Toscanini Venticinque 21 May 1985 - 21 May 2010

The feel, the taste, the love for the tradition of Italian cooking.

The much-loved Italian restaurant Toscanini is situated in the Jordaan neighbourhood of Amsterdam, The Netherlands. Known for its traditional Italian cuisine, simple food but prepared with the best and freshest ingredients, it is a meeting spot and home away from home for many regular guests. This book was published to celebrate the restaurant’s 25th anniversary.

The first chapter is about vegetables. Vegetables play a very important part in the Italian kitchen, but they have to be fresh, and seasonal. In this chapter you’ll find recipes for antipasti, such as asparagi con uova in camicia, asparagus with poached eggs and Parmesan cheese, or pastas, such as orecchiette alla pugliese, pasta with broccoli, olive oil, garlic and anchovies.
The second chapter is about fish. You’ll learn how to clean squid, octopus and fresh anchovies, and how to prepare delicious recipes with them, like seppie alla romana, stewed cuttlefish with tomato and peas, and polpo e patate in padella, sautéed octopus and potatoes. Other mouthwatering recipes include tagliata di salmone con pesto d’olive, thinly sliced raw salmon with olive pesto, and spigola in padella con bietola, pan-fried sea bass with Swiss chard.
The third chapter is devoted to meat and poultry. It also includes cured meats, in for instance the recipe for involtini di prosciutto, sauteed spinach, pine nuts, raisins and mozzarella rolled into slices of prosciutto.
Other recipes include vitello tonnato, veal with tuna mayonnaise, and galletto ripieno, roast spring chicken with ricotta stuffing.
To close off, in the chapter for dolci, the secret of Toscanini’s panna cotta
is revealed. There is a delicious chocolate tart, and a scrumptious semifreddo.

Recipes are written by Maud Moody, founder of Toscanini and prepared by Leonardo Pacenti, chef-owner. Amke, normally a portrait photographer, made the beautiful photographs.
In addition, there are Camera Obscura photographs, shot in Italy by Günter Derleth, well-known German photographer specialized in pinhole photography.
The concept, design, art direction and food styling is by Resia Bibo. Throughout the book you also find a number of literary contributions, as well as an a very enlightening article about coffee and a very interesting piece about wine and wine makers.