Italian Food Artisans : Recipes and Traditions
Editorial Reviews
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The traditional food products of Italy are world treasures. From aged balsamic vinegar to creamy buffalo-milk mozzarella, from Parmigiano-Reggiano to mellow extra-virgin olive oil, these classic ingredients, lovingly crafted for centuries, form the backbone of a great cuisine. Pamela Sheldon Johns's Italian Food Artisans introduces readers to the men and women who, despite the press of modern industrialization, make these edible wonders today, while offering 50 simple but delicious recipes that use them. Readers interested in Italian food culture and those seeking accessible recipes for authentic Italian dishes will want this book.
Arranged by general topics such as condiments, breads, rice, and pasta, the book profiles the artisans in words and evocative color photos; recipes follow. We meet, for example, the Mori family of Tuscany, whose farm factory has produced extra-virgin olive oil for over two centuries. Recipes include the enticing Penne Santo, a cabbage, pancetta, and olive oil-topped bread, and Torta di Capezzana, a delicious olive oil cake, among others. We journey also to the tiny village of Piantella in Abruzzo, among other places, where Gianluigi Peduzzi oversees the pasta-making business started by his great-grandfather; recipes include Orechiette with Clams and Broccoli Rabe, and Shells Stuffed with Spinach and Ricotta in Asparagus Sauce. We also encounter makers of chestnut flower honey, chocolate, vin santo, and wild boar prosciutto, among other ingredients, and are given recipes for their use. A list of resources for finding the products both here and in Italy concludes the book, which, in its evocation of venerable traditions still practiced, is also heartening. It's good to know the modern world, so geared to homogenization, still contains them. --Arthur Boehm
Review
By Florence Fabricant
It's partly an attractive guide to Italian ingredients and partly a collection of thumbnail biographies of the people who produce them. But most of all, Italian Food Artisans by Pamela Sheldon Johns provides behind-the-scenes descriptions with alluring photographs to show how more than a dozen traditional Italian food are made. The author also outlines the qualities that set those foods apart form their commonplace industrial versions.
She writes, for example, of a fourth-generation company in central Italy, Rustichella d'Abruzzo, which makes dry pasta with handcrafted bronze molds, resulting in pasta with a roughened texture that makes sauce cling invitingly to it. Unlike commercial pasta, which is usually dried at high temperatures for about 12 hours, this pasta is slowly air-dried for more than four days, which maintains the flavor of the wheat.
Handmade details and the time to do things right—both of which are costly and avoided by big companies—are lavished on many of the products described in the book, including deeply flavorful cured meats, fine balsamic vinegar, rustic caciocavallo cheese and fruity estate-bottled extra virgin olive oil.
In a chapter about fresh truffles, Johns explains not only the white ones, for which Italy is famous, but also the black variety, which is gathered in Umbria. She gives advice about using truffles and how to select truffle oils and pastes.
This useful book also lists salamis and cheeses by region and has a buying guide to food products in Italy and the United States.
 
Italian Food Artisans : Recipes and Traditions
Italian Food Artisans: Recipes and Traditions,Pamela Sheldon Johns,John Rizzo,Chronicle Books,0811821293,Cookery, Italian,Cooking,Cooking / Wine,Customs & Traditions,Eating customs,Food habits,Italian cooking,Italy,Regional & Ethnic - Italian,Cooking / General
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