The Flavors of Southern Italy (Hardcover)

by Erica De Mane (Author)
Key Phrases: pizza dough, large marjoram sprigs, homemade dry bread crumbs, New York, Italian American, United States (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
DeMane (Pasta Improvvisata) hones her flavor-combining philosophy and skills in this volume that successfully-and wonderfully-improvises on traditional recipes of southern Italian cuisine. She bases her dishes on the cooking of her grandmother, who emigrated from a town on the Campania-Apulia border; from there, DeMane has adapted her recipes according to ingredients available in the U.S. (mostly New York); the busy lifestyle of today's home cooks; and, finally, her own personal taste. DeMane's adaptations are subtle, but their effect is powerful. For example, she eschews sausage for prosciutto in Orecchette with Broccoli Rabe, Prosciutto, and White Wine. For main courses, she brings to the table Braised Sausages with Green Grapes, Wine and Bay Leaves; Pork Chops with Gentle Vinegar Peppers (into which she mixes anchovy fillets and marjoram); and Grouper Wrapped in Prosciutto and Served with a Winter Tomato Sauce (made with Marsala wine, sage and rosemary). Her salads are standouts (many, she maintains, can be a full dinner): Strawberry and Wild Watercress Salad with Pine Nuts; and Spinach Salad with Pears, Spiced Walnuts, and Ricotta Salata. Equally simple though enticing are DeMane's antipasti (e.g., Sautéed Cerignolo Olives with Fennel and Mint) and contorni, such as Potato and Sweet Pepper Gatto, Calabrian Style (made with vermouth, pecorino and caciocavallo cheeses). While lacking essential photos and illustrations, DeMane's clear and easy narrative and her abundance of flavorful recipes make this a valuable collection.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Review
There are plenty of southern Italian cookbooks; what makes De Mane's comprehensive volume special is recipes like Caponatina, her simple but inspired version of the classic Sicilian eggplant salad which she spikes with pears. (Kate Heddings, Food & Wine Food Senior Editor, June 2004)

DeMane (Pasta Improvvisata) hones her flavor-combining philosophy and skills in this volume that successfully-and wonderfully-improvises on traditional recipes of southern Italian cuisine. She bases her dishes on the cooking of her grandmother, who emigrated from a town on the Campania-Apulia border; from there, DeMane has adapted her recipes according to ingredients available in the U.S. (mostly New York); the busy lifestyle of today's home cooks; and, finally, her own personal taste. DeMane's adaptations are subtle, but their effect is powerful. For example, she eschews sausage for prosciutto in Orecchette with Broccoli Rabe, Prosciutto, and White Wine. For main courses, she brings to the table Braised Sausages with Green Grapes, Wine and Bay Leaves; Pork Chops with Gentle Vinegar Peppers (into which she mixes anchovy fillets and marjoram); and Grouper Wrapped in Prosciutto and Served with a Winter Tomato Sauce (made with Marsala wine, sage and rosemary). Her salads are standouts (many, she maintains, can be a full dinner): Strawberry and Wild Watercress Salad with Pine Nuts; and Spinach Salad with Pears, Spiced Walnuts, and Ricotta Salata. Equ ally simple though enticing are DeMane's antipasti (e.g., Sautéed Cerignolo Olives with Fennel and Mint) and contorni, such as Potato and Sweet Pepper Gatto, Calabrian Style (made with vermouth, pecorino and caciocavallo cheeses). While lacking essential photos and illustrations, DeMane's clear and easy narrative and her abundance of flavorful recipes make this a valuable collection. (May) (Publishers Weekly, April 26, 2004)

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 464 pages
• Publisher: Wiley (May 7, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0471272515
• ISBN-13: 978-0471272519
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 7.7 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.5 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #229,727 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Treatment of Italian Ingredients. Highly Recommended, May 23, 2004

By	B. Marold "Bruce W. Marold" (Bethlehem, PA United States) - See all my reviews (TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

`The Flavors of Southern Italy' by Erica De Mane is one of the most revealing expositions of a regional cuisine I have had the pleasure to read. This includes about twenty books covering Italy, regions of Italy, France, regions of France, Morocco, regions of China, and regions of the United States, plus several on the Mediterranean as a whole and the Arabic lands of the Mediterranean. The quality of the presentation is due to the most distinctive approach revealed clearly in the title of the book.

Most writers on regional cuisines do a gloss on the ingredients of the cuisine and proceed to a presentation of many of the classic dishes of the region. This is certainly the approach of the three different books I have read and reviewed on the cuisine of Rome. As long as the recipes are reasonably authentic and not the author's overly interpreted versions of these representative dishes, this approach can be quite good, as it is in these three treatments of Roman food.

Ms. De Mane's approach is most similar to the ingredients driven monograph `The Essential Mediterranean' by co-Italian specialist Nancy Harmon Jenkins.

Ms. De Mane makes no claim whatsoever to being true to the recipes of southern Italy. This is not to say there are not some authentically Italian dishes here, but this is not Ms. De Mane's game. Her book is not on the recipes of southern Italy, it is on the FLAVORS of southern Italy. Her approach to her subject begins with a very long chapter entitled `Essential Southern Italian Flavoring Ingredients'. This chapter covers virtually every major spice, herb, and condiment used in southern Italian cooking plus sections on olive oil, tomatoes, peppers and chilies, salumi, cheeses, nuts, and wine. The remainder of the book is organized not by course as is tradition with many other Italian cookbooks, but primarily by principle ingredient or type of preparation. In this way, salads and appetizers are not treated in a separate chapter. They are presented with other dishes with a common principle ingredient.

