Homekeeper's Library: 2009 Cookbooks

In our home, books inhabit every room except the bathroom. As anyone who's seen my kitchen will confirm, cookbooks are a passion of mine; in fact, when we redesigned the dining area last autumn, we put as much thought into making a nice space for the cookbooks as we did into storing the serveware. I have written before about how far back my love of cookbooks goes: all the way to high school, when my grandmother gave me a birthday gift of Mastering the Art of French Cooking. I am often asked who taught me to cook, and I always answer, in perfect truthfulness, "my grandmother, Julia Child, and Martha Stewart."

As a lifestyle writer, a lot of cookbooks come my way throughout the year. For the record, most of them are not comped. Here are the cookbooks that made the best impressions on me last year. Not all of them were published in 2009, but all contributed to a year of great tables, so I am including them.

After dinner at Euzkadi, a wonderful Basque restaurant in the East Village, I got excited about tapas, which in Basque cooking are called pinxtos. After checking out a few cookbooks, including some specific to Basque cooking, I found that my favorite was TAPAS, by Joyce Goldstein. As the best cuisine does, tapas reflect a quality of life, which is wonderfully explained in an introduction that also includes notes on keeping a Spanish pantry (I don't know how I called my kitchen complete without one) and wine pairings. Aside from photographs that beautifully illustrate the exuberance of this food, this book offers dishes that are simple to make and delicious to eat. Garlic chicken quickly became a staple in our home, as did Romesco, griddled tuna and fierce potatoes.

Along with John Piccetti and Francois Vecchio, Joyce Goldstein is also listed among the writers of SALUMI, a cookbook showcasing cured meats. An introductory chapter on the art of salumi puts the recipes that follow into historical, not to mention gastronomical, context. The recipes are divided, as befits a salumeria's menu, into antipasti (appetizers), primi (first course), secondi (second course) and insalate e contorini (salads and vegetables). And the recipes are all good, including a lush carbonara, a flirtaceous coppa salad, a beef stew that bites you back and a user-friendly sponge-based pizza dough. And the illustrations are mouth-watering. But the best thing about this book is the basics: the information on cured meats, and how to prepare them to showcase their singular appeal.

No one who knows me will be surprised at how excited I am about THE VESELKA COOKBOOK by Tom Birchard and Natalie Danford. The Veselka, a Ukranian coffee shop located on the Second Avenue strip in the East Village, is a New York City institution. Along with the sadly closed Kiev, this was a classic hangout in my NYU days, and during the time ensuing we've remained regulars. The cookbook tells the story of a neighborhood and its people, and the counter where we gather. All the Veselka's best dishes are included: legendary (if labor-intensive) pierogi, bigos, stuffed cabbage, kasha, dill salad dressing, mushroom barley soup. They share the secrets of airy pancakes and silken banana cream, even the secret to the burgers my friends and I have been feasting on for twenty years and counting.

The Veselka wouldn't be the same without those white ceramic mugs and their black art deco logo, or the coffee they hold. My favorite beverage is highlit in both Daniel Young's COFFEE LOVE and Sandy Miller's CAFE LIFE NEW YORK. Young's book discusses coffee from bean to brew, with recipes and techniques for coffee drinks from recognizable paper-cup classics like Americanos, cappuccinos and macchiatos to more specialized fare like the Imperatore, the Maria Theresia, and the pepperino, from milkshakes and nogs to how to brew in styles as diverse as Turkish and Vietnamese. Once Coffee Love has you jonesing for, say, a Spanish Coffee, consult Miller's guide to the best of New York City coffeehouses. This book is as small but potent as a hand-pulled espresso, with the crema being the organization of the information by neighborhood. To answer your next question, yes, my own Village favorites are included: Mud, Ninth Street Espresso, and Joe the Art of Coffee. If you don't live in New York, don't dispair: companion guides are published for a variety of locations throughout the world.

BIG NIGHT IN by Domenica Marchetti addresses one of my favorite topics: preparing food for gatherings. This wonderful cookbook views hospitality through an Italian lens, and who can argue with that? Wonderful dishes abound, many of them as appropriate to your dinner table as to a buffet. How soul-lifting would be a mid-winter dinner menu of red, white and green salad and Caesar flank steaks with lemon-anchovy butter, with a basket of walnut focaccia and lemon crostata for dessert. Next summer I can't wait to have guests over for a truly decadent Italian Mixed Grill -- a dish so sexy its picture made the cover -- bruschetta with roasted tomatoes, and a pillowy apricot semifreddo. This book embodies the idea of food as a gift, perhaps a sentiment endemic to the culture that gave us both pizza and pasta, and which could not be better served by the results. On behalf of the guests, the cook and the food itself, I herewith nominate Big Night In as Cookbook of the Year.

Finally, not alone among cooks, MASTERING THE ART OF FRENCH COOKING had a profound effect on me. Last summer Julie and Julia had foodies flocking to the multiplex, and with the Academy Award nominations (with Meryl's Julia a favorite for recognition) a few weeks away it seemed appropriate to include this cornerstone of cooking literature. In 2009, I still opened Mastering more than any other cookbook: to make aioli, and boeuf bourguignon, and ganache, and quiche. In 2010, and well beyond, I still expect this to be the cookbook to which all others aspire.