Giada's Family Dinners

by Giada De Laurentiis

In her New York Times bestseller Everyday Italian, Giada De Laurentiis introduced us to the simple, fresh flavors of her native Italian cuisine. Now, America’s favorite Italian cook is back with a new batch of simple, delicious recipes geared toward family meals—Italian style.

These unpretentious and delicious meals are at the center of some of Giada’s warmest memories of sitting around the table with her family, passing bowls of wonderful food, and laughing over old times. Recipes for soups like Escarole and Bean and hearty sandwiches such as the classic Italian Muffuletta make casual, easy suppers, while one-pot dinners like Giada’s Chicken Vesuvio and Veal Stew with Cipollini Onions are just as simple but elegant enough for company. You’ll also find recipes for holiday favorites you’ll be tempted to make all year round, including Easter Pie, Turkey and Ciabatta Stuffing with Chestnuts and Pancetta, and Panettone Bread Pudding with Amaretto Sauce.

Giada’s Family Dinners celebrates the fun of family meals with photographs of Giada’s real-life family and friends as well as the wonderful dishes she shares with them in her kitchen. Suggested menus help you put together a family-style meal for any occasion, from informal to festive.

The heart of Italian cooking is the home, and Giada’s Family Dinners—full of fantastic recipes that require a minimum of fuss to prepare—invites you to treat everyone like a member of the family.

Nothing is more important than family. Bring yours to the table with Giada’s unpretentious, authentic, down-home Italian cooking!


• SOUPS AND SANDWICHES
• ITALIAN SALADS AND SIDES
• EVERYDAY FAMILY ENTREES
• THE ITALIAN GRILL
• FAMILY-STYLE PASTA
• FAMILY-STYLE GET-TOGETHERS
• ITALIAN FAMILY FEASTS
• FAMILY-STYLE DESSERTS

Genres: Cookbooks, Cooking, Food, Nonfiction, Reference, Italian Literature, Foodie

256 pages, Hardcover

First published April 4, 2006

About the author

Giada Pamela De Laurentiis is an Italian American chef, entrepreneur, writer, and television personality. She was the host of Food Network's program called Giada at Home. She also appears regularly as a contributor and guest co-host on NBC's program entitled Today. De Laurentiis is the founder of the catering business GDL Foods. She is a winner of the Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lifestyle Host and the Gracie Award for Best Television Host. She was also recognized by the International Hospitality Institute as one of the Global 100 in Hospitality, a list featuring the 100 Most Powerful People in Global Hospitality.

Reviews

[Ann Pietrangelo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Giada's recipes have inspired me to experiment and have fun with cooking Italian!

If you love Italian cooking, but don't think you have the talent, think again. "Giada's Family Dinners" will raise your confidence level as soon as you open the book.

The beautiful photos and the easy-to-follow instructions make this a book a must-have for every cook who aspires to Italian cooking. It makes a great gift, too!

[R Harish]

Nice book

[Robin · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love Giada. Not only is she beautiful, she seems like the girlfriend you've always wanted. You want to sit at her counter with a glass of wine and talk girltalk as she teaches you to cook. Her recipes are well written, easy to follow and most of all delicious!The joy she exudes in life flows into the recipes she's created.

[Deborah · Rating 3 out of 5]

I love this cookbook for the Italian sides. Try the broccoli florets with meyer lemon olive oil. I couldn't find meyer lemon oil, so I used blood orange infused olive oil and it was amazing. Try the same trick with spinach! Another autumnal fave is the roasted fennel with parmesan--after roasting the fennel add it as a topper to a salad. Very dramatic! They present it like this at the Martha Washington Inn in Abingdon, Va...

[Sandra · Rating 4 out of 5]

I particularly like the dessert section. Today I made the Apricot Crostata on page 234. The instructions were clear and it turned out beautifully. Now, how does it taste? Tomorrow we serve it to guests after dinner. Here's hoping!

I may need to buy this book.

[Marytes · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love to cook and this book makes it easy, uncomplicated and fun to create beautiful and delicious meals. However, I was a little disappointed in this book because I would like to see more photos of food, in various stages of preparation.
Too many photos of Giada herself.

[Tori Balthazaar · Rating 2 out of 5]

Lacks imagination and is rather boring.

[إكرام تابتي · Rating 5 out of 5]

nice book

[Tracy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Yummy!!!

[Jiri · Rating 3 out of 5]

Basic Italian and a good starer/beginners cookbook.
It was this months pick for our cookbook club so we tried 30-40 recipes.

The positive:
It covers a lot of classic and basic Italian food. The recipes are simple and pretty quick. Many people found them simple, easy and uncomplicated.
Easy to read, short text in the recipes yet descriptive enough to comprehend. (we have found many books to be confusing in descriptions)
Mostly easy to find ingredients and the list is not too long.

