions are clear so that someone who had never made a risotto before could produce a perfectly creamy dish, there's detailed guidance on making your own gnocchi and tips for lovely soft polenta.There are some simple desserts not involving masses of cream or time such as the apricots with raspberries and mint which suit my taste, there's a lovely baked pasta which kids always adore and beautifully simple ideas such as the butternut squash and sage risotto which was last night's supper. Just about every recipe comes with a serving suggestion so you have your meal worked out for you.If photos are important to you then you won't like this book as there are very few, but because of the clear introductions and descriptions you really won't miss the pictures.I'm an experienced cook with nearly 40 years of veggie meals behind me but I still find plenty of inspiration from this book and while I can cook "posh", I welcome the homely style of the meals that Jack Bishop describes.With over 350 recipes in this tome there's a way to go before I run out of ideas and because of the simplicity of the food, you can usually quickly find a tasty meal to make from the ingredients you already have to hand.

Easy to follow recipes to suit all abilities and tastes. The ingredients are easy to source too, I am delighted with this book.

I've only been a vegetarian for six months. This book has many great recipes but after enjoying using it for a while, I discovered that there is no such thing as vegetarian parmesan cheese. All parmesan contains rennet, which comes from the stomach linings of slaughtered newly born calves.As a vegetarian, this notion is repulsive to me, so why does this 'vegetarian' cook book seem to use parmesan cheese on every other page?There is a paragraph in the appendix all about parmesan cheese but there is no mention of rennet or it's origins. This book should not be marketed as a vegetarian cook book.

Very disappointing. For me (and I suspect most cooks) there should be a photograph with each recipe so you know what you're aiming at, and to be inspired to make the dish. There are just 16 photos all in the centre of the book - useless. Also, all the measurements are in American cups, pounds and ounces (Americans, get yourselves into the 21st century!) and the oven temperatures are only in degrees Fahrenheit making it very annoying having to look it all up in a conversion chart. What a waste of money. If it was made clear on the Amazon product page that it is so American, I would not have bought it.

this is a great book only one failing some of the cheeses mentioned are not vegetarian appears parmesan is never vegetarian,aside from that rather large gaff this is a great book lots of the recipes are easy to change into vegan mode and theres loads of recipes i,m still on the great anti pasta section.worth a 5 but only gave a 4 due to the info about parmesan

This looks like a great book, but as for me it is just all too simple. Let's take for example risotto section: really I would have thought that in order to publish a book you need to be a bit more creative than offering a risotto with radicchio only (other options include: red wine risotto with rosemary and garlic, risotto with savoy cabbage, risotto with fennel, etc). I keep looking into the book in search of a recipe and most of the time, I end up making my own dish as the one in the book does not look nutritious enough to me.Besides, American vocabulary, American measurements, and lack of many pictures (there are 16 in total) makes me believe that this is book definitely not for me.

Lots of recipes have Parmesan which is not vegetarian