Sicilian Home Cooking: Family Recipes from Gangivecchio
Author: Wanda Tornaben
“To know and be close to your family, nothing is more important than dining together at home, as often as possible, on delicious home cooking. Salute!”
Four years after winning the 1997 James Beard Award for Best Italian Cookbook, Wanda Tornabene and her daughter, Giovanna, return with a glorious second helping of homestyle recipes. Sicilian Home Cooking offers more charming stories and rustic, delicious dishes from the kitchen of Gangivecchio, the Tornabenes’ magnificent thirteenth-century abbey in Sicily’s Madonie Mountains.
As in the award-winning La Cucina Siciliana di Gangivecchio, here you’ll find a wonderful array of simple, mouthwatering recipes for antipasti, soups, pasta, rice, meat, fish, vegetables, salads, and desserts—including easy and delicious variations on bruschetta, the hearty Fagioli e Festoncini di Nonna Elena (Granny Elena’s Bean and Pasta Soup), enticing entrees like Cotolette di Vitello di Wanda (Wanda’s Veal Cutlets) and Gamberi in Crosta alla Gangivecchio (Gangivecchio’s Shrimp en Croute), and sublime desserts like Cartocci (Fried Pastry Coils with Ricotta Cream) and Gelo di Caffè (Coffee Gelatine). Sicilian Home Cooking also offers some tempting new sections. “Egg Dishes” showcases this essential ingredient in beautiful frittatas. “Pizza and Focaccia” is a salute to these most Italian of breads, adorned with fresh toppings. The section on couscous teaches the traditional method for this Arab speciality, which Sicilians have adopted as their own. “Wines and Liqueurs” gives recipes forhomemade, refreshing libations, including the Italian favorite, Limoncello.
The homestyle recipes are nothing short of fantastic—but what makes this book even more special is that Wanda and Giovanna welcome you not only into their kitchen but also into their lives at Gangivecchio. In stories rich with the fragrant atmosphere of the gorgeous Sicilian countryside, they share memories of the annual grape harvest, a special Christmas snowstorm, and an illicit childhood trip on a commerical fishing boat. They describe favorite local restaurants and dishes from the past and the present. And they tell funny and touching stories of relatives, friends, and pets—both old and new.
Sicilian Home Cooking is a cookbook and much more—a true slice of Sicilian life.
Publishers Weekly
With this long-awaited follow-up to their James Beard Award-winning La Cucina Siciliana di Gangivecchio, the mother-and-daughter team triumphantly continues to re-create the hearty, rustic home cuisine served at their restaurant in a 13th-century abbey in the Sicilian mountains. As before, the fare is ravishingly seductive, and much of it enticingly simple. A host of antipasti includes Hot Eggplant Sandwiches and Lettuce Tart made with a dough enriched with eggs and a bit of vanilla. Although they rarely serve egg dishes in their restaurant, the Tornabenes aver that no Sicilian home cook could do without Eggs Poached in Fresh Tomato Sauce, and Pizza with Potatoes, Sausage and Rosemary or one of its many relations is a standard Sunday night treat for mother and daughter. They celebrate pasta with such creations as Paolo's Pennette with Fresh Figs and Pancetta. For more substantial courses, the Tornabenes bring forth Sicilian Oven-Braised Veal Shanks, Chicken Souffl and Gangivecchio's Shrimp en Croute. Vegetable side dishes range from Fried Stuffed Cardoons to the fragrant Baked Potatoes with Bay Leaves, and to conclude are the waist-threatening Almond Parfait and Chocolate and Cheese Tart with Cinnamon, which can be enjoyed with one of their homemade dessert wines. (May 1) Forecast: With the strength of the authors' first book and a seven-city nationwide tour, this work's basic yet lovely fare will make it a credible contender among the crowded shelves of Italian cookbooks. Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.
Library Journal
Gangivecchio is the restaurant Wanda Tornabene opened more than 20 years ago in an effort to save her family home, a former 13th-century abbey in a tiny mountain town in Sicily. Even before the publication of Wanda and daughter Giovanna's first cookbook, La Cucina Siciliana di Gangivecchio, the restaurant had, somewhat improbably, gained an international reputation. But when that book won a James Beard Award, they found their lives changing even more and with the resulting "American invasion," as Giovanna calls it, the restaurant, which had been suffering financially, began to prosper again. Fortunately, the restaurant has retained its uniqueness and charm as have the Tornabenes, in their new book. Like the earlier one, this contains many reminiscences and family stories, along with family recipes, mostly from Wanda (whom her daughter refers to as "our perilous boss") for rustic, satisfying Sicilian home cooking: Granny Elena's Bean and Pasta Soup, Summer Couscous with Herbs, Delicious Veal Roast with Mushrooms. An absorbing and very personal cookbook, this is highly recommended. Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.
New interesting book: McGuires Irish Pub Cookbook or Dinner Party Disasters
Fine Waters: A Connoisseur's Guide to the World's Most Distinctive Bottled Waters
Author: Michael Mascha
Water is indeed everywhere—especially bottled water. High-end restaurants now have water lists in addition to wine lists, water bars are opening up around the globe, and gourmet markets are selling dozens of different varieties of domestic and imported bottled waters. Consumers are beginning to recognize that bottled water, like wine, has a unique identity that is defined by its origin.
Fine Waters introduces readers to the epicurean delights of water, sharing the ins and outs of the characteristics that provide various waters with their unique flavors, as well as recommendedfood pairings, stemware suggestions, and optimum serving temperatures for enjoying both still and sparkling waters. The book also provides tasting notes for more than 100 of the world's best bottled waters. Produced in full color, with photographs throughout, Fine Waters is the first guide to this up-and-coming food trend.
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