Italian Holiday Cooking: A Collection of 150 Treasured Recipes [Hardcover]

Michele Scicolone (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 2, 2001

"My Sicilian grandmother used to make a cookic with red wine, dipped in honey, but I can't find a recipe anywhere."

Whether you're looking for your grandmother's vecchiarelle, a traditional Christmas Lye Neapolitan seafood salad, Italian-style fried chicken for Chanukah, or spice cookies for All Souls' Day, you'll find them together with 150 other classic recipes in Italian Holiday Cooking.

From Christmas to Carnevale, from Sundae dinner to saints' feast days, Italians know how to celebrate. And what's an Italian celebration without food?

With this collection, renowned Italian food and wine writer Michele Scicolone brings the spirit and the flavors of Italian holiday cooking into your own kitchen. Enjoy Christmas Capon, Red Risotto for Rosh Hashanah, and Good Luck Lentil Soup for New Year's Day. Leave it to the Italians to honor the holidays with specific pasta dishes: Pasta for Saint Joseph's Day -- tripolini with almonds, bread crumbs, and anehovy -- Ravioli for the Feast of Saint John the Baptist, and Fettuccine and Chickpeas for the Day of the Dead. There are antipasti and savory pies and hearty second courses. Special cakes, cookies, and other dolci include Chocolate Cake for Passover, Christmas Struffoli, and Carnevale Cannoli. And, of course, all these recipes can be made throughout the year.

Italian Holiday Cooking includes stories and the lore of homeland traditions and celebrations that Italian-American families have kept alive in the United States. So even if you're not Italian, celebrate with Italian Holiday Cooking.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Michele Scicolone wrote Italian Holiday Cooking in order to save those most-loved recipes our immigrant grandparents and parents brought with them from Italy but we never thought to write down. Surely, this is comfort food at its finest. Savory Easter Pie is rich with onions and sausage; ricotta, Parmigiano, mozzarella, and Swiss cheeses; and ham, salami, and pepperoni. Can you smell it baking? Umbrian Ragu, more elaborate than most, calls for dried porcini mushrooms and black truffles. Venetian Risotto with Peas for San Marco is soft and creamy, served wetter than typical risottos, and is very simple to make.

Scicolone's introduction to each recipe includes a bit of background about where it came from, for which holiday it's prepared, and tips for preparation. She also recommends a wine for every dish. And since no holiday would be complete without dessert, Scicolone offers a beautiful selection of cakes, cookies, and other desserts, including a Chocolate Chunk Cheesecake made with ricotta, Creamy Rice Fritters, and the elusive first recipe of the 150 she collected for this project, Vecchiarelle, which are little cookies flavored with red wine and honey. --Leora Y. Bloom

About the Author

Michele Scicolone is a food and travel writer and cooking teacher whose articles appear in the Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Wine Spectator, and many other publications. She is the author of Savoring Italy, Pizza Any Way You Slice It! (coauthored with her husband, Charles, an Italian wine expert), A Fresh Taste of Italy, La Dolce Vita, and The Antipasto Table. She lives in New York City and visits Italy several times each year.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 320 pages
• Publisher: William Morrow Cookbooks; 1 edition (October 2, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0060199911
• ISBN-13: 978-0060199913
• Product Dimensions: 9.6 x 7.8 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,327,274 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

MICHELE SCICOLONE

Michele Scicolone is an award winning food writer and the author of 17 cookbooks. Her latest book, THE FRENCH SLOW COOKER was published in January 2012. It is a collection of classic French recipes adapted for use in the electric slow cooker (Crock Pot). Dorie Greenspan, author of Around My French Table wrote, "I'd bet that if French cooks could get their hands on Michele Scicolone's FRENCH SLOW COOKER, which is filled with smart, practical and convenient recipes, they'd never let it go."

Michele's previous book THE ITALIAN SLOW COOKER, was published in January 2010 and immediately became a bestseller. She was also one of the editors of the 75th Anniversary edition of the classic, Joy of Cooking, and writes about food, wine, and travel for many publications, including Every Day with Rachael Ray, Prevention, The Washington Post, The Wine Spectator, Gourmet, and Bon Appetit. Previous books include The BLT Cookbook with Chef Laurent Tourondel, The Sopranos Family Cookbook, a #1 New York Times Best Seller that was published in 9 languages and a sequel, Entertaining with the Sopranos, both co-authored with Allen Rucker. She has also written 1000 Italian Recipes, and Pizza--Anyway You Slice It!, co-authored with her husband Charles Scicolone, an Italian wine (and pizza) authority.

Michele's television appearances include Emeril Live, The CBS Morning Show, Good Morning America, and Cooking Live with Sara Moulton, as well as many local television and radio programs She teaches cooking at schools around the country including De Gustibus at Macy's, Sur la Table, and the Institute for Culinary Education and is a consultant to many restaurants. Michele has been a spokesperson for the Italian Trade Commission and Williams Sonoma, and lecturer on Italian culture and cuisine at Hofstra and Henderson State Universities, and The Smithsonian Institute. Michele is also a consultant for several restaurants and food companies.

Together with her husband, Michele hosts culinary tours to Italy several times a year. Visit her website at www.MicheleScicolone.com.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars "THE" real-deal zeppole recipe, mamma mia!, July 1, 2011

By 

Joanne "Gotta Eat, Gotta Cook" (Long Island, NY) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Italian Holiday Cooking : A Collection of 150 Treasured Recipes (Hardcover)

Some years ago I clipped out a newspaper recipe for zeppole, the ones you can buy at pizza places and Italian fairs. This recipe was 'the' real deal with that characteristic 'spongey' bite, no mistaking this for a wanna-be zeppole. In using the recipe recently the preface mentioned this author's name as the source of that recipe in this book. So THIS ONE RECIPE was the impetus for me to buy this book. I am a cooking/baking junkie, and I have never ever seen on TV cooking programs or other cookbooks a recipe like this one for zeppole that is so on the money. For the life of me, I can't figure out why, b/c the recipe is so stupid easy. I didn't care how long ago the book was published, this recipe was a gem among gems. So I may seem crazy in my approach to buying this book, but I figured if the zeppole recipe was 'the bomb' then how bad could the other recipes be? I will report back as I use more of the recipes, but I just felt I had to share this zeppole 'find' with those out there who love them as we do. I can even make these for my toddler granddaughter who has allergies to eggs, dairy and peanuts. This recipe is free from those ingredients. So good.
UPDATE 7/5/2011: I made the frozen almond creams (aka "tortoni"). It is spot on. Easy too. So far both recipes for me out of the gate are true, authentic, iconic Italian desserts I can replicate at home.

5 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars I was delighted with these authentic Italian recipes but...., December 23, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: Italian Holiday Cooking: A Collection of 150 Treasured Recipes (Hardcover)

This is one of the better Italian cookbooks I have come across
but I ran into a problem with the first recipe I tried. The orange semolina cake sounded great. I prepared the semolina, made the ricotta mixture and beat the egg whites. The recipe never tells you what to do with the cooked semolina! I'm an experienced cook, and I figured it went into the ricotta mixture, but who knows? We're eating it tomorrow, Christmas Eve and I guess I'll find out then.