Gluten Free Italian Cookbook(review)

Here is a great book to add to your gluten free library.

“Italians have a saying…To eat well, to drink well is to live
well. That’s how I like to live my life, spending hours creating
in my kitchen, filling long tables with delicious platters of
food, surrounded by loved ones and laughter.”

So begins Mary Capone’s The Gluten-Free Italian Cookbook: Classic Cuisine from
the Italian Countryside

This is an excellent collection of gluten free recipes inspired by her mother country.
Though she grew up in New York, Capone’s childhood was steeped in traditional Italian food, from Aunt Carmel’s stove top to Uncle Zio Joe’s city garden to her own father’s pasta bowl. These memories and others gave Capone her passion for cooking. She even toured Italy as a young adult and studied classic cuisines, growing more and more inspired by what she tasted and saw.

Soon after returning to the United States, Capone’s health began to deteriorate. After many misdiagnoses, she self-diagnosed herself as having celiac disease which was confirmed by a gastrointestinologist. Goodbye gluten.

Referring to this life transition, Capone writes, “But how could I continue to indulge my passion for Italian food?” The answer to this question is the key to making a successful switch to the gluten free diet: “Instead of concentrating on what it was that I could not eat, I began a culinary journey with the quest of discovering just how many delicious foods I could reshape and create new.” Her attitude is a beautiful example of how to overcome any difficulty.

Capone began experimenting. Flour blends were of course the most difficult to learn, since gluten free dough is nothing like whole wheat dough. But Capone kept her optimism and kept trying.
In 2005, Capone opened a school for fellow celiac cooks, The Wheat-Free Gourmet Cooking School.

She began passing on her knowledge to her students, enthused and excited about sharing delicious gluten free Italian dishes.

The Gluten-Free Italian Cookbook slowly developed on the side as Capone fine-tuned her recipes.
All of the recipes in her cookbook have been tested and tried by Capone and her students. They are grouped by meal stages, starting with appetizers and ending with desserts. The bread and pasta section is very detailed, including tips for working with gluten free dough and specific flour blends.

Recipes include four season pizza, cheese and spinach ravioli, manicotti, caramelized Italian plum cake, and much more.

Mary Capone’s passion and enthusiasm for cooking, combined with her optimism in the face of Celiac disease, definitely shine throughout her recipes. She is a natural teacher, invested in passing on her knowledge to others.

This cookbook is available on Amazon: Buy it here!