Customer Reviews

Cucina del Sole: A Celebration of Southern Italian Cooking

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

 

 

With simple dishes like Fish in a Wine and Lemon Sauce, Lamb Braised in Aged Wine Vinegar (studded with garlic and pancetta), Tiny Meatballs in Chicken Stock, Pugliese Baked Rice with Potatoes and Mussels, and Oven Baked Penne with Eggplant, Jenkins ("Flavors of Tuscany," "The Essential Mediterranean") shares the traditions of Southern Italy.

She gives us foods from Sicily, Campania, Calabria, Basilicata, and Puglia, from breads and antipasti through dessert, and places each dish in context with a bit of local color, technique and history.

This is hearty, simple fare, but that doesn't mean quick. There's a certain amount of patient fiddling with Crispy Fried Rice Balls with Ragu and various fried croquettes. Pasta with Sardines and Wild Fennel requires cleaning the sardines, and store-bought crust is not even a rumor for any of the mouthwatering savory pies like Swordfish and Zucchini, Tuna and Tomato or Cheesy Sausage and Ricotta Calzone.

Traditionally meat is not the center of a Southern meal (unlike Italian-American, which Jenkins suggests could be classed as another region of Italian cooking), so Jenkins includes a lot of special occasion or Sunday dinner recipes in her meat and poultry section. This does not mean fancy: Spiced Braised Beef, Pot Roast of Veal with Anchovy Caper Sauce, Rabbit Braised in White Wine.

Boxed comments on techniques, traditions and ingredients are found throughout. The book concludes with a chapter of advice for the traveler and a list of recommended regional restaurants.

This is a book for those who love the heady aromas and leisurely approach to timeless Italian cooking.

There are three things that immediately irritate me about Cucina Del Sole, a "celebration of southern Italian Cooking," written by Nancy Harmon Jenkins. One is calling it a celebration. Sorry, but the word is overused, and I see no streamers and party hats in my office at the moment. The other is a blurb by Alice Waters, who seems to have become a professional book promoter, as I run across her name on the back of one book after another. (Alright, maybe it was just two in a row, but that was too many.) And then there are no pictures, as happens all too often in cookbooks these days.

But the lack of images makes more room for the writing, which is engaging, and I'm delighted to find someone whose penchant for rambling sentences exceeds even mine. The recipes are marvelous and often surprising. For example, I had done a lot of research into pizza last year as I finished writing the Complete Idiot's Guide to Pizza and Panini, but I had never seen an approach that called for a biga - a starter slurry of flour, water, and yeast that is variously called a poolish, levain, or sponge, depending on where in the world you are. (And certainly I hadn't seen the tip of adding a teaspoon of white vinegar to adjust the pH of the dough and make it easier to work.) There's a recipe for making semolina-based pasta, rather than the ubiquitous northern Italian approach of eggs and regular flour. There are terrific seafood recipes (no surprise in southern Italy) and meat dishes with variations that are usual in English texts, like Sicilian Braised Rabbit in a Sweet-and-Sour Sauce. The delights continue through vegetables (Marsala Carrots - what a natural pairing) and desserts (Olive Oil Cake with Walnuts). The book is worth every penny of its price - and is a lot cheaper than flying to Italy to collect the recipes and know-how yourself.

