Book excerpt: The handy and practical Slow Food Dictionary of Regional Italian Cooking by the editors at Slow Food International tells you everything you ever wanted to know about Italian regional cooking as prepared in homes, osterias, and restaurants. Packed with information about dishes and ingredients, tools and techniques, origins and trends, the book (which contains forty color illustrations) is aimed primarily at food lovers but will also be of interest to anyone curious to find out more about Italy in general, its people, its language, its history, and its culture.