Ciao Sicily: Recipes from the PBS Series Cucina Sicilia (Ciao Series) [Hardcover]

Johnny Carrabba (Author), Damian Mandola (Author)

Book Description

Series: Ciao Series | Publication Date: December 1, 2003

With recipes from the PBS cooking show Cucina Sicilia, which focuses on Sicily, this cookbook with its compelling photographs, features over 150 recipes from Johnny and Damian's repertoire of beloved Sicilian dishes with American influence stirred in.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The hosts of the PBS cooking show Cucina Sicilia return with another colorful volume of hearty Sicilian fare (after 2003's Ciao Y'all). From Antipasti to Dolci, Mandola and Carrabba offer rustic, intensely flavored dishes like Bruschetta with Olive Spread, Sicilian Seafood Soup, Pasta with Sardines and Fennel, Pork Chops with Caper Sauce, Lamb Stew and Blood Orange Cake. Quotes from these "real eaters" after many of the recipes evoke the chatter on their show ("There's nothing better than lamb stew to make a man feel Sicilian," Mandola notes; "Well, I feel Sicilian already, but everybody needs a booster shot every now and then," responds Carrabba). This isn't the most beautifully designed cookbook, but anyone who makes the piquant Swordfish Stewed with Tomato, Potatoes, Olives and Capers, the comforting Pasta with Sicilian Squash and Fava Beans, or anything of the other winning dishes, will be too sated to care.
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About the Author

Johnny Carrabba and Damian Mandola are the founders of Carrabba's restaurant in Houston, Texas, the prototype for 130 Carrabba's Italian Grills across America.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 192 pages
• Publisher: Bright Sky Press (December 1, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1931721262
• ISBN-13: 978-1931721264
• Product Dimensions: 10.2 x 9.4 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #924,887 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars La bedda tavola di Sicilia..., March 8, 2007

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Gaspare di Campobello "Venetian adventure hound" (San Jose, CA USA) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Ciao Sicily: Recipes from the PBS Series Cucina Sicilia (Ciao Series) (Hardcover)

Ciao Sicily is a well put together Cook book and informational writting of Sicilian daily meal presentations. The recipes are clear, accompaning pictures illustarte the 'finished' product. The pantry section has an added value: what do I need to make all this happen. One can enjoy a little nostaglia, or learn of a very unique, though, diversed cultural heritage. So, don't sit back.. NO... get ready for a meal from one of the oldest cultural kitchens around.. La Cucina Siciliana... can well be enjoyed with the suggestions and directions of CIAO Sicily. Oh yes, do have a glass of Nero d' Avola in hand and fa saluto a la patria. Aspanu

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A superb, gourmet quality addition to regional and ethnic cooking shelves, January 8, 2006

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Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Ciao Sicily: Recipes from the PBS Series Cucina Sicilia (Ciao Series) (Hardcover)

Ciao Sicily: Recipes from the PBS Series "Cucina Sicilia" is a gorgeous, coffee-table sized cookbook of stunning Sicilian cuisine as prepared by restaurant and PBS Series legends Damian Mandola and Johnny Carrabba, in the manner of their relatives both generations past and living in Italy today. Illustrated throughout with full-color photography, Ciao Sicily includes such mouth-watering dishes as Marinated Zucchini, Grilled Pork Tenderloin, Stuffed Calamari, Watermelon Pudding, and so much more. Supplementary sections walk beginning cooks through the basics and techniques of the Sicilian kitchen and the contents of a Sicilian pantry, while an index allows for quick and easy reference. Ciao Sicily is a superb, gourmet quality addition to regional and ethnic cooking shelves.

5 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars To Give As a Joke, April 17, 2008

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V. Lombardo (Delray Beach, Florida USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Ciao Sicily: Recipes from the PBS Series Cucina Sicilia (Ciao Series) (Hardcover)

Hats off to Damian Mandola and Johnny Carrabba for their successful chain of fast food restaurants Carrabbas Italian Grill, books like Ciao Sicily, and various "Ciao!" PBS shows. They have successfully tapped into the exploited Olive Garden "authentic" Italian food market. They have cunningly pulled it off considering they are not trained chefs (as they say), they are not cooks (as they say) and they certainly are not "Sicilian". What they are is smart business men... Con men. And what they are selling is the illusion of the authenticity and tradition of Sicilian cuisine. In Ciao Sicily, Damian Mandola and Johnny Carrabba go through incredible and laughable lengths between recipes, on the front and back flaps, in the introductions and between chapters to show their diluted Italian heritage... the book is full of antidotes like "We have a cousin named Mike Benestante who really loves this dish." Wow! Really? Well they must really be Italian if they have a cousin named Mike Benestante! Their props are many and they are transparent and ubiquitous throughout the whole book. They are there in order to fool the audience into believing that they are being shown the real food of Italy and of Sicily.
The people they are successfully selling to are the same people who go to chain fast food American restaurants like Olive Garden or Carrabbas Italian Grill and think that ordering a Caesar Salad, Fettuccini Alfredo and a glass of Bolla Chianti is real authentic Italian food. They pander off the easily recognizable, universal "God Father" pre-packaged Italian American market ... Pg. 64, Johnny: "I guess, in this case, it really did sleep with the fishes!". Sadly they are poisoning the stomachs and minds of people too ignorant to know any better. Food, Fun and Family, right? How many times are we going to hear that overplayed, hackneyed and trite sentiment? Grandma cooks sauce all day long and feeds the family... secret sauce and meatballs. Che vergogna!
What an absolute fanciful and fantastic farce. The book, colorfully illustrated, is resplendent with turn of the century black and white photos of long passed relatives in an attempt to connect the food of today's Sicily with the photos of their relatives who emigrated to America in Louisiana 100 + years ago. I was given this book as a joke and on that front it delivers. As for the recipes it is hard to argue with the straight forward Sicilian dishes that they offer up. But what does a chain of restaurants like Carrabbas Italian Grill, owned by the Outback Corporation with curb-side pick-up have to do with real Italy and it's food? In fact absolutely nothing is further from the authenticity of real, slow, healthy, simple Italian and Sicilian food than driving through and picking up a pepperoni pizza at a curb-side drive through window.
These two hacks have no chef schooling or no formal chef education whatsoever. Instead they show a picture grandma Grace and tell heartwarming tales of her cooking to prove that they are the purveyors of real Sicilian food. How sad and pathetic.
Damien and Johnny's great grandparents came to Louisiana in 1897. They then grew up in Texas and now in 2008 they claim to know the authentic food of Sicily? It is absurd and ridiculous. You don't have to be Italian or from Italy to know or care about it's people, culture or cuisine. You just have to be honest, which this book is not.

If you want quality recipes from quality chefs with a real desire for authenticity then I recommend "Sweet Myrtle and Bitter Honey: The Mediterranean Flavors of Sardinia" by Efisio Farris. "Jamie's Italy", by Jamie Oliver is absolutely terrific too, and I suspect that if you were to meet him he'd be a pretty cool bloke too. Michael Chiarello is a great chef as well in my opinion and his books are worth having. You just have to read their books and their recipes to see how much passion and detail they put into it to know the difference between quality and sincerity and what's inside Ciao Sicily.

By the way, page 8 of the introduction brilliantly illustrates the convoluted and meaninglessness of the whole book when Grandma Grace states, "Sometimes I think back on my life - starting in Louisiana and ending up in Texas, being surrounded by Sicilian food every step of the way..." Right...