Delizia!: The Epic History of the Italians and Their Food
Author: John Dicki
Buon appetito! Everyone loves Italian food. But how did the Italians come to eat so well?
The answer lies amid the vibrant beauty of Italy's historic cities. For a thousand years, they have been magnets for everything that makes for great eating: ingredients, talent, money, and power. Italian food is city food.
From the bustle of medieval Milan's marketplace to the banqueting halls of Renaissance Ferrara; from street stalls in the putrid alleyways of nineteenth-century Naples to the noisy trattorie of postwar Rome: in rich slices of urban life, historian and master storyteller John Dickie shows how taste, creativity, and civic pride blended with princely arrogance, political violence, and dark intrigue to create the world's favorite cuisine. Delizia! is much more than a history of Italian food. It is a history of Italy told through the flavors and character of its cities.
A dynamic chronicle that is full of surprises, Delizia! draws back the curtain on much that was unknown about Italian food and exposes the long-held canards. It interprets the ancient Arabic map that tells of pasta's true origins, and shows that Marco Polo did not introduce spaghetti to the Italians, as is often thought, but did have a big influence on making pasta a part of the American diet. It seeks out the medieval recipes that reveal Italy's long love affair with exotic spices, and introduces the great Renaissance cookery writer who plotted to murder the Pope even as he detailed the aphrodisiac qualities of his ingredients. It moves from the opulent theater of a Renaissance wedding banquet, with its gargantuan ten-course menu comprising hundreds of separate dishes, tothe thin soups and bland polentas that would eventually force millions to emigrate to the New World. It shows how early pizzas were disgusting and why Mussolini championed risotto. Most important, it explains the origins and growth of the world's greatest urban food culture.
With its delectable mix of vivid storytelling, groundbreaking research, and shrewd analysis, Delizia! is as appetizing as the dishes it describes. This passionate account of Italy's civilization of the table will satisfy foodies, history buffs, Italophiles, travelers, students -- and anyone who loves a well-told tale.
Publishers Weekly
In this revelatory history of gourmet Italy from antiquity to today, Dickie (Cosa Nostra: A History of the Sicilian Mafia), examines the centuries of religious, political and sociological events that effectively thrust Italian food into today's global limelight. Though it begins with the requisite gnocchi, lasagna, tagliatelle and tortellini, this bittersweet historical narrative quickly dispels the romantic notion that contemporary Italian fare has been the prideful plate of the rural peninsula and peasants throughout the ages. Dickie tracks the country's culinary saga to medieval times, during which the impoverished would have been less likely to eat bistecca alla fiorentinaor risotto alla milanese(had either existed), as they were to subsist on banal fare like turnips and polenta, with little concept of epicurean taste or pride. He notes that it was the urban areas, replete with food markets and money, that enabled foods like Parmigiano-Reggiano and mortadella to become Italian staples. As Dickie shows, the mainstream American concept of "Italian food" is a modern-day notion developed as a mixture of the multiple identities of the country's cities. Boisterous, gluttonous stories-some verging on salacious-are balanced by accounts of paucity in this look into Italian history and its edibles. (Jan.)
Copyright 2007 Reed Business InformationKirkus Reviews
A rich, robust epicurean feast for those who enjoy history as a main course. Dickie (Italian Studies/University College London; Cosa Nostra: A History of the Sicilian Mafia, 2004, etc.) begins his extensive survey of Italian food in 12th-century Palermo and ends in present-day Genoa. He honors the Italian notion of "civilization of the table," which "embraces all the many different aspects of a culture that are expressed through food." Every dish has a story behind it, and the author's subjects range from spaghetti ("one of the great unifying motifs in Italy's constantly shifting gastronomic mosaic") to Parmesan cheese to the meat-dominant cuisine of medieval Milan, where food doubled as medicine. The descriptions of the unique ingredients used in authentic dishes like Palermo's focaccia (stuffed with veal spleen and strips of lung, fried in lard) or Roman pajata (intestines of an unweaned calf, complete with mother's milk) may set inexperienced stomachs churning. Venice in the 1300s brings on a discussion of spices. During the Renaissance, Dickie asserts, Italy's urban food system became more sophisticated due to the conjunction of multicourse meals served to royalty with regal pageantry. The open-air festivals of the early 18th century gave birth to pizza, new technologies in the manufacturing of dried pasta and the further development of tomato sauce, "the lifeblood of Italian food." Describing with