A Taste of Southern Italy: Delicious Recipes and a Dash of Culture [Hardcover]

`A Taste of Southern Italy - Delicious Recipes and a Dash of Culture' by Marlena De Blasi, who has done a similar book for northern Italy and several volumes of memoirs, is not your usual study of a regional cuisine. It is certainly not the usual study of an Italian regional cuisine, which are among the very best in English on local food culture.

The book covers Italy from Lazio (Rome) and points south, including Abruzzo, Campania (Naples), Puglia, Basilicata, Calabria, Sicilia, and Sardegna (Sardinia). Now there are already excellent books on the cuisines of Lazio (`Cooking the Roman Way' by David Downie) and Campania (`Naples at Table' by Arthur Schwartz) plus dozens of books covering Abruzzo, Puglia, Sicilia, and Sardinia. The only single region for which there are few if any titles may be Basilicata. There are even some other excellent books on all of Italy's southern cuisine, such as `The Flavors of Southern Italy' by Erica De Mane.

The important thing to keep in mind about De Blasi's book is that it is different from all of these. Unlike Downie, it is not a fairly comprehensive coverage of the region's full range of dishes. Unlike Schwartz, it includes no study of the history of the region(s) and how this history influenced the cuisine. Unlike De Mane, this is not an analytical treatment of the region's ingredients and methods. All of this means that even if you own all these other books, De Blasi still has something to say to you.

I always appreciate it when an author stays true to the promise of their title, and you have to take the `Taste' of the title seriously, as the author makes no attempt at completeness. She is clear in stating that her selection of dishes are those which appeal to her the most as she was writing this book. That takes care of the `Delicious Recipes' of the subtitle. What De Blasi gives us whom no other author can touch is a great literary evocation of the spirit of southern Italian cooking. Senora Marlena really knows how to write and to use that skill in bringing her subject to light. The one dissonance in that message is her claim that no recipe executed in America can ever faithfully reproduce the taste of the same recipe done in Southern Italy. This is the big issue of `terroir' over which the French get so excited.

Ms. De Blasi's primary contention is that the cuisine of southern Italy is more varied than that of the north. And, since Ms. DB has done a companion volume on the `Regional Foods of Northern Italy' and has lived in Tuscany and Venice for several years, she should know from which she speaks. Unfortunately, aside from giving us a really excellent selection of recipes, she really doesn't address this contention much in her text. I certainly do like the fact that Ms. De Blasi gives us recipes composed entirely of genuinely southern ingredients. There is no Parmisano Reggiano here. All cheesy sharpness is imparted using the southern Romano cheese.

While Ms. DB makes a point of saying that her selection of recipes is very personal, she also happens to pick a very satisfying selection of recipes in at least two different ways. First, there are many recipes for local breads and pastas. When a book covers a cuisine where bread is a primary ingredient, and it doesn't give us any bread recipes, I really wonder about the seriousness of the author's commitment to their subject. When we are dealing with Italy, the same goes for pasta. Second, the selection of recipes is interesting even when compared to specialist books on an Italian region. While Mr. Downie faithfully gives us recipes for the Roman specialty, `saltimbocca', Ms. DB gives us a local variation on the saltimbocca ingredients, `Uno Stufatino di Vitello' (A little braise of veal) which has all the same tastes, but none of the fiery fast saute of saltimbocca. Still comparing Downie to De Blasi, I find her recipe for Roman style artichokes to be really superior to that in Downie's book. Not only does De Blasi include pancetta, she also gives a better narrative of how to do the dish.

This is a cookbook meant to be read from cover to cover, enjoying the description of the dishes and their lore here is almost as much fun as actually making and eating the dishes. I heartily recommend this volume to any amateur foodie who simply happens to like everything about Italian cuisines.

You have been told you need the other "classic" Italian cookbooks like Marcella Hazan. You dabble in others like Lydia Bastianich. You collect cookbooks on certain favored regions like Rome. But really, there is nothing like this book by Marlena de Blasi, and her companion book on the foods of Northern Italy. There is an incredible beauty to the recipes, the selections, and the way in which the author weaves the food into narratives and stories about travel through Italy. Her recipes for many, many braised meat dishes are constants on my table. Every five to ten pages, I find a recipe that changes the way I cook and eat. I spend much time just reading the narratives, which I never do with other cookbooks. I have dog-eared and folded over the corners of pages for recipes that I hope to cook soon -- there are years of joy to be made between these cover -- recipes that I have made, recipes that I will make. Places that I will want to visit. All of that. Between these two books, I have been celebrating dinner parties with friends for years. I just adore these books, love them, and wish more and more people would realize what treasures they are.

I would NOT recommend this book to anyone. THere is not 1 picture in the entire book. What is a cookbook without pictures????