Bitter Almonds: Recollections and Recipes from a Sicilian Girlhood [Paperback]

Mary Taylor Simeti (Author), Maria Grammatico (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 2003

In the early 50s, Maria Grammatico and her sister were sent by their impoverished mother to the San Carlo, a cloistered orphanage in Erice, an ancient hill town on the western coast of Sicily. It was a Dickensian existence - beating sugar mixtures for six hours at a time, rising before dawn to prime the ovens, and surviving on an unrelenting diet of vegetable gruel. But it was here that Maria learned to make the beautifully handcrafted pastries that were sold to customers from behind a grille in the convent wall. At 22, Maria left the orphanage with no personal possessions, minimal schooling and no skills other than what she carried in her head and hands - the knowledge acquired during a childhood spent preparing delicacies for other people's celebrations. Today, she is the successful owner of her own pasticceria in Erice, her counters piled high with home-made biscotti, tarts, cakes and jams - torta divina, cassata siciliana, cotognata. This is her story, told by her friend and long-time customer as a tribute to Sicilian food and culture and a record of an historic and vanishing craft.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Bitter almonds lend depth of flavor to the buttery cookie doughs prepared by nuns in the south of Italy. And the bittersweet recollections of Grammatico, a renowned pastry cook and shopkeeper in Erice, Sicily, lend depth to this slender volume of Italian recipes. As researched by Mary Taylor Simeti, author of several books on Sicily, the reminiscences of hardships endured during Grammatico's girlhood, spent as an orphan in a Sicilian cloister, give poignancy to the uncomplicated, sweet pastries that make up her life's work now. Americans accustomed to rich excesses and scads of chocolate in their desserts may not find much to excite them here. But those who savor fine pastry and Italian artistry in marzipan and baking will apreciate the enormous effort necessary to translate Grammatico's recipes for use in our kitchens. Recent voyagers to the south of Italy may find themselves feeling slightly homesick for the simpler meals-and simpler lifestyle-evoked by Grammatico.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

Simeti is the author of the delightful Pomp and Sustenance: Twenty-Five Centuries of Sicilian Food (LJ 8/89) and On Persephone's Island (LJ 3/15/86), also about Sicily. In the course of her research, she discovered Grammatico's pastry shop in Erice, where Grammatico continues to make the traditional pastries she learned as a girl in an orphanage run by nuns. At one time convents all over Sicily were known for their special pastries; now making the special marzipan creations and other cookies Grammatico sells is almost a lost art. Simeti presents Grammatico's own account, spirited and often moving, of her bleak life in an austere convent orphanage-although it was during the late 1950s, it reads more like something out of Dickens-followed by the recipes for all the pastries she offers at her thriving bakery, now known far beyond the town of Erice. A unique and special book.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 240 pages
• Publisher: Bantam Pr Ltd (February 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0553814656
• ISBN-13: 978-0553814651
• Product Dimensions: 0.8 x 5.2 x 7.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #381,176 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

19 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fascinating history, definitive flavor, April 12, 1998

By 

Linda Starr "Freedom Lover" (Chatsworth, CA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Bitter Almonds: Recollections & Recipes from a Sicilian Girlhood (Hardcover)

I believe this is one of the most underrated cookbooks in terms of awards (Child, Beard, etc.) and public attention. I LOVED the story, and I feel like I was allowed to have something very personal, special and unique in the recipes which are exquisite. Had I not known a wonderful Italian lady (Carmel Anthony) and tasted her special cookies, however, I may not have known enough to get this book. You'll love it!

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Remarks from a Sicilian Girl, September 17, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Bitter Almonds: Recollections & Recipes from a Sicilian Girlhood (Hardcover)

I have just returned from Sicily where I visited Maria's shop and saw the convent where her childhood was spent. I wish I would have read the book before my visit. The smell of almond pastries led me right up the narrow street and to the pastries and candies in her shop, and they are marvelous. The convent is just a short walk up the street from her shop, in the square. The recipes she shares in the book are uncomplicated and simply delicious. Her story is not embellished. There is no polished prose. It is as she saw it and lived it and has told it with her unique Sicilian expression. I enjoyed reading it and I will continue to enjoy her recipes.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Bitter Almonds...Sweet Read, January 6, 2009

By 

Anthony W. Peraino "Sicilianboy" (West Hollywood, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Bitter Almonds: Recollections & Recipes from a Sicilian Girlhood (Hardcover)

To sit in Maria Grammatico's world-famous pastry shop in stunningly beautiful Erice, on the top of a mountain in northwest Sicily, having a caffe and eating her delicious Genovesi, is to be a little nearer to heaven...figuratively, if not literally. Her feistiness and strength of character mitigated a rather difficult early life and made Maria into the success she is today. This brief, but delightful, autobiography (aided by Mary Taylor Simeti, a wonderful author in her own right), along with her terrific and not particularly difficult recipes, forms a sweet read.