Amazon.com Review
In Regional Foods of Southern Italy, Marlena De Blasi looks into the essential spirit of the eight regions encompassing the lower half of Italy south from Rome and out to the islands west of the tip of the boot. She believes that to cook from a particular region, understanding its history is as important as gathering recipes. "A cuisine that aspires to dignity even in the midst of insufficiency," this cooking of the poor is based on sheep's milk cheeses, swordfish, wild bitter greens, and whatever else cruel and capricious yet bountiful nature provides locally. De Blasi has unearthed culinary treasures, from the wine-stewed rabbit served with honey-and-spice-glazed chestnuts in the manner of Nicola Taurino, a hunter/innkeeper from Abigliano, to the potato pie in the style of Biddamanna, a town where Sardinians still cook communally on feast days. For this savory pie, potatoes mashed with garlic, nutmeg, clove, and orange zest are enveloped in a pastry crust crisp with ground corn meal and piquant with pecorino cheese.
The story of visiting restaurants serving Carciofi Alla Giudia, "Golden-Green Crisped Roman Roses," followed by a recipe for this Roman specialty is typical of this book's format. It makes this a good choice for armchair cooks and travelers. Ambitious cooks, particularly of local heritage, will get profound satisfaction out of preparing the 150 often complicated or time-consuming, authentic, and rarely-found recipes De Blasi has tailored to work with U.S. ingredients. While its literary language becomes annoyingly baroque at times, with olive oil described as a "tribute of fat, yellow juice," this unique book offers a perceptive look at the essence and substance of southern Italian food. --Dana Jacobi
From Publishers Weekly
In this follow-up to Regional Foods of Northern Italy, de Blasi covers the savory bottom half of the boot, an area less well-known to American travelers. In an evocative, if sometimes overwrought style, she portrays both places ("The Abruzzo has a terrible magnificence") and people, such as Elisabetta, an Abruzzese woman who, when her son was dispatched to Sicily for military service, accompanied him so that he wouldn't be lonely. An old Italian joke has it that the inhabitants of each city believe that the south begins below them, so that Milanese consider Romans southerners and Romans consider themselves northerners but assure each other that Neapolitans are southerners. De Blasi's south begins with the region of Latium (where Rome is located) and moves down to Sicily. Recipes accurately reflect regional tastes and are of high quality. Rome offers Salt Cod Braised with Tomatoes, Raisins and Pine Nuts. From Abruzzo there is Handmade Pasta with Sweet and Fiery Dried Chiles and The Ritual Soup for the First of May (first prepared by seven virgins, at least according to legend). Campania supplies Still-on-Their-Stems Miniature Tomatoes with Buffalo Milk Mozzarella. Craggy Puglia offers Crisp and Smooth Pasta with Chick Peas (half of the pasta is cooked normally, the other half crisped in olive oil). Cooks whose culinary adventures have heretofore stopped at Tuscany will discover a whole new world of "Italian food." (Aug.)
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.
