Mozza at Home is a highly sophisticated, predominantly Italian cookbook by restaurateur/chef Nancy Silverton, written for sophisticated home cooks. The average home cook will not benefit from this cookbook. Silverton uses many unusual, difficult-to-find, costly ingredients that she can purchase near her Umbria home in Italy, but the quantities are given in American units. Most of the recipes are built around a main dish with specific suggestions of side dishes, salads, and antipasti to choose from to complement the meal. The recipes are sophisticated, even pretentious, as she calls them “a collection of recipes for what and how I cook in Italy.” Although her instructions are good, Silverton tends to be extremely verbose, with often lengthy head notes. Because of long-winded text, the recipe instructions are not user-friendly. And again, because of the long text, recipe layouts are not cook-friendly, continuing on overleaf pages. Silverton tends to use a lot of I’s and mine’s. The recipes are written for a small crowd, with at least six, more often ten to twelve, servings. These are meant for weekend or festive cooking occasions. The photo illustrations of foods are beautiful. The index is not cross-referenced. This book would be better left on the coffee table.
