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Books: Cooking by Cuisine -> Cooking Italian
Sicilian Home Cooking: Family Recipes from Gangivecchio
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by:
TORNABENE, WANDA
TORNABENE, GIOVANNA
Evans, Michele
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Publisher:
Knopf
Published: April, 2001
ISBN: 037540399X
Format:Hardcover
Pages:320
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Book Description
Amazon.com
Wanda and Giovanna Tornabene run a restaurant in Gangivecchio, their 600-year-old family home in Sicily. This is their second cookbook, and it focuses on home cooking, Sicilian style. Italians are well known for their generous hospitality,
and the Tornabene women are great ambassadors. Through dozens of personal stories, some funny, some sad, they invite you into their home to sit at their kitchen table while they reminisce, gossip, educate, and feed you some of the most enjoyable comfort
food and conversation you've ever experienced.
Wanda was born in Palermo but has lived in Sicily for more than 50 years. She learned to cook from her mother-in-law and passed those lessons down to her daughter. She admits that she was reluctant to
share her secret family recipes, but has found great joy and pleasure in doing so. The conversation in the Tornabene home wanders from nutty old Aunt Elvira who collected bus-ticket stubs and used matches to Eggs Poached in Fresh Tomato Sauce. Granny
Elena's Bean and Pasta Soup warms the soul, and the naughty escapades of Ciccio, one of Gangivecchio's dogs, will make you laugh. Aromatic Risotto with Gorgonzola and Fennel may be dinner the night you read about Felice, the little lamb who was allowed
into bed after he was bathed, but Wanda's Veal Cutlets served with a flavorful sauce made with garlic, onions, tomatoes, and a dash of cayenne will still make your mouth water. Stories of parties with family and friends entice you to make Sicilian-style
pizzas topped with four cheeses, zucchini, and thyme or potatoes, sausage, and rosemary, or maybe you'll treat the crowd to "Midnight Spaghetti" variations like Spaghetti with Garlic, Oil, and Hot Pepper or Ruote with Radicchio and Gorgonzola. Sicilian
sweets like Ricotta Tart with Nuts and drinks like Strawberry Liqueur round out the menu and ensure that you'll be back to visit with the Tornabene women of Gangivecchio again and again. --Leora Y. Bloom
Product Description:
"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 for homemade, 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 th
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