The Tucci Cookbook

September 17, 2012
Stanley Tucci, before The Lovely Bones, The Devil Wears Prada, and Julie & Julia, first wrote, directed, and starred in a small but brilliant film called Big Night, about Italian brothers who open a restaurant along the 1950s Jersey shore. That film inspired the cookbook Cucina & Famiglia, written by Tucci’s mother, Joan, and Gianni Scappin, then chef at New York City’s Le Madri. Now Tucci has written his own cookbook, along with his parents and Scappin. There are few surprises, but no matter, as Tucci’s recipes evoke the comforting, elegant simplicity of Italian home cooking. Writing about a “variation on the traditional prosciutto with melon,” Tucci recalls his father’s backyard fig trees and suggests draping a slice of prosciutto over a quartered fig. With each recipe, Tyler Coleman offers an accessible wine pairing (“bubbly and light white” for the fig recipe). There’s a risotto with butternut squash, lobster, and sage that Tucci remembers Scappin preparing for him while researching Big Night. For meat dishes, Tucci presents pork tenderloin with fennel and rosemary, as well as seared tuna with tomato and bread salad. And for dessert, the northern Italian staple polenta is combined with plums (though, as in his appetizer, Tucci suggests substituting figs). Finally, in keeping with the theme of Big Night, Tucci offers in this truly delightful cookbook a recipe for the timpano—drum of pasta—as well as a vegetarian version.

September 15, 2012

Acclaimed actor Stanley Tucci, the grandson of Calabrian immigrants, is no stranger to food; while researching his 1996 film Big Night, he trained for a year and a half with chef Gianni Scappin. He also co-owned Finch Tavern in New York and currently hosts the public television series Vine Talk. Here, with Scappin, his parents Joan and Stan Tucci, and writer Mimi Taft (coauthor, The Tribeca Cookbook), Tucci shares family memories and recipes for appetizers (Potato Croquettes), pasta (Linguine with Clam Sauce), main dishes (Roast Duck with Fresh Figs), and other courses. Most recipes include variations and suggested wine pairings. VERDICT A celebrity cookbook of uncommon quality that balances rustic and sophisticated fare.

Copyright 2012 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

October 1, 2012
This cookbook was created by a collaborationand much lovebetween actor Stanley Tucci, his family, and his friends (especially Gianni Scappin, executive chef for New York's Castellano restaurants), combining expertise and artistry to bring a simple culinary collection to life. As sometimes happens in collaborative cookbooks, here the identity of the particular creator of each of nearly 200 recipes is murky. Is it the professional, French-trained chef; Tucci's mother or father or grandparents; or a very close family friend? Although the voice behind a particular recipe can be puzzling to identify, the end results are not unclear. These are well-crafted traditional dishes that mirror the best of northern and southern Italian cuisines, including fried pasta, frittatas, grissini, polenta, braciole, chicken cacciatore, and biscotti. Prefaced by food star Mario Batali and with a resonant essay advising how to pair foods and wines (e.g., sweet tames spice), this is a warming cookbook, well worth savoring.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2012, American Library Association.)