Whatever Happened to Sunday Dinner?

March 1, 2012
Caponigri shares her family's tradition of Sunday dinners. "Sunday was for gathering, preparing, cooking, eating, sharing, talking, laughing...a time to disconnect from the rest of the world and reconnect with family and friends," writes the author. In that spirit, she organizes her debut cookbook into "52 Sunday dinner menus in the Italian tradition." The thematic menus include: antipasto (usually a crostini to pass at the table), a primo (first course), a secondo (main course) served with a single contorno (side dish) and dessert. While some of the recipes are standard Italian fare (veal piccata, spinach lasagna, stuffed mushrooms), others are less common but intriguing (prosciutto souffle, veal breast stuffed with raisins and pine nuts, hazelnut truffle pie). These are not last-minute items; Caponigri feels preparation should involve a noisy kitchen full of people. She also highlights recipes that are child-friendly to prepare and serve. Caponigri suggests five ways to incorporate Sunday dinners into your routine: Make them a priority, plan ahead, decide the menu and assign the chores together, keep the menu simple, let go and have fun. The book is flavored with Italian aphorisms, informative menu introductions and Caponigri's family history. Guy Ambrosino provides the enticing photographs, with food styling by former Gourmet editor Kate Winslow. A good cookbook to gather a hungry crowd and leave them happily satiated.

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April 15, 2012
The Italian American tradition of Sunday dinner prepared by a supremely skilled grandmother figures prominently in the lives of many. More than just a time for feeding, Sunday dinner represented a time for family bonding, for passing customs and traditions to a younger generation. Caponigri isn't really interested in answering the question posed in the title, but she does offer a year's worth of Sunday dinner menus that reflect the best of Italian cooking. Each of these menus, designed to feed an extended family (up to 10 people), provides an appetizer; a first course of pasta, risotto, or polenta; a main dish with a side vegetable; and a dessert. This typically provides lots of variety, but on occasion a compulsion to preserve a menu's regional authenticity generates a meal with two quarts of heavy cream. Nevertheless, there are plenty of worthy recipes here.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2012, American Library Association.)