Old World New : Family Meals From The Heart Of Genoa

FARINA, the restaurant that five years ago brought Genovese cooking to San Francisco, has now created a book that inspires cooks everywhere to savor la cucina genovese e italiana in their own homes. Old World New: Family Meals from the Heart of Genoa is actually three books in one. It's a cook's tour. In text and photographs, authors Luca Minna and Laura Garrone take you from their native Italy to California and back again to show you the people, the places, and the ingredients behind Ligurian dishes. And they celebrate Paolo Laboa, the Genoa-born chef whose cooking and recipes express the essence of FARINA. It's an ode to the four seasons. The book explores one meal for each season, running from starter through dessert. As you view close-up photographs of preparation and cooking, you'll learn how to coax true flavors from the freshest ingredients. And as you hear the stories behind dishes such as sautéed calamari over saffron mashed potatoes and silk handkerchief pasta with basil pesto, you'll sense the merger of earth, sea, and sun that distinguishes FARINA cuisine. It's a cookbook. At the back of the book, after an uninterrupted journey through the seasons, 26 of Laboa's recipes walk you through the four meals-and his tips tell you how to prepare these dishes with the care that can turn an everyday meal into an event. In the end, Old World New is more than a book of instruction and inspiration. It's a sentimental journey for Minna and Garrone. Friends since childhood in Genoa, they opened FARINA because they could not find, in all of their travels, a restaurant that served the flavors of home. Now, they want to share those flavors with the world.