The Country Cooking of Italy cookbook is formatted like it's predecessor The Country Cooking of Ireland. Beautifully photographed recipes are peppered with page-long stories, some historical, some educational, some anecdotal from Andrews’ travels. Although images of recipe dishes abound, lifestyle photos deepen the interest and are testimony to Hirsheimer’s talent.

Most cooks think roasting is the easiest of cooking methods, and sometimes they are right. Who hasn’t slathered olive oil on veggies, tossed with salt and pepper and popped them into a 400-something oven? Easy-peasy and delicious, right?  But Molly Stevens explains, explores and educates us about this technique just as she did about braising in her 2004 IACP and James Beard award winning book All About Braising.  Her newest tome, All About Roasting, is an another amazing book.

Done with the resolutions, to-do lists, and various other self-rebooting nudges, February finds us thinking “heart healthy.”   For those who embrace that idea or for those who remain committed to that “lose weight” resolution, I have a cookbook worth consideration: Ancient Grains for Modern Meals.

Decades ago I did a brief touch-and-go in Tangier. I’ve wanted to return to Morocco but never so much as now, after reading The Food of Morocco Although a few have complained that this book has many recipes found in Paula Wolfert’s Couscous and Other Good Food from Morocco (originally published in 1973 and inducted into the James Beard Cookbook Hall of Fame in 2008), I find this is yet another cookbook with a travelogue dimension.