What is "best" about this selection of my recipes? I would be a strange parent to prefer them to others -- equally close to my heart -- but over recent vears, these are the ones that consistently prove to be the most popular and practiced. Included here, you will find recipes from my former books, the Foods of Italy and Foods of Tuscany, as well as from the many cooking classes -- held in both my New York and Italian (Cooking in Florence) schools -- and numerous demonstrations I give each year.
Previously unpublished recipes are gathered from all over Italy -- from Friuli in the extreme north to Sicily in the extreme south, with specimens from Emilia-Romagna, Calabria, Puglia, Tuscany, Campania, Lazio, Veneto, Lombardy and Piedmont. For the most part, I've excluded recipes that -- little-known when I first published them -- have become almost omnipresent. Fortunately, Italy possesses a culinary history of unfathomable depths. Great dishes have come to us from the Italian Renaissance, the wide array of regional cooking and from the alta cucina, cultivated in the old aristocratic courts, which absorbed vast traditions of ancient and medieval cuisines.
What determines an authentic or classic recipe? One approach, used by some cookbook authors, is to rally and edit recipes solicited from restaurants throughout Italy. Although this may seem logical, these recipes are often either watered-down versions to fit an individual restaurant's needs, or altogether misleading -- restaurateurs may deliberately omit ingredients so as not to give away their secrets. When I research the origin and evolution of a dish, one source is not enough. I compare documented recipes (as early as the 14th century) with the many oral versions handed down from one generation to the next within a region's long-native families. Through this process, I believe the essence of a particular dish -- its ingredients and preparation -- is most fully revealed.
For me it is important to use these authentic ingredients and to eschew "creative" changes which bastardize the purity of the dish. For instance, I would never use corn starch in an Italian dessert because it is unknown in Italy. Most real Italian ingredients are now available abroad although it sometimes requires a little effort to obtain them. Occasionally, I give preference for an ingredient which is truly hard to Find, but in such cases I do offer a second choice. My experience over some twenty years has been that many ingredients which were not imported when my earliest books were published are now easily available. It is really worth it not to take the easy way out; your reward is a more delicious dish.
Luckily, in addition to its best-known elements, authentic Italian cooking uses many ingredients not usually associated with it. The delicious Polenta taragna is made with buckwheat flour, as well as cornmeal, and served with a pork stew. Agnello alle erbe employs lambchops marinated in a variety of herbs and served with fresh horseradish. And barley, used whole -- such as in the wonderful Fagioli ed orzo (bean-barley soup) included here -- has a long history in Italy where it was first used by the Romans as a polenta and later, during the middle ages, when it was finely ground to make bread.
This collection offers a representative sampling of all the courses offered during the Italian meal: antipasti, first courses (fresh and dried pastas, soups and risotto), main courses (fish, meat and fowl), vegetable courses which are full-fledged dishes -- not just side dishes -- and a variety of desserts. Although some of the recipes are quite fashionable at the moment, I have not tailored them to fit contemporary trends.
Italian cooking preserves an age-old instinct for healthy eating through the use of many grains and vegetables and lighter fish and meats served in moderate quantities. Herbs are used extensively and even the most typical ones are unusually employed. In this collection: fresh sage forms the entire base for the batter cake, Salviata, fresh fennel bulbs are used to season the potatoes for Patate con finocchio, uncooked celery and herbs flavor the hot pasta in Sedanini alla crudaiola in salsa piccante, and the pasta in Pasta alle erbe alla napoletana cooks in an exquisitely herbed sauce.
Flat breads called "focacce" have become exceedingly popular, and may be made of either potatoes or flour. I offer Focaccia di patate, a delicious bread stuffed with spicy peppers from Southern Italy. Other pepper dishes, so associated with all regions of Italy, include a spicy Peperonata all'arrabbiata from Rome and Pollo ai peperoni al forno in which the peppers dissolve to become sauce for the chicken. You will find a rare recipe from Livorno, the coastal city known for its fish soups, for Cacciucco con battuto alla livornese made with a variety of fish, shellfish and chopped vegetables. Fresh fruits are customarily served for dessert in Italy, while the more elaborate treats I present are more likely to be eaten only after special holiday meals in cafes. Three of my favorites are Dolce di caffe' made of ground nuts, flavored with espresso and topped with coffee zabaione, Torta di ciliege, the wonderful cherry cake, and Limoni in forma, individual molded timbales of lemon.
It has been rewarding to introduce so many people to the authentic Italian cooking in my classes. I hope the dishes in this book will reach an even greater group of food lovers. I try to give you, in all of them, my best.

Giuliano Bugialli, May 1994