Customer Reviews

Cucina Povera: Tuscan Peasant Cooking

5 star:		(21)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

For this reader/food lover there's nothing more tempting or satisfying than Italian food, especially the recipes offered by Pamela Sheldon Johns in her beautifully illustrated book. While "cucina povera" literally translated means poor kitchen these dishes are priceless!

Jones opens with an Introduction in which Virio Neri, the cobbler of Montepulciano, is quoted as he praises the food of his youth, a childhood spent "in a time of poverty and intense hunger." He rhapsodizes about fava beans with a touch of sheep's milk cheese, a simple cake. Perhaps, the author notes, "those simple, pure flavors are harder to find now."

Not so, thanks to the over sixty dishes Johns has collected over the years from neighbors, friends and local food producers. The dishes may be simple, but they are supremely satisfying such as the Gnudi, Spinach and Ricotta Dumplings served in a bath of tomato sauce or the Acquacotta, Bread, onion, and Greens soup.

Photographs throughout by Andrea Wyner are gorgeous, and often evocative of happy times past.

One of my favorite parts of a cookbook is the Resources section, which is where I discovered Gustiamo, a purveyor of the finest in Italian foods and found at [...]. We used their Bucatini by Carlo and Carla Latini to make Pasta all Bricole (p.93). This is an amazing dish, comfort food I'd call it, topped with spicy bread crumbs, which are often called "poor man's Parmigiano." Delicious!

Pamela Sheldon Johns suggests we take pleasures in small things and eat well - eating well comes easily, simply, inexpensively with Cucina Povera.

- Gail Cooke

This is a beautiful book that is more than a cook book. This is a book you, (and your guests), will thumb through just for the beauty of it. The amazing photographs give one a glimpse of Tuscan and mouthwatering views of the food. The recipes are ones that I found easy to make. The Ricotta Cake is super easy and amazing to serve to guest with coffee. The Acquacotta is now a simple but favorite soup in our home. We also love Uova ai Piselli alla Marelia, (Marelia's Peas and Eggs). This lovely "cookbook" is perfect for gift giving and is one you will want in your home as well.

Italian regional cookbooks appear on bookshelves like mushrooms in the fall. There are many good ones but //Cucina Povera// is simply awesome. This hard-covered volume is medium sized and its production spared no expenses--it is beautiful. Illustrations match the peasant theme with many photos showing village folks in their homes and surroundings, landscapes and, of course, food. Most photos are full color but some are black and white--they are all artistic and wonderful. Each chapter is preceded by a full-page black and white photo and its own table of contents--very convenient.||The first 41 pages include stories and memories of the villagers and accompanying photos. Recipes are excellent and range from very simple (sliced cured meat arranged on a board) to fairly complex but few cooks would have problem following any. Each recipe is illustrated, and head notes are informative and appropriate to the recipe. The layout was designed with cook's convenience in mind--rarely do you need to flip pages to work on a recipe. Ingredients in the 60+ recipes are mostly easily available anywhere and when uncommon, the author gives alternatives. The subject index, both in English and Italian, is excellent, well cross referenced.

I recently spent three weeks in Northern Italy, including Tuscany (Siena, Volterra, Pisa, and Florence). Along the way, I had the opportunity to sample regional Tuscan specialties at numerous osterias, including several Slow Food restaurants. Upon returning home, I was looking for a cookbook that would capture the magical essence of the Tuscan landscapes, honeyed sunsets, and simple but soulful cooking that I'd enjoyed. When I heard about "Cucina Povera," I contacted the author, who was kind enough to write back almost immediately and send a review copy via her publicist.

Pamela Sheldon Johns gives culinary workshops in several regions of Italy, and is the owner of an agriturismo in Montepulciano that has a 1,250-tree olive farm. A regular visitor to Italy for nearly three decades, she has written sixteen cookbooks, many with distinctly Italian themes (Gelato!: Italian Ice Creams, Sorbetti, and Granite, The Williams-Sonoma Collection: Risotto, Prosciutto, Pancetta, Salame, etc.). Her latest work "Cucina Povera: Tuscan Peasant Cooking" focuses on peasant dishes borne of necessity and hardship that are now served in restaurants around the world.

Hit particularly hard during and after WWII, many Tuscan families lived on the brink of starvation, forced to forage and hunt. Leftovers were scrupulously reused, particularly unsalted bread. This gave rise to dishes like ribollita ("reboiled" soup made from vegetables, olive oil, and stale bread) and panzanella (bread salad dressed with tomatoes and olive oil). "Cucina Povera" includes several personal stories from elderly Italians who lived through dire poverty, and their memories of special foods that brightened otherwise difficult times. The memoirs provide a historical footnote to the recipes within without overwhelming the main function as cookbook (roughly the first forty pages are taken up by various interviews and introductions to various areas of Tuscany). There are interesting historical tidbits scattered throughout.

Recipe titles are given in Italian in a large, flowing font with a smaller English translation underneath (both Italian and English titles are indexed, with the Italian recipe names printed in italics). Ingredients and instructions are straightforward and brief for many recipes. Most ingredients are limited largely to pantry staples and bread, olive oil, herbs, and fresh produce (the notable exception are the recipes calling for chestnut flour). If you want to speed things along, using canned stock and canned cooked beans will speed up your cooking time.

