Venice, Without the Tourists

Taste the flavors of Venice at home, with the help of an alluring new cookbook. Author Skye McAlpine shares pantry tips and guides you through dishes that exploit the sea, the market and the nearby fields. Simple pastas dressed with vegetables, fennel au gratin, typically soupy risottos, a zucchini and mint frittata, and peaches in amaretto syrup are some standouts, and her fig-and-mascarpone cake, and pine nut-and-custard tart are first-rate. The author has lived in Venice almost all her life and throughout the book she gives you an idea of what that is all about: Buy only what you can carry because you do not have a car, something New Yorkers also appreciate.