Everyone Is Italian on Sunday

November 2, 2015
Celebrity chef Ray calls this meaty compendium of home-style Italian recipes the most personal and important of her career, and that sense of emotional significance shines through. Ray’s headnotes are as bubbly and enthusiastic as ever, but the recipes showcase more ambitious ingredients and techniques. Drawing on her Italian heritage, she delves into both traditional and Americanized cuisines to come up with a list of hearty eats, ideal for indulgent weekends: toasted spaghetti minestra with Tuscan kale, pear and pecorino ravioli, and braised brisket with almond gremolata. Though there are few 30-minute solutions here, fans will recognize plenty of Ray-style remixes in fontina gougères; Italian-sausage burgers with provolone and broccoli rabe; and parmigiano reggiano french toast. The dessert section is surprisingly thin, albeit sophisticated (almond-fig biscotti, blood orange cake). Ray’s husband, John Cusimano, chimes in with his favorite takes on Italian cocktails (an Amalfi-Tini with limoncello and orange bitters, for instance), which add a nice dimension. For those who are looking for a new angle , this cookbook satisfies in spades. Photos.

November 15, 2015

Food Network star and best-selling author Ray (Week in a Day) calls this cookbook the single most important work of her life. Like Emeril Lagasse's Essential Emeril and other celebrity chef retrospectives, it swells with recipes she considers personally and professionally significant. These range from upscale brunch dishes (truffle eggs and grilled brioche with warm taleggio and honey) to hearty pastas (penne with pumpkin and sausage) to crowd-pleasing comfort foods (the ultimate pulled-pork sandwiches), a few credited to Italian cooking authority Marcella Hazan. Ray's husband and sister contribute Italian-inspired cocktails and desserts. VERDICT Jam-packed with recipes for family gatherings, Ray's latest offers her followers variety and abundance. Compared to her previous publications, this title is lighter on photographs and time-management advice. Public libraries should expect demand.

Copyright 2015 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

December 1, 2015
Sunday noon dinners where an extended Italian American family gathers after church have passed into the realm of near myth. Even non-Italians often wish they had a grandma to feed them bowls of pasta with Sunday gravy and all the trimmings. Ray's latest book offers a comprehensive review of Italian American cookery updated to reflect today's much greater availability of true Italian ingredients, such as salumi and cheeses formerly too scarce or costly to be easily marketed. Ray's recipes cover expected pasta dishes, and she also has large sections devoted to homemade pizza, polenta, and risotto. Meat dishes vary from simple stews to complex, show-stopping porchetta. Seafood and vegetables get equal attention. Ray has recruited her family to help outher sister contributing the dessert recipes, and her husband mixing up cocktails. The irrepressible Ray's television ubiquity and her cooking talent make this a surefire hit.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2015, American Library Association.)