I love "My Tuscan Kitchen"!

I have recently been given an absolute treasure of a cookbook, so naturally I wanted to share it on Skirt! These are the perfect recipes to make with garden-fresh vegetables.

I love authentic Italian cuisine, so I totally fell in love with Aurora Baccheschi Berti’s My Tuscan Kitchen. The book is divided into four sections providing recipes that are made with the freshest seasonal ingredients available.

Aurora Baccheschi Berti is the proprietor of the exclusive resort, the Castello di Vicarello in Tuscany, which is a converted twelfth century castle. She takes pride in her garden and has perfected all of the tantalizing dishes in this cookbook herself.

From appetizers to desserts, Aurora Baccheschi Berti’s passion for food is expressed in the ingredients she uses and the pure simplicity of the dishes she serves. Most of the recipes are easy to prepare, delicious and flavourful. Though there are many wonderful meat and fish recipes, my favourite are the traditional vegetable dishes. The Parmigiana di Melanzane (eggplant baked with cheese) is amazing. If your garden yields a lot of zucchini and you are looking for new recipes to try, the Zucchini In Scapece (sweet and sour fried zucchini) is a perfect combination of sweet and tart. There are also scrumptious dessert recipes like Columba di pan brioche (traditional cake) and a heavenly, recipe for Tiramisu that is relatively easy to make.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Aurora Baccheschi Berti was born in Lombardy and settled at the Castello di Vicarello in 1996. The Castello was named one of the 25 best new hotels in Italy by Travel & Leisure in 2004 and one of the 101 best hotels in the world by Tatler in 2009. Julian Niccolini is a managing partner of the Four Seasons Restaurant in New York.

Seasonal Recipes from the Castello di Vicarello (www.vicarello.it)

By Aurora Baccheschi Berti

Written with Anne Hanley

Photographs by Beth Evans

Foreword by Julian Niccolini

Publication date: April 2011

Hardcover / 288 pages / 7 ¼” x 9 1/8” / 150 color photographs

ISBN: 978-0-8478-3593-5 / Price: $35 U.S., $40 Canadian

Rizzoli New York / www.rizzoliusa.com

http://www.rizzoliusa.com/book.php?isbn=9780847835935