The Flavors of Sicily: Stories, Traditions, and Recipes for Warm-Weather Cooking [Hardcover]

Anna Tasca Lanza (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 14, 1996

The author of the acclaimed The Heart of Sicily brings readers back to her homeland for an enticing look at the summer life, traditions, and food of Sicily. Includes 60 recipes, two 16-page color photo inserts and halftones throughout.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

This small gem of a book occasionally covers some of the same ground as Lanza's The Heart of Sicily, but it doesn't suffer for it. The chapters are organized by month, from March through September, and each month begins with a description of several holidays, traditions and foods associated with it. Some of these associations are expected (e.g., Holy Week in April), but most are delightfully personal (e.g., Lanza visits the island of Pantelleria each year in June, so this month is dedicated to the famed capers, pastries and other foods of this small, rocky island). The recipes reflect Sicily's bounty of fresh vegetables and fish: Poached Sea Bass; Frittata with Bitter Greens; Rice Salad with Tomatoes, Tuna and Capers. There are also plenty of rich pastries, and these tend to be more labor-intensive. Pastry Peaches, for instance, are made by shaping the dough around walnut shell halves, then detaching them after baking and affixing two halves to each other with whipped cream to create each "peach." The recipes are fine, but the charm is in the background material. Readers will envy the pleasure Lanza and family enjoy when opening and drinking the wine her husband's grandfather started collecting in 1880, just before Europe's vineyards were ravaged by blight. Photos not seen by PW.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Lanza (The Heart of Sicily, Crown, 1993) runs a cooking school in Sicily, where she and her family also have a vineyard. In this charming "warm-weather" cookbook, she writes about the festivals, foods, and holidays of the late spring and summer months. She starts with the Feast of St. Joseph on March 19, describing the elaborate bread altars and the special dishes associated with this feast day, and ends with the grape harvest in early September and another religious holiday later in the month, discussing as well the wealth of end-of-summer produce?tomatoes, eggplant, zucchini, and more. A delightfully personal book, written with style and grace and filled with delicious recipes and insights into all sorts of culinary matters, this is highly recommended.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 256 pages
• Publisher: Clarkson Potter; 1 edition (April 14, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0517700794
• ISBN-13: 978-0517700792
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.2 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #414,178 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Authentic Sicilian Cookbook!, September 7, 2008

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Camille "The Italian Dish" (New York, NY) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: The Flavors of Sicily: Stories, Traditions, and Recipes for Warm-Weather Cooking (Hardcover)

In search of authentic Sicilian recipes? Would you like to recreate a dish you had in Taormina? Look no further. Each carefully crafted recipe is a joy to cook and will delight even the fussiest red blooded Sicilian.
The caponata recipe is particularly easy, delicious and lasts in the fridge for weeks. Put this one next to the "Joy of Cooking" on you cookbook shelf. Mangia!