Amazon.com: Food Lover's Comp: Tuscany: Carla Capalbo: Books

Amazon.com
Would-be travelers' dreams of Tuscany are permeated with visions of salame, bruschetta, gelato, and robust red wine. Gourmands with a taste for the cuisine of Northern Italy may have installed drool buckets by their beds as the Italian departure date nears, but getting their hands on those fabled comestibles once en route is not as easy uno, due, tre. What you want are those family-run trattorias and wineries, those village markets heaped with fresh local produce, those hard-to-find shops laden with delectably smelly cheeses and hand-pressed olive oils. Well, Carla Capalbo's Food Lover's Companion to Tuscany is reason for to rejoice for traveling Tuscan tasters.

After two years traversing Tuscany, testing trattorias, noting markets and festivals, Capalbo has put together a loving tribute to the food of Tuscany. Going region by region, the guide takes you from Lucca and the Garfagnana through Florence, Pisa, and the Island of Elba. It visits Mount Abetone, Livorno and its coast, Chianti Classico and its wines, Seina, Mount Amiata, and the hills and valleys of Arezzo. There's an appendix with Tuscan market days listed town by town, a glossary, an index of wines, and another of wine grape varietals.

A quick flip reveals a Florentine shop specializing in chocolates (available September through May only, alas), the Mansi Bernardini estate with its fine Luccan olive oils, and Signora Renata Ginestri, baker of some of Tuscany's best breads. There's Da Antonio (a fine fish restaurant in the heart of Chianti), Tenuta Fontodi (the excellent and handsome vineyard outside Panzano), and Caseificio Cooperativa Val D'Orcia (a cheese cooperative in the hills of Contignano specializing in Pienza-style pecorini). Perusing is addictive. Just don't read the book when you're hungry. --Stephanie Gold

Cookbook Digest
Going to Tuscany? Don't leave without Carla Capalbo's 'The Food Lover's Guide to Tuscany,' a 383-page paperback crammed with essential and fascinating information, not only on foods, but on restaurants, food markets, and festivals, artisan shops, and olive oil and wine producers. A chapter is devoted to each of the thirteen distinct sub-regions of Tuscany for which road maps, intended to help you plan your trip, are provided. Within each chapter Ms Capalbo lists important cities and towns and their outstanding offerings, be it a restaurant, a wine factory, a cheese shop, or a store in which to buy 'table crafts.' Sidebars discuss native foods, such as Tuscany's famous beans, fagioli de Sorana. An appendix lists market days for every town, and a glossary of Italian terms will help you talk your way through the region, whether ordering from Italian menus or trying to puzzle out labels on packaged foods or kitchen products. The beauty of Tuscany is nicely suggested in the author's brief introductions to each region.

Food Lover's Comp: Tuscany (Paperback)

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