Itasca Community Library's Reviews > Modern Comfort Food: A Barefoot Contessa Cookbook

Joni says:
The Contessa strikes again! Leave it to Ms. Garten to give us what we need at just the right time – a new cookbook filled with recipes that have a modern take on comfort foods. What exactly is comfort food? The Barefoot Contessa says that “it’s food that’s not just nourishing but it’s also emotionally satisfying.” In other words, it really hits the spot! What Ms. Garten does is take a classic comfort food and bump it up a notch with a little twist of flavor that makes the dish even that much better. I’ve had this book checked out for just 3 weeks and have already made 12 of the recipes. Each and every one of them has turned out perfect and so delicious. My family and I have loved the Cheesy Chicken Enchiladas, Skillet-roasted Chicken & Potatoes, Baked Rigatoni with Lamb Ragu, Fresh Corn Polenta, Chocolate-dipped Brown Sugar Shortbread, and Bittersweet Chocolate Cake.

As with all of her cookbooks (12 of them now), this one has a gorgeous photo to accompany each well-written recipe. Additionally, a recipe index that is organized by meal is included; I find that extremely helpful as it’s often easier to peruse the list of lunch or desserts to find what you want. I think this is probably one of my favorite cookbooks of hers. I like it so much that I’m actually going to buy it; I know I’ll be reaching for this book quite often.