The Sopranos Family Cookbook FROM OUR EDITORS
Knowing that his Sopranos buddies enjoy a good meal as much as a late night at the BaddaBing, Vesuvio owner Artie Bucco has compiled a cookbook that even Carmela will envy. Including a history of Neapolitan cuisine for out-of-towners, Artie presents 100 recipes created with the characters in mind. His baked ziti is so good that if you don't like it, you swim with the fishes.
FROM THE PUBLISHER
Nuovo Vesuvio. The "family" restaurant, redefined. Home to the finest in Napolitan' cuisine and Essex County's best kept secret. Now Artie Bucco, la cucina's master chef and your personal host, invites you to a special feast...with a little help from his friends.
From arancini to zabaglione, from baccala to Quail Sinatra-style, Artie Bucco and his guests, the Sopranos and their associates, offer food lovers one hundred Avellinese-style recipes and valuable preparation tips. But that's not all! Artie also brings you a cornucopia of precious Sopranos artifacts that includes photos from the old country; the first Bucco's Vesuvio's menu from 1926; AJ's school essay on "Why I Like Food"; Bobby Bacala's style tips for big eaters, and much, much more.
FROM THE CRITICS
Arthur Schwartz
...tells you how to cook like an Italian Mama and how to eat like a wiseguy...the TV show with shopping and recipes...
David Rosengarten
This is a fantastic 'celebrity' cookbook that really makes sense.
Frank Pellegrino
...a wonderful cookbook...simple, well done, and easy to make...this book deserves its own Emmy!
Publishers Weekly
In what is quite possibly the most fun of all the Sopranos-themed titles being published in time for the show's September return, this tongue-in-cheek cookbook brings homestyle Soprano family cooking to the table. Artie Bucco, the character (played by John Ventimiglia) who is the chef at the show's Vesuvio restaurant, sets the tone of this book of insider "family" secrets by explaining his family's move from Campania, Italy, to New Jersey, then turns to various Soprano characters. (A brief chapter on Neapolitan cooking is explained by the Newark Public Library's Natalie del Greco, who offers recipes for a simple Marinara Sauce as well as a Sunday Gravy.) In a chapter entitled "The Soprano Family Tradition," Bucco listens as Corrado Soprano Jr., or Uncle Jun', reminisces about Newark's Little Italy (which at one time felt like an "Italian Disneyland") while whetting his appetite with thoughts of Pasta Fagiole and Panzerotti (Neapolitan Potato Croquettes). While the book's conceit is playfully written by Rucker (The Sopranos: A Family History) in the voice of each character, the recipes, by Scicolone (Italian Holiday Cooking), are solid and honest-to-goodness Italian-American dishes. In a conversation with Bucco, Carmela Soprano reveals her Sicilian upbringing through such recipes as `Shcarole and Garlic (sauteed escarole), while scale-tipping Bobby Bacala pontificates on the importance of sweets and offers his own way to make Cannoli. Even the godfather himself, Tony Soprano, lectures on the art of the grill (fans will remember his BBQ panic attack). In the end, readers are left with a book-filled with stills from Soprano episodes-that is alternately enticing and wonderfully tacky, just like the Soprano family members themselves.
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