Small Kitchen, Big Crowd
by Romola Rigali
Tuesday October 28, 2008, 12:52 PM
"Big Night In": Entertaining without intimidation

Big nights are in.

OK -- we can go out sometimes. But as many cooks know, what you can create in your own kitchen is often healthier, tastier, and cheaper to boot.

In Domenica Marchetti's new cookbook "Big Night In" (Chronicle Books, $24.95), she delivers more than 100 recipes for feeding family and friends, at home, Italian style.
You may never want to go out again.

Marchetti, a food writer from Alexandria, Va., has gathered family favorites, including many of her own, in a collection of recipes that emphasizes casual entertaining, but many of those recipes can be concocted for an everyday meal.

Her inspiration has been her mother, Gabriella, a native Italian who passed on to her daughter a passion for food.

"My mother is a fabulous cook," Marchetti said during a phone interview from her home. "A lot of what I know I learned from her."

Marchetti spent many summers in the Abruzzo region of Italy, where she evidently absorbed the Italian obsession with fresh food lovingly prepared. Her new cookbook reflects that heritage and sensibility - a book of feasts for the palate designed to please and satisfy guests gathering in an informal setting.

"A lot of the recipes are indulgent," said Marchetti, who never attended a cooking school. But she sees that as an advantage.

"I'm not interested in creating restaurant-style food," she said. "I am a home cook."
She feels that recreational cooking is in the interaction - where people go to each other's homes to enjoy home-prepared, good-quality food.

"The young demographic has finally learned that cooking is not necessarily drudgery," Marchetti said. "I love cooking and having people over," she added. "I think more people feel the same way."

In that spirit, she wanted to write a cookbook that also highlights the fun in cooking, an inviting book that is, at the same time, not too intimidating.

"There are some challenging recipes," she said, "but many you can break down into components with parts that can be made ahead. It's really an accessible book."

Overall, she said, she wanted to write something that imparted the Italian sense of
hospitality and simplicity, the act of sitting together around the table to delight in the food and in the company.

Marchetti helps cooks young and old with useful information - including a detailed two-page spread on Planning a Big Night In. Many of us can feel a little intimated about hosting a dinner party. We all want it to turn out perfectly and Marchetti offers a number of entertaining tips including rule No. 1: Know your party. While the cookbook is all about the casual entertaining most of us do anyhow, you should know if you're preparing for a sit-down dinner or inviting the neighborhood for an open house. Do your guests have adventuresome palates, she asks, or would they prefer a grilled steak?

She also gives tips on how to plan ahead (crucial) - how to set a table, which dinnerware and barware you'll need, and much more. Above, all, cook what you know, she counsels, although it's advice she doesn't always follow, preferring to try new things.

Marchetti follows with a section on necessary kitchen tools, lists of special ingredients and sample menus.