Gift Ideas: 5 Favorite Cookbooks for Christmas

Most serious or semi-serious home cooks welcome a cookbook as a gift. When I get one for Christmas, I'm slow to get around to opening anything else, preferring to thumb through the pages and plan what I'll cook. As a service to foodies and friends of foodies, I am sharing some of my favorite cookbooks. Mind you, these aren't new--you can get lists elsewhere for that. Rather, these are the books I find myself turning to again and again over time.

Stir: Mixing It Up In The Italian Tradition by Barbara Lynch, Chef-Owner of No. 9 Park and a number of other Boston area restaurants. If I had to pick a favorite, this would be it. Wonderful photos and very clear instructions. I've picked up several new techniques from the book--if you like salmon it's worth the price of the book simply for her Seared Salmon White Beans and Spinach, topped with Olive-Lemon Relish. And my friend John has mastered making gnocchi thanks to Barbara's tips. The book has a nice mix of fairly easy preparations and fancier stuff.

 Vegetarian Planet: 350 Big-Flavor Recipes for Out-Of-This-World Food Every Day  by Did Emmons. Stir might be my favorite, but Vegetarian Planet is my most worn-out book. I have the paperback edition and it's falling apart from so much use. Great pastas, soups and Mexican dishes tend to be my focus. I've modified one of my favorites from the book, Pasta with Baby Red Lentil & Ginger, which you can check out for a taste of what she can help you cook.

Soup From Williams-Sonoma gets a lot of use once the weather turns cold. It's a slim book, allowing me to have tested almost every recipe in it! Lots of good ones I keep going back to. A hand-held immersion blender is a nice companion gift to this book.

quick from scratch italian cookbook This is a great collection from Food & Wine. I actually just got it myself as a birthday gift and am eager to cook my way through many of the recipes. Of course there is a pasta section, but much more than that.

Everyday Pasta by Giada De Laurentiis. You can see I gravitate toward the everyday theme here. I guess when I think in terms of a valuable cookbook, something with practical suggestions for quick but interesting meals I can make on a weeknight are real winners (alas there are more weeknights than weekends!). That said, there are some good recipes in here fit for company, such as Taglietelle with Short Rib Ragu (the chocolate shavings on top are a great conversation starter!).

Full disclosure: I'm enrolled in the Amazon Associates program, so if you love the sound of one of these books, click on the link and buy the book, I get a bit from the sale instead of it all going to Amazon. Reasonable, yes? Don't worry, I'm in this to share good stuff and won't recommend anything I can't vouch for!