As soon as I picked this book up, I knew it was dangerous. The cover photograph is vivid and enticing, and the oversized format—not to mention the solid weight of the book—is already teasing that if you open it up, you won’t be able to close it. And its right.

Salumi begins with a history of the Columbus Salame Company out in San Francisco , and then continues with a concise history of salame and cured meats, and even does us the favor of sharing the production techniques behind many of them. Why Columbus Salame Company? Two reasons: (1) Columbus is making some of the very best artisanal salame in the United States , and (2) they’re the ones writing this book. Fortunately for us, they know what they’re doing and boy do they know how to do it.

If the first third of the book is fascinating history, the other three quarters are pure revelation. What do you do with salami? I have to admit, before picking up Salumi, I had a pretty limited imagination when it came to using any sort of salami in recipes. But here we find page after page of delicious recipe ideas. Does panini with goat cheese, arugula, roasted red peppers, and salame sound good? How about chicken with prosciutto and sage, or spinach salad with warm pancetta vinaigrette? If you’ve got a hankering for pie, you could try a specialty from the town of Teramo in the Abruzzi region of Italy : the dish is called pastuccia, a delectable polenta pie baked with sausages and raisins. And if you’re not sure about any of them, just take a gander at the sumptuous photographs the Columbus folks have included for each dish.

Put simply, this is a gorgeous book, handsomely bound and bursting with mouth-watering recipes of all kinds. It’s a perfect gift for anyone who loves to cook, and essential reading for anyone who salame and prosciutto lovers.