Remembering the Italian Baking Expert Carol Field

If you've ever bought a ciabatta at the bakery or ordered focaccia at a restaurant or made a no-knead loaf, or wondered what the Pugliese or Emilia version of pumpkin ravioli would taste like and how to make it, you've been influenced by Carol Field.

Field, who died last Friday after suffering a stroke the week before, will long be remembered for her 1985 book , revised in 2011. The book mapped out a world unknown to the bakers who had spent days learning to turn out a baguette following the endless master recipe Julia Child spent months perfecting for the second edition of . introduced Americans to breads that are commonplace now but were new even in Italy when Field wrote. No one had heard of ciabatta, for example, from the word for “slipper” and a baguette competitor trademarked by a baker in Verona in 1982. Its low, wide shape, which forgave a lack of experience in making a perfect-looking baguette