Product Description

When two great chefs—buddies and business partners for twenty-odd years—decide to write a cookbook about the simple Italian food they love, you get decades of experience, sage advice, and wonderful recipes. And you also get a few great arguments thrown in along the way, as Pino and Mark debate the right way to make everything from meatballs to pot roast to eggplant parmigiana.

Of course, the issue is not whose recipes are better—Pino and Mark would be first to praise each other's food. And it's not about a right or wrong way. It's about preferences in ingredients, technique, and approach.

Pino, a native of Tuscany cooking in America, is a purist. His food is grounded in tradition. Mark, a New Yorker, loves the Italian-American cooking he grew up with. Each has his favorite recipes (see back cover) and his own way, but they're bonded by a shared philosophy that the simplest food is the best, and a shared desire to please families, friends, and loyal customers with food that makes them happy.

So here are nearly 150 delicious recipes representing the best of Italian and Italian-American cooking from not one master but two, with text that teaches, dialogue that's lively, and photography that's gorgeous. There's no question about who reaps the rewards of their friendly competition—it's the reader, hands down. Whether you make...

• Pino's Oven-Braised Lamb and Artichokes with Oven-Roasted New Potatoes and Spring Onions or Mark's Braised Holiday Capon with Sweet Potatoes and Roasted Brussels Sprouts
• Mark's Chopped Roman Salad or Pino's classic Caesar Salad
• Pino's Mushroom Risotto or Mark's Farro with Button Mushrooms, Cherry Tomatoes, and Goat Cheese
• Mark's Pears in Vin Santo with sweet Polenta or Pino's Neapolitan Cheesecake

...the end result is the same—unpretentious food that is timelessly pleasing. This is home cooking at its very best.

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Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #125787 in Books
• Published on: 2007-09-12
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 320 pages

From Publishers Weekly
Starred Review. In this delightful book, Luongo and Strausman, friends and restaurateurs in Manhattan, put a personal spin on the divide between cuisine from Italy and the American variety. Each chapter opens with lengthy back-and-forths between the two over the merits of certain ingredients or cooking methods, and their disagreements over these specifics is as edifying as they are amusing to read; the recipes aren't all simple, but with Luongo and Strausman's vocal observations and tips close at hand, those familiar with Italian cooking techniques should have no trouble mastering them. Luongo's loyalties to his native Tuscany show in recipes such as Garfagnana Bean and Apple Soup and Sausage and Cranberry Beans with Polenta, though he also refers to many of Italy's other regions in his focus on authenticity. Strausman defends his Americanized vision of Italian food with dishes both old-fashioned (Chicken Parmigiana) and chicly modern in flavor (Carrot and Ricotta Ravioli). The indispensable chapter of meatballs and meatloaf crystallizes their disagreements, as Luongo defends small, flavor-packed meatballs with unusual ingredients like amaretto cookies, mostly served on their own, and Strausman advocates the plump kind Americans serve atop spaghetti and tomato sauce. Cooks interested in the distinctions between regional Italian specialties yet still fond of the American versions they grew up with will savor almost every recipe in this spirited book. (Oct.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Review
Publishers Weekly : In this delightful book, Luongo and Strausman, friends and restaurateurs in Manhattan, put a personal spin on the divide between cuisine from Italy and the American variety. Each chapter opens with lengthy back-and-forths between the two over the merits of certain ingredients or cooking methods, and their disagreements over these specifics is as edifying as it is amusing to read; the recipes arenÄôt all simple, but with Luongo and StrausmanÄôs vocal observations and tips close at hand, those familiar with Italian cooking techniques should have no trouble mastering them. LuongoÄôs loyalties to his native Tuscany show in recipes such as Garfagnana Bean and Apple Soup and Sausage and Cranberry Beans with Polenta, though he also refers to many of ItalyÄôs other regions in his focus on authenticity. Strausman defends his Americanized vision of Italian food with dishes both old-fashioned (Chicken Parmigiana) and chicly modern in flavor (Carrot and Ricotta Ravioli). The indispensable chapter of meatballs and meatloaf crystallizes their disagreements, as Luongo defends small, flavor-packed meatballs with unusual ingredients like amaretto cookies, mostly served on their own, and Strausman advocates the plump kind Americans serve atop spaghetti and tomato sauce. Cooks interested in the distinctions between regional Italian specialties yet still fond of the American versions they grew up with will savor almost every recipe in this spirited book.
—Publishers Weekly

Review
"I have long been a fan of Pino Luongo, his recipes and his restaurants (and, in fact, trained at one while researching "Big Night"). In these pages he and Mark have infused their expert understanding of the art of cooking with a charm and humor rarely found in a great cookbook. Bravi!"—Actor Stanley Tucci

"Like Jagger and Richards, Martin and Lewis, Punch and Judy, or Hunt and Liddy, Pino Luongo and Mark Strausman have long been one of the great alternately functional and dysfunctional tag teams of history. Between them, what they don't know about Italian food is barely worth knowing. Following these two as they duke out their disagreements on the pages of Two Meatballs, one can be certain only that it's the reader who wins."—Author and Restaurateur Anthony Bourdain

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Customer Reviews

Italian is the way to go and of course with two meatballs.
Two meatballs is a very delicious cookbook. I have made four or five recipes. My family loved all of them. It is also very nicely illustrated.
I'm going to make the tuscan pot roast the next time I have friends over.

my husband and i both love this book!
I've made the different pot roast recipes from this, my husband some meatloaf dishes - we both love this cookbook. I look through and find good ideas and inspiration for dinner, my husband enjoys the back and forth commentary on food preperation and tastes. The recipes are clear, all our dishes have turned out delicious - none have been difficult or terrible time consuming.

Great book
I bought this book a few months ago and I have made 4 or 5 recipes out of it so far. I am very pleased. I have been a fan of Mark for years, ever since I saw him on the martha stewart show, and I have been using his tomato sauce recipe ever since.

Great book, highly recommend it.