Dino Joannides

We get hundreds of cookbooks across our desk at OFM, sometimes dozens a week. Very few make it home, some go ‘missing’, some to the library, but most go to charity. But one I will pore over – and cook from – is Semplice by the thoughtful Don of Italian food, Dino Joannides, also beautifully illustrated by Anna Koska.

One of the most beguiling (and beautiful) of this year’s cookbooks is Semplice: Real Italian Food by Dino Joannides. A guide to sourcing ‘the ingredients necessary to produce perfect contemporary Italian dishes’, it has chapters on pasta, cured meat, olive oil, and so on, with 100 recipes, from tomato and bread soup to zabaglione.

Real Italian Food: Ingredients and Recipes

Dino Joannides is a consummate food fanatic and bon Viveur. With an Italian mother and half Greek half Corsican father he spent his first years in Italy before moving to the UK. Over the last 30 odd years he has traveled and eaten all over Italy in people’s homes, simple trattorias and the finest restaurants. Dino believes that good quality ingredients, in small quantities, are what make a perfect meal. 
 
Whilst growing up, he had fascinating gastronomic encounters with producers, chefs, cooks and fellow epicureans and he has a unique network of contacts and over 30 years of food related knowledge and experience. 
 
If you’ve ever bought olive oil in a supermarket and wondered about the difference between Cold Pressed and not cold pressed, or ever bought dried pasta, and wondered if it would be difficult or worthwhile to make your own, then this book is for you. Dino will let you in on the secrets that make Culatello di Zibello the best possible cured meat, and will show you that it is worth seeking out pecorino Romano for your pasta carbonara. 
 
Taking different elements of Italian cooking and exploring their origin and provenance, Dino will explode myths and expound facts surrounding some of the key ingredients in Italian cooking. There are also 100 delicious recipes to show you how to put your well-sourced ingredients together to make the most amazing, achievable and authentic Italian possible.

Dino Joannides

Praise for Semplice

We get hundreds of cookbooks across our desk at OFM, sometimes dozens a week. Very few make it home, some go ‘missing’, some to the library, but most go to charity. But one I will pore over – and cook from – is Semp ...

One of the most beguiling (and beautiful) of this year’s cookbooks is Semplice: Real Italian Food by Dino Joannides. A guide to sourcing ‘the ingredients necessary to produce perfect contemporary Italian dish ...

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