Peggy Knickerbocker

This is an absolutely beautiful cookbook, with a clean, graceful layout and gorgeous photographs by Laurie Smith. Whether you want to see what many of the recipes look like or take a glimpse at the olive harvest in Chianti, you'll adore the full-color photos.

The stories of olive oil harvest and production are fascinating, made all the more interesting and personal with details of particular trips the author has taken and the people she met along the way. You'll also learn what the various grades of olive oil mean, the range of tastes you can expect, how to hold your own olive oil tasting, and how to find, choose, store, and cook with the best oils.

The recipes are reminiscent of Mediterranean cooking: simple dishes of fresh ingredients meant to showcase their delightful flavors, and the author makes suggestions for which olive oils might go best with each.

Every recipe we tried from this book did an amazing job showcasing the flavors of its fresh ingredients---this is the kind of cookbook that encourages you to splurge on the best cheeses and herbs because it really will make a difference in the final product. If you love fresh produce and olive oil, I highly recommend this cookbook. It's a gift-quality volume you'll want to flip through and use over and over.

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