The chapters of recipes are:

Vegetables, including sections on shopping, cooking, and making salads
Seafood, including sections on buying and flavoring seafood
Meats and Poultry, including sections on typical usage and cooking for a group.
Savory Tarts, including sections on pizza and calzones.
Soups
Pasta
Desserts

The book ends with a chapter on the author's favorite southern Italian wines and a chapter on menus.

The author's definition of southern Italy is comprised of the provinces, in order of emphasis, of Sicily, Apulia (heel of the boot), Campania (Naples, Capri and the Amalfi coast), Basilicata (instep of the boot), and Calabria (toe of the boot). Sicily, Apulia, and Campania are the rich regions, which produce great quantities or olives, grapes, and wheat. Calabria and Basilicata are poorer, having a geography inhospitable to agriculture.

The author's strategy in the book is based, among other things, on three important aspects of what is available to her. First, many native southern Italian products simply do not travel well beyond their native land, in spite of the author's access to an excellent Manhattan source of Italian foods, DePalo Cheese, run by a family native to Basilicata. Luckily, this problem does not affect most classic ingredients like olive oil, hard cheeses, procuitto, and wines. Second, many Italian salumi products cannot be imported into the United States. Third, for many fresh ingredients, native American products are actually superior to what is available in Italy.

While the author relishes the wealth of American ingredients, she remains true to the Italian simplicity, especially in salads and soups. Unlike American and French salad constructions, she does not pile in everything but the kitchen sink. On the other hand, some classically influenced dishes such as the recipe for meatballs with green beans and potatoes does have a rather large ingredients list; however, the recipe is for meatballs, green vegetable, and starch.

My conviction that this is a superior treatment of it's subject is based on the fact that it says nothing which disagrees with things I have heard and read from reliable sources and it tells me much about the skillful use of many classic ingredients which I did not know or fully appreciate before.

If you are fond of an authentic Italian approach to food, like good writing about food, or are simply an all around foodie, then get this book. The spirit is all Italian, but the ingredients are very supermarket friendly. No heavy use of truffles or porcini or balsamic vinegar or even Parmesano Reggiano here. Unfortunately, you will probably feel just a bit left out if you don't have a good source of buffalo mozzarella at hand.

Highly recommended, especially for salads, vegetables, seafood, and pasta recipes. Intermediate skill level.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Not just another Italian cookbook, May 18, 2004

By A Customer

There are Italian cookbooks enough to build a Great Wall of Italy, but this one stands out.

DeMane knows her stuff and writes for respected publications like Food and Wine. She adapts traditional recipes for US home cooks who might not have a lot of timr or access to "weird" ingredients. The book is formatted based on tastes. In the mood for tomato? Find a great tomato recipe! Want something sweet and tangy or bitter? You'll find the recipe to suit your tastes and culinary skills.

This is a great book for entertaining! The recipes are fool-proof and DeMane's menus are wonderful. Try the Roasted Figs with Gorgonzola for a great starter, side dish or even dessert, yummy!

9 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fine-Tuned Italian, August 9, 2004

By	M. L Martindale "Owner/Operator http://www.Fo... (LARGO, FL USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

8/9/2004


THE FLAVORS OF SOUTHERN ITALY
By Erica De Mane

"I am convinced that the foods a person cooks best embrace the flavors he or she grew up with. All the recipes in this book reflect my childhood. This is a very personal collection of recipes and thoughts on cooking, all anchored by the flavors of southern Italy." This is the opening statement in DeMane's introduction. This came as a surprise to your reviewer who found many recipes not usually associated with Italian cuisine. "I hope my love of southern Italian flavors and eating and cooking will rub off on you," she ends.

Glancing at the Contents, DeMane devotes 64 pages to lining out various techniques which set Italian cuisine apart from other foods. She pairs certain ingredients: Fennel and Saffron, Pancetta and Salami, Pine Nuts and Raisins, Tomato Paste and Sun-Dried Tomatoes and more. These pairing are a tip-off of what's to come. In addition to the usual sections on Seafood, Soups and Pasta, she includes one on Savory Tarts, Pizza Neapolitan Style, also Calzone. After Desserts, she shares special menus and her take on "My Favorite Southern Italian Wines."

Here are some of the recipes she includes in this complete book:

Wheat Berries with Zucchini, Pine Nuts and Ricotta

Plum Tomatoes Baked with Caprino, Rosemary and Black Olives (Caprino is the Italian word for goat cheese)

Baked Eggs with Winter Tomato Sauce

Coleslaw with Sicilian Flavors
(these include pine nuts, raisins, peperoncino chili, sugar and nutmeg)

Tuna Tatare Crostini with Capers and Avacado

Mussels with Mascarpone, Green (shoots) Garlic and Spring Herbs

Steak and Celery Salad with Capers and Romaine

Duck Pizzaiola with Red Vermouth

Pizza with Escarole, Fontina and Baked Eggs

Chicken Soup with Pumpkin, Escarole and Marsala

Dried Figs with Almonds and Chocolate

The arrangement of recipes in menus at the end of the book are clearly foods expertly prepared for other fine Italian cooks. She closes the book with a menu she titles, "A Birthday Dinner for Myself," and which "I cook myself ... since I cook with all the flavors I love best, always including anchovies, cheese and luscious red wine."