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Epicurus.com - Cucina del Sole: A Celebration of Southern Italian Cooking
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List Price: $29.95
Our Price: $19.77
Your Save: $ 10.18 ( 34% )
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Manufacturer: William Morrow Cookbooks
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Average Customer Rating:  
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Binding: Hardcover
Dewey Decimal Number: 641.59457
EAN: 9780060723439
ISBN: 0060723432
Label: William Morrow Cookbooks
Manufacturer: William Morrow Cookbooks
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 464
Publication Date: 2007-06-01
Publisher: William Morrow Cookbooks
Release Date: 2007-06-12
Studio: William Morrow Cookbooks
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Editorial Reviews:
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Nancy Harmon Jenkins has lived in Italy for fifteen years and describes this wonderful region from Naples to the toe of Italy that is still unspoiled by tourism with its own rich culinary traditions quite different from Tuscany and Northern Italy. In addition to a wealth of recipes, the book gives capsule portraits of local features: a fish market, an olive oil press, a bakery, a shepherd cheese–maker. Headnotes describe local folklore and traditions and what makes the food of Southern Italy a world on its own. Included are recipes for focaccias, pizzas and savory pies; soups and minestre; sauces for pasta; pasta, beans, rice, and other grains; fish and seafood; meat and poultry; vegetables; salads; and desserts.
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating:
Summary: Cucina del Sole: A Celebration of Southern Italian Cooking
Comment:
I received this book as a gift and was mightily impressed by the selection of recipes and accompanying articles. As a book it is very well presented, with some beautiful artful fit to have me salivating after just a few pages, and some fine graphology making everything easy on the eyes.
The recipes are of course Italian, but greatly varied with dishes using rice, pasta and almost every vegetable imaginable. In fact, despite being a big fan of meat in almost all of its forms (bar seafood - urgh!), I actually found that the tastiest dishes here were fit for vegans or vegetarians.
A great selection, wonderfully presented - well worth the purchase.
Customer Rating:
Summary: A Maine view of Southern Italy
Comment: Ms Jenkins once again has shown her intimate knowledge of Italy and its food ways. She has chosen less well known regions to provide authentic flavors and foods rather than the over rated and over worked areas found in so many other books. She is to be commended for a fine job well done.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Appalling.
Comment: Having made several recipes out of this book (as apart of a presentation and Q&A session for Jenkins' book) I can honestly say the food is just appallingly bad. Cooked under her supervision, the food was just terrible and the recipes oftentimes have incorrect quantities which can be deduced from a simple, logical overview of the recipes.
Oh, and she can't even COOK.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Great Pedigree, Great Book. Buy it Now!
Comment: `Cucina del Sole' is by one of the leading authors of Mediterranean cuisine and cooking, with a bit less volume, but scarcely less quality than Paula Wolfert. She has as good an analytical eye as Wolfert, and one which is even keener than fellow culinary writer, Claudia Roden.
This book covers the region known as the Mezzogiorno d'Italia, those southern provinces of Campania, Calabria, Basilicata, Puglia, and Sicily, and approaches with less of the analytical balance of her `The Essential Mediterranean', but with no less an eye for what her readers would really like to know about the cuisines of this region.
One sure sign that a discussion of a cuisine is worthy is when it has much to say which is both expected AND not widely reported in other books. My first hint that Ms. Jenkins was dishing out a more perceptive than average treatment of Italy was when she recounted a time not too long ago when the food for the traveler in Italy was simply nothing about which to write home. My personal revelation came in Florence in the mid-1960's when I went into a local family run eatery, and had what was the most abysmal meal ever served up in any restaurant on either side of the Atlantic. Harmon verifies that observation for much of her subject up to about 35 years ago, when the Mezzogiorno emerged from centuries of being a backwater of Italian commerce. Ironically, this same region was, at one time, especially in the days of the Roman Empire, the premier center of commerce and wealth. Puglia was especially wealthy with its wheat and olive crops, which fed much of Italy in Roman times.
A second discovery was Ms. Harmon's ample evidence of the influence of Spain on the cuisine of the region, especially of Sicily. At one time, the region was ruled by Spain or under its direct influence. Thus, there are several echoes of Spanish cuisine. The two most obvious are the empanadas and the potato frittatas (very similar to the famous tortilla Espanola).
As is the wont of many works on European culinary venues nowadays, this book dedicates much space to resources for the traveler in the region. For those only interested in the culinary (and choose to remain sedentary) this material is limited to the back pages.
If that were not enough, the book adds a great weapon to our culinary arsenal, in giving excellent instruction for canning our own tomato pasta sauces.
An unexpected surprise is the fact that pasta and olive oil do not monopolize the discussion. The book has much to say about both, but breads, especially pizza, calzones, foccacia, and empanadas are just as important as pasta. And, lard is a close second as the lipid of choice in this pig-rich venue.
Last but not least, Ms. Jenkins knows how to write a recipe as well as the best of them. She may not be as detailed as the incomparable Julia Child, but they are certainly good enough, and one has the very comfortable feeling that these dishes are all truly representative of the region, and not just the specialties of her restaurant friends in Naples, Palermo, and Messina.
Some may miss pretty pictures of the dishes, but I did not. The book was all about the culinary facts of the area. I did miss a snappy map of the area, but then, very few places were named smaller than a province, and by this time, I pretty well know my way around Italian geography. And, I have to have a warm regard for any book which recommends my very favorite Italian deli, Di Palo's in Manhattan.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Hearty and simple Italian fare
Comment: With simple dishes like Fish in a Wine and Lemon Sauce, Lamb Braised in Aged Wine Vinegar (studded with garlic and pancetta), Tiny Meatballs in Chicken Stock, Pugliese Baked Rice with Potatoes and Mussels, and Oven Baked Penne with Eggplant, Jenkins ("Flavors of Tuscany," "The Essential Mediterranean") shares the traditions of Southern Italy.
She gives us foods from Sicily, Campania, Calabria, Basilicata, and Puglia, from breads and antipasti through dessert, and places each dish in context with a bit of local color, technique and history.
This is hearty, simple fare, but that doesn't mean quick. There's a certain amount of patient fiddling with Crispy Fried Rice Balls with Ragu and various fried croquettes. Pasta with Sardines and Wild Fennel requires cleaning the sardines, and store-bought crust is not even a rumor for any of the mouthwatering savory pies like Swordfish and Zucchini, Tuna and Tomato or Cheesy Sausage and Ricotta Calzone.
Traditionally meat is not the center of a Southern meal (unlike Italian-American, which Jenkins suggests could be classed as another region of Italian cooking), so Jenkins includes a lot of special occasion or Sunday dinner recipes in her meat and poultry section. This does not mean fancy: Spiced Braised Beef, Pot Roast of Veal with Anchovy Caper Sauce, Rabbit Braised in White Wine.
Boxed comments on techniques, traditions and ingredients are found throughout. The book concludes with a chapter of advice for the traveler and a list of recommended regional restaurants.
This is a book for those who love the heady aromas and leisurely approach to timeless Italian cooking.
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