Italian Food Artisans: Recipes and Traditions [Hardcover]

Pamela Sheldon Johns (Author), John Rizzo (Photographer)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 1, 1999

Balsamic vinegar, olive oil, mozzarella, Parmigiano-Reggiano, prosciutto, fresh pasta - these are the cornerstone ingredients of great Italian cooking. Italian Food Artisans celebrates the art and origins of these wonderful foods and many others. Profiling some of the finest food artisans working today, this beautifully photographed book takes readers on a journey through the countryside and villages of Italy - where tubs of purple and green olives await a cold pressing, capers are picked by hand, and paddled water wheels power millstones that grind the grain for bread. The featured food artisans reveal age-old secrets of their trades and offer up stories of a place where good food, lovingly prepared, is still a way of life. With over 50 simple and robust recipes that evoke the Italian countryside, Italian Food Artisans will entice and delight Italian food lovers everywhere.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

The traditional food products of Italy are world treasures. From aged balsamic vinegar to creamy buffalo-milk mozzarella, from Parmigiano-Reggiano to mellow extra-virgin olive oil, these classic ingredients, lovingly crafted for centuries, form the backbone of a great cuisine. Pamela Sheldon Johns's Italian Food Artisans introduces readers to the men and women who, despite the press of modern industrialization, make these edible wonders today, while offering 50 simple but delicious recipes that use them. Readers interested in Italian food culture and those seeking accessible recipes for authentic Italian dishes will want this book.

Arranged by general topics such as condiments, breads, rice, and pasta, the book profiles the artisans in words and evocative color photos; recipes follow. We meet, for example, the Mori family of Tuscany, whose farm factory has produced extra-virgin olive oil for over two centuries. Recipes include the enticing Penne Santo, a cabbage, pancetta, and olive oil-topped bread, and Torta di Capezzana, a delicious olive oil cake, among others. We journey also to the tiny village of Piantella in Abruzzo, among other places, where Gianluigi Peduzzi oversees the pasta-making business started by his great-grandfather; recipes include Orechiette with Clams and Broccoli Rabe, and Shells Stuffed with Spinach and Ricotta in Asparagus Sauce. We also encounter makers of chestnut flower honey, chocolate, vin santo, and wild boar prosciutto, among other ingredients, and are given recipes for their use. A list of resources for finding the products both here and in Italy concludes the book, which, in its evocation of venerable traditions still practiced, is also heartening. It's good to know the modern world, so geared to homogenization, still contains them. --Arthur Boehm

Review

By Florence Fabricant
It's partly an attractive guide to Italian ingredients and partly a collection of thumbnail biographies of the people who produce them. But most of all, Italian Food Artisans by Pamela Sheldon Johns provides behind-the-scenes descriptions with alluring photographs to show how more than a dozen traditional Italian food are made. The author also outlines the qualities that set those foods apart form their commonplace industrial versions.
She writes, for example, of a fourth-generation company in central Italy, Rustichella d'Abruzzo, which makes dry pasta with handcrafted bronze molds, resulting in pasta with a roughened texture that makes sauce cling invitingly to it. Unlike commercial pasta, which is usually dried at high temperatures for about 12 hours, this pasta is slowly air-dried for more than four days, which maintains the flavor of the wheat.
Handmade details and the time to do things right both of which are costly and avoided by big companies are lavished on many of the products described in the book, including deeply flavorful cured meats, fine balsamic vinegar, rustic caciocavallo cheese and fruity estate-bottled extra virgin olive oil.
In a chapter about fresh truffles, Johns explains not only the white ones, for which Italy is famous, but also the black variety, which is gathered in Umbria. She gives advice about using truffles and how to select truffle oils and pastes.
This useful book also lists salamis and cheeses by region and has a buying guide to food products in Italy and the United States.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 168 pages
• Publisher: Chronicle Books (October 1, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0811821293
• ISBN-13: 978-0811821292
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 8.5 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,245,850 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Since 1992, Pamela Sheldon Johns has coordinated food and wine workshops in Italy.
A regular visitor to Italy since 1983, Pamela now lives full-time in Tuscany and coordinates wine and food workshops in various regions: Tuscany, Emilia-Romagna, Cinque Terre, Campania, Sicily, Veneto, Abruzzo, and Piemonte. Info about the workshops can be found at www.FoodArtisans.com

Pamela owns Poggio Etrusco, a 15-acre farm near Montepulciano. She certified organic in 2003 and produces "Pace da Poggio Etrusco," an excellent extra-virgin olive oil. The farm has apartments and rooms for rent and Pamela's breakfast includes her homemade organic jams. Info about Poggio Etrusco rentals, cooking classes, and olive oil can be found at www.Poggio-Etrusco.com

Pamela's culinary workshops and organic farm have been featured in Food & Wine magazine (top ten cooking schools in Italy), Cooking Light, Bon Appetit, Canadian Geographic, and many other reviews.

Pamela returns to the US once a year for a cooking tour. Contact her to receive the newsletter with updates, [e-mail]

Follow Pamela on Twitter: PamelaInTuscany
on Facebook: Poggio Etrusco

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Italian Food Artisans, July 27, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Italian Food Artisans: Recipes and Traditions (Hardcover)

This is a really interesting book. It tells you the traditional way such things as olive oil, balsamic vinegar and mozzarella cheese are made. It gives you a sense of the history of these foods in Italy, makes you appreciate them all the more and, makes you feel that much more part of the culture. One interesting fact: the vinegar we all think of as Balsamic is a pale version. The real traditional kind is thick as molasses and used a drop at a time on meat and other things. A very compelling and beautiful book!

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The people who keep authentic Italian foods alive, April 19, 2003

By 

K. Corn "reviewer" (midwest, United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 100 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Italian Food Artisans: Recipes and Traditions (Hardcover)

Although there are more than 50 authentic recipes in this lovely book, it is far more than a collection of Italian recipes. Instead, the author sets out to visit the small villages and town in Italy in an attempt to find the food artists who keep culinary traditions alive. I loved reating about such craftsmen as the ones who make Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese, Italian chocolate and other delicacies. An extra bonus- a list of restaurants and Culinary Guides to Italy - for those who wish to meet the people described in the book or taste the foods themselves.