Some of the more unusual recipes that caught my eye were schiacciata all'uva (grape foccacia studded with walnuts), farinata toscana (cornmeal, kale, and bean soup), and pomodori, fagoioli e cipolline (roasted tomatoes, beans and onions). You'll also find simple, comfort food favorites pici (fat rolled noodles), frittatas, polenta (including a chestnut variation), meat and game, and regional sweets like Sienese cantucci, ricciarelli, and brutti ma buoni.

I tried making several of the recipes, starting with the roasted tomatoes, beans and onions. The recipe, like many in the book, relies on a few star ingredients, allowing the flavor of each to shine through. I tracked down cipolline onions and fennel to go with the potatoes, tomatoes, and cannellini beans. Perhaps it was the type of potato I used (baby Dutch yellow), but despite baking for the 35 minutes at 400 called for in the recipe, even after an additional hour of roasting, the potatoes remained hard (the other ingredients softened into a buttery sweetness, particularly the cipolline onions and fennel). The next time I make this, I may parboil the potatoes first. The next recipe was the farro soup, which uses a simple base of onion, garlic, carrot and celery to complement the nutty sweetness of the farro. A garnish of parsley adds a dash of bright flavor. Finally, the roasted chicken with vin santo is massaged with aromatic herbs and olive oil, and the pan drippings are then deglazed with marsala (or another fortified wine). The end result was soul-warming comfort food perfect for a blustery fall or winter's day.

The cookbook is gorgeous to look at as well, with heavy paper and deckled edges. The photography vividly captures various aspects of the Tuscan landscapes, from medieval skylines to its interviewed elderly residents cooking and preparing local food. There are a number of historic photographs as well as ample photos of finished dishes. The photographs and pages are matte, so there is no issue of glare if using a cookbook holder. At the back are a list of resources and metric conversions and equivalents.

This is a lovely cookbook that captures the flavors and history behind some of Tuscany's well-known dishes, and a beautiful souvenir for those fortunate enough to have visited some of the varied Tuscan provinces highlighted within.

(Review copy courtesy of Andrews McMeel Publishing)

I love this book and it's concept...that is why I bought this book!!!
Stories surrounding the recipes warmed my heart...and reminded me of my Italian grandmother.
The recipes are inspiring. Wonderful food made with simple ingredients. These dishes were meant to be shared.

I have a very large collection of Italian cookbooks, and this one is easily my favorite. The recipes are easy to follow, most with familiar ingredients. This is the kind of Italian food I love - simple yet delicious, no fussy sauces, Italian to its core. In addition, the cookbook includes fascinating stories of the origins of the recipes, and life in post-war Italy.

Just because the so-called Peasants relied upon the bounty of their harvests and used grains and locally-available proteins to create their meals doesn't mean they ate poorly. They ate like Kings! This cookbook captures the very essence of some heartwarming meals, as described by the people who ate them and fondly remember them. This book is a delight to read, and even better to make the recipes and taste the simple flavors...and perhaps to remember a wonderful trip to Tuscany. Create a memory for your family and friends, and buy this book!

Cucina Povera by Pamela Sheldon Johns pays homage to the peasant cuisine of Tuscany, and it's a treat for all your senses.

The gorgeous photos of Andrea Wyner lure you in from the cover on through; they are bursting with color and emotion, especially those of the older women to whom so much of the information in the book is credited.

The women's voices echo throughout the prose of Johns, which provides an impressive amount of background and history on Tuscan peasant culture in the first 40 pages of the book. The reader gets an excellent sense of the origins of la cucina povera and why it still holds such a special place in the hearts and homes of many Tuscans.

The recipes come straight from these women's country kitchens, and you can just smell the schiacciata all'uva (grape focaccia) baking in the oven, feel your teeth sink into i gnudi (spinach and ricotta dumplings in tomato sauce), and taste the cinghiale e carciofi in umido (wild boar and artichokces) as it melts on your tongue. With over 60 recipes in all, Cucina Povera covers everything from appetizers through desserts, offering clear step-by-step instructions for even beginner cooks.

The book itself is an excellent size, compact but still thick (nearly 200 pages) and just packed full of information. The pages are hearty with a distressed feel and slightly jagged edges, perfectly reflecting the nature of cucina povera itself. Even if I didn't enjoy the content of this book (which I do), I'd still love to hold it and flip through. It just *feels* nice in your hands, and for all these reasons, I give it five stars.

This book is a masterpiece on Tuscan peasant cuisine and would make a wonderful gift to anyone interested in cooking, Italian regional cuisine, or Tuscany. Simply fabulous.

I am really enjoying using this book -- it has a different take on italian food-- and the recipes are simple

This cookbook gives us truly authentic Tuscan recipes that are found in many Italian American family's memories of their Grandmothers and Great Grandmothers family favorites. Ms. Shelton-Johns pays omage to these traditions with a beautifully designed and illustrated book and more important, her fine research into the dishes published