The not so good:
Several of the recipes were a bit bland and not very interesting. ( Wedding soup was watery, several pasta dishes were what you would quickly throw together with leftovers) Some of it may have to do with who was preparing it and how.
Some people noted that recipes had a lot of cream, milk and cheese and were heavy, while others enjoyed it. This is a hard one because it is impossible to please all with dietary restrictions.
The Raspberry Tiramisu was more like a Tipsy Laird or a Trifle but people mostly enjoyed it.

Overall there are some good recipes and some weak ones. Good beginner book to grow and improve on.

[Heather · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was a slight disappointment. I found that I had already come across most of the better recipes in this book from the Food Network website. Many of the new dishes I tried came out bland, though I did fall in love with the simple marinara sauce recipe. It takes about 15 minutes to prepare and comes in handy for anything from pizza to spaghetti and meatballs, or as a base sauce for manicotti or lasagna.

[Suzanne · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love to cook Italian. My family says I love to cook Italian and then sometimes I love to try to cook Italian ! Giada’s cookbooks are my go to books for everything Italian!! I have made some great dinners with her help. Also I can’t read the word mozzarella on a page without hearing it and saying it the way Giada does.

[Emmalee Sourisa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Cool !

[Dray · Rating 3 out of 5]

definately a celebrity cookbook. Notwithstanding, it has some great recipes in it.

[Grace Mauck]

Gina harder is a good cook but the way she cooks is different.

[Spencer · Rating 3 out of 5]

2021
Some decent recipes

[Kristen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great recipes to serve to a crowd!

[Thailand Daniels]

Daniels

[Ramus1 m · Rating 5 out of 5]

good

[Nicole (Reading Books With Coffee) · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was another cookbook I checked out from the library, and like Everyday Italian, I didn’t get a chance to make everything I wanted to.

This one was geared more towards family dinners and entertaining, so the servings were slighter bigger than they were in Everyday Italian. Like Everyday Italian, there were a lot of fresh herbs and veggies, and were pretty simple.

The only complaint I had was that a couple of the ingredients were what I considered to be expensive. Example: Fontina Cheese. I first looked at the cheese section, and found a little block of it for like, $10, but found a different brand of it in the deli section for around half that price. I like cheese and all but $10 for a little block of cheese…it’s not my thing. Overall, though, I did like it, and it’s something that I plan to buy at some point.

It was easy to follow, organized well, and had some good recipes in it.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5 because it’s geared towards groups, and I’m cooking for one.

[Lori · Rating 3 out of 5]

I learned a few more easy to prepare and tasty recipes. The entrees and desserts did not totally rev me up (although there were a few that sounded pretty good). Some of the sandwiches and grilled foods, however, made it into my kitchen rotation quickly and were quite nice!

The recipes are not intimidating and the ingredients are those that you would have already or could easily find. This will be more of a fall/winter selection for me, when I crave that home-cooked Italian food in all it's stomach satisfying glory.

[Amy · Rating 4 out of 5]

YUMM!!!! She has planned menus if you don't want to figure that out for yourself & the pictures leave you salivating. My only criticism is that she omits some techniques in her food prep instructions (ie. tenderizing the veal or flattening it). So, if you are trying something new (which you always should!), then double-check with your butcher or mother to see if there is something extra you need to do.

[Jen Meegan · Rating 3 out of 5]

So...cookbooks are super subjective, more so -- I feel -- than other types of books. Not only do you have to like the way it's written...but the recipes have to appeal to you, be easy to follow, and--most importantly--taste good. On that note, this isn't the worst cookbook I've ever used...but it's not the best either. Nothing really blew me away but the recipes are solid and do result in some tasty, if not terribly exciting, dishes.

[Terri · Rating 4 out of 5]

a follow-up to her everyday italian success, this one is also wonderful. simple, fresh ingredients and easy to follow recipes. my sister's favourite is grilled lettucces.

if you feel you have plenty of her recipes in the first book and via foodnetwork.com, i don't think you would miss much not having this one too.

[Morgan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very accessible Italian recipes that are easy enough to make during the week yet impressive enough for a dinner party! This is Giada's most 'family friendly' cookbook, but I do love her new one as well. I now know what to do with random ingredients like leftover ricotta, heavy cream and tomato paste!

[allison · Rating 4 out of 5]

I heart Giada. Her recipes are simple and delicous! My favorite recipe in this book is her Dirty Risotto. SO GOOD. I make her herb-cheese polenta all the time because its easy and goes with a lot of stuff.

[Becki · Rating 3 out of 5]

family style cooking, did not like as well as everyday Italian

[Claire · Rating 5 out of 5]

Almost everything I made in here was delicious and easy. My faves: swordfish milanese, broccoli with lemon oil, tuna burgers with tapenade, crostini with gorgonzola-honey-walnuts, rose wine with sage and lemon, and nutella ravioli.

[Lauren · Rating 3 out of 5]

I love Giada and her recipes but this book didn't excite me as much as everyday italian. But...I still heart her and her recipes.

[Miss Clark · Rating 3 out of 5]

From the decadent Espresso Brownies to the ever delicious Raspberry Almond Tart to her recipe for Basil Pesto and Italian Muffuletta, and all those delicious Chicken recipes, this is a cookbook worth reading.