Product Description

Vegetarian food is becoming increasingly popular - amongst young and old. Fast Vegetarian Food reinvents vegetarian cooking to show how anybody - both full-time vegetarians and those who wish to eat more healthily - can create delicious, colourful and inspirational food without a fuss. Written with enthusiasm and a passion for fresh ingredients, the book contains 150 recipes tailored towards the mood of the nineties. Gone are brown lentil stews and in their place recipes ranging from Wild Mushroom and Basil Tart, Giant Stuffed Mushrooms and The Richest Chocolate Cake Ever. There are sections on setting up a vegetarian store-cupboard, recipe selections for different occasions, a glossary of cooking techniques for the less experienced cook - and even recipe ideas for picnics.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #282946 in Books
• Published on: 2002-05-08
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 224 pages

Review
'I love her food - it makes life worth living' Malcolm Gluck

About the Author
Ursula Ferrigno is a passionate vegetarian cook and former principal tutor for Cordon Vert. She trained in hotel catering and took an Escoffier course in Paris before starting her own business manufacturing vegetarian recipes. Her food is now stocked by outlets ranging from Harvey Nichols to Marks & Spencer to Concorde. Half-Italian by birth, she brings a mediterranean theme to her recipes and runs the popular Italian cookery courses at the Books for Cooks Cookery school, Butlers Wharf Chef School and Leiths. She is the author of The Nineties Vegetarian and Pasta Pizza Polenta, both published by Merehurst.

Customer Reviews

Delicious but high fat food
If it wasn't for the fat content, I would have given the book 5 crowns. The recipes are mostly Italian with a few other Mediterranean-style flavours. Delicious, but heavy on the cheese. If I ate this way every day of the week, with so many recipes centreing around ricotta/mozzarella/marscapone, my cholesterol level would rocket. So it's best left for occasional use. I love her recipes, though, and would like to see her turn her talents to lower-fat fare.

Fantastic main courses, but salads and accompanying dishes slightly disappointing
I've made plenty of dishes from this book and am almost always surprised by just how good a few simple ingredients can turn out. The main courses are a definite winner and I have greatly enjoyed the canned tomato soup (probably the best tomato soup I've ever eaten), dill soup and the porcini risotto...just a few store cupboard ingredients and you get amazing, delicious food. I've made almost all the recipes in the main course chapter and have not once been disappointed.

I was a little less impressed with the salad and accompanying vegetable sections, some of which turned out a little bland or ordinary...I really don't see what was the point of including a "tomato and onion salad" in the book - it is hardly a dish that requires a recipe. There are a number of similar salads that everbody has made in their lives which I feel could have been omitted in favour of something more unusual.

However, the main meals and desserts are so good that you are instantly inclined to forgive Ursula her occasional disappointing moments, and despite the uninspiring salad section I find myself turning to the risottos, soups and pastas again and again. Worth buying just for your main meals.

Fast food as it should be
One of my favourite cook books! My husband's vegetarian, I'm not (yet), but Ursula Ferrigno makes you forget that. The recipes are imaginative, easy to follow and wonderfully tasty. And as it says in the title - fast. Great when you're late home from work again. If you don't own a copy of TRULY ITALIAN, (or even if you do) - get this one.