Italian Country Cooking is about the real food of Italy. As author Loukie Werle explains, cucina povera - the name Italians give to traditional cooking, is eminently affordable and achieves great results. Cucina povera, as you'll discover when you try it, means eating with a warm heart - quite possibly better than you've ever done in your life. As a Roman proverb says: Pi se spenne e pejo se magna ...The more you spend, the worse you eat. SELLING POINTS: * Simple cooking methods * Healthy seasonal ingredients * A small range of elements * Affordable * Spectacular results AUTHOR: Loukie Werle has a high profile as a food writer. She is food editor of australian House & Garden and Good Medicine, and a regular contributor to other national good magazines. She has written over two dozen cookbooks in the course of her 20-year career. Photographer Alan Benson's work has appeared worldwide in books and successful magazines including Martha Stewart Living and Australian Gourmet Traveller magazine.