Cookbook review: Italian home baking by Gino D’Acampo

Gino D’Acampo is one of the current crop of TV chefs and he has authored several cook books already. He has also won I’m a celebrity, but don’t let that put you off. Italian home baking is an exciting cookbook that is full of recipes that make you want to get the flour out and start making a mess in the kitchen.

Gino’s recipes are simple enough for beginners to attempt with a fair certainty of success. Like all Italian recipes they provide the highest taste and looks to effort ratio of any world cuisine. Worth mentioning are the cantuccini which are quite frankly superb and indistinguishable from ones you might be given in a caffe’ in Milan.

The book contains recipes for puddings, cakes, biscuits, pasta, and pizza, but it is when describing Italian bread-making that the book is most useful. Pizza and pasta recipes are easy to find anywhere, but there are many bread recipes here that are no so common, from the simple piadine to various focaccie and panini. Loaves are not forgotten with several different types being clearly set out. The rye loaf has proved especially successful, but none of the recipes has been a disaster.

The book itself is produced to a high standard with hard covers and sultry photography of the usual Italian themes. It is a cookbook that you will come  back to again and again and as such is highly recommended. Give the homemade pizza a go and you’ll wonder why you ever put up with the offerings from your local take away.

Verdict: Delicious.

More: Italian Home Baking: 100 Irresistible Recipes for Bread, Biscuits, Cakes, Pizza, Pasta and Party Food