Image: Wilfredor · CC0
Italian Food
- Year
- 1954
- Era
- 20th century
- Origin
- England · Europe
- Language
- English
- Category
- English 20th C
Italian Food, issued in London by Macdonald in 1954, was the third of Elizabeth David's books and the first substantial English-language survey of regional Italian cookery aimed at a postwar British readership. Drawing on extensive travel through the peninsula, it introduced ingredients and dishes then largely unfamiliar in Britain, and helped reshape British attitudes to Mediterranean cooking. The original Macdonald edition included illustrations by Renato Guttuso.
Cooking from this book
Pasta alla Genovese with Pesto
Signature dishElizabeth David's championing of pesto, the fragrant basil and pine nut sauce of Liguria, became emblematic of this landmark volume. At a time when post-war British kitchens still struggled to source olive oil and fresh basil, her evocative description of this vivid green sauce opened readers' eyes to a wholly different culinary world. The dish came to stand for the book's wider mission: introducing Britain to the regional honesty and sunlit flavours of authentic Italian cooking.
An editorial note on a dish associated with this book, written for The Coquinist. It is not a reproduction of the book's recipe.