`Cucina del Sole' is by one of the leading authors of Mediterranean cuisine and cooking, with a bit less volume, but scarcely less quality than Paula Wolfert. She has as good an analytical eye as Wolfert, and one which is even keener than fellow culinary writer, Claudia Roden.
This book covers the region known as the Mezzogiorno d'Italia, those southern provinces of Campania, Calabria, Basilicata, Puglia, and Sicily, and approaches with less of the analytical balance of her `The Essential Mediterranean', but with no less an eye for what her readers would really like to know about the cuisines of this region.
One sure sign that a discussion of a cuisine is worthy is when it has much to say which is both expected AND not widely reported in other books. My first hint that Ms. Jenkins was dishing out a more perceptive than average treatment of Italy was when she recounted a time not too long ago when the food for the traveler in Italy was simply nothing about which to write home. My personal revelation came in Florence in the mid-1960's when I went into a local family run eatery, and had what was the most abysmal meal ever served up in any restaurant on either side of the Atlantic. Harmon verifies that observation for much of her subject up to about 35 years ago, when the Mezzogiorno emerged from centuries of being a backwater of Italian commerce. Ironically, this same region was, at one time, especially in the days of the Roman Empire, the premier center of commerce and wealth. Puglia was especially wealthy with its wheat and olive crops, which fed much of Italy in Roman times.
A second discovery was Ms. Harmon's ample evidence of the influence of Spain on the cuisine of the region, especially of Sicily. At one time, the region was ruled by Spain or under its direct influence. Thus, there are several echoes of Spanish cuisine. The two most obvious are the empanadas and the potato frittatas (very similar to the famous tortilla Espanola).
As is the wont of many works on European culinary venues nowadays, this book dedicates much space to resources for the traveler in the region. For those only interested in the culinary (and choose to remain sedentary) this material is limited to the back pages.
If that were not enough, the book adds a great weapon to our culinary arsenal, in giving excellent instruction for canning our own tomato pasta sauces.
An unexpected surprise is the fact that pasta and olive oil do not monopolize the discussion. The book has much to say about both, but breads, especially pizza, calzones, foccacia, and empanadas are just as important as pasta. And, lard is a close second as the lipid of choice in this pig-rich venue.
Last but not least, Ms. Jenkins knows how to write a recipe as well as the best of them. She may not be as detailed as the incomparable Julia Child, but they are certainly good enough, and one has the very comfortable feeling that these dishes are all truly representative of the region, and not just the specialties of her restaurant friends in Naples, Palermo, and Messina.
Some may miss pretty pictures of the dishes, but I did not. The book was all about the culinary facts of the area. I did miss a snappy map of the area, but then, very few places were named smaller than a province, and by this time, I pretty well know my way around Italian geography. And, I have to have a warm regard for any book which recommends my very favorite Italian deli, Di Palo's in Manhattan.

I've heard it time and time again - a good cook book does not require pictures. Technically, that is true but the trouble is that the culinary arts produces feasts for the eys and the tongue. Food, despite all the claptrap, is a very visual creation - some would say, the most important aspect. I won't go that far but I will say that this would have received a ten star rating if a few color pictures had been added.

One can describe a meal in all its savory, sweet, sour, crunchy goodness but a picture (sorry, folks) is worth a thousand words. The best part of this book, oddly, is not the plethora of fine recipes but the prose. The author occasionally breaks into alphabetic song ("The Importance fo a Tasty Ragu") or prefaces each section with commentary that both explains and delights. There is no getting around the fact that the food of Southern Italy is lowbrow. In fact, that is one of its attractions to novice chefs - it is not necessity to possess knowledge or technique in order to create a wholesome, delicious meal. Many recipes came straight from grandma and have been updated for modern audiences.


Many of the dishes simply require quality products - perhaps the most difficult aspect. Lamb Braised in Marsala requires garlic, wine, EVOO, onions, parsley and lamb. That's it! Technique is the height of ease but the result is incredible. This is true of almost all the recipes included here. Nothing too outlandish or difficult - solid, serious food that is enjoyed by one and all. My Grade: B for lack of photographs

I received this book as a gift and was mightily impressed by the selection of recipes and accompanying articles. As a book it is very well presented, with some beautiful artful fit to have me salivating after just a few pages, and some fine graphology making everything easy on the eyes.

The recipes are of course Italian, but greatly varied with dishes using rice, pasta and almost every vegetable imaginable. In fact, despite being a big fan of meat in almost all of its forms (bar seafood - urgh!), I actually found that the tastiest dishes here were fit for vegans or vegetarians.

A great selection, wonderfully presented - well worth the purchase.

Ms Jenkins once again has shown her intimate knowledge of Italy and its food ways. She has chosen less well known regions to provide authentic flavors and foods rather than the over rated and over worked areas found in so many other books. She is to be commended for a fine job well done.

Cucina del Sole is a wonderfully written paen to the cooking of Southern Italy. I not only enjoyed seeing recipes for the many foods I enjoyed in Naples, etc; I enjoyed seeing some I didn't try while there. I definitely will try those in the near future. Bella cucina!

Having made several recipes out of this book (as apart of a presentation and Q&A session for Jenkins' book) I can honestly say the food is just appallingly bad. Cooked under her supervision, the food was just terrible and the recipes oftentimes have incorrect quantities which can be deduced from a simple, logical overview of the recipes.

Oh, and she can't even COOK.