"Italian-American food--what cuisine is it?" asks Lidia Matticchio Bastianich in Lidia's Italian-American Cooking, a cookbook based on her eponymous PBS TV series. The author of two previous works, La Cucina di Lidia and Lidia's Italian Table, and co-owner of three acclaimed Manhattan restaurants, Bastianich is ideally suited to explore all Italian fare. "Americans fell in love with Italian cooking first," she says, thus enshrining a cuisine born of immigrant adaptation. In celebration of that affection, the book offers over 150 recipes for a wide range of dishes--traditional favorites like Baked Stuffed Shells and Lobster Fra Diavolo as well as personal adaptations such as Scampi alla Buonavia and canneloni made with roasted pork and mortadella. These easily done dishes benefit from Lidia's subtle polishing; fans of her foolproof palate and her direct yet relaxed approach to Italian cooking will welcome the book.

Buy this book if you want the best of Italy

I am an Italian American who grew up helping my mother cook. While I was a professional chef for many years and have maintained my interest in food after I moved on to a non-cooking career, I lost my touch with the foods of my youth. Lidia has given all my childhood memories back to me and then some.

The recipes are authentic because they turn out perfectly and they taste like I remember them. Best of all is their utter simplicity. Lidia's talent comes from combining a few very fresh ingredients using proper technique into a mouth watering dish.

Anyone who has seen the show knows the passion that Lidia has for food. Just watching her enjoy the dish she has prepared can make you hungry. Well, this passion spills over to the book in every recipe and in every description or cooks note in the book.

If you love Italian American food and want to get as close to authentic as you can get, then buy this book.

not what I expected, or rather, not what I had hoped.

Lidia is an excellent chef, there's no disputing that. But I was rather dissapointed with this book. I bought "Lidia's Italian Table" which gave easy instructions on how to make absolutely 4-star gourmet food -- the likes of which I was not familiar. This book, however, is filled with familiar recipes. I'm sure Lidia gives a few helpful pointers here and there due to her infinite abilities as a cook, but I frankly don't think the cookbook is all that useful if you already know how to make a good meat sauce. Good if you don't though, she'll lay out all the basics for you.

Warming a Cold Wisconsin Nite

Recently made Lidia's Shrimp Scampi, the first Italian dish I've made besides spagetti and meatballs and it was awesome. My gourmet friends joined my wife and myself in a five star meal that would rate up there with the best my wife and I had in Italy this past fall.

You like Italian, you have to try this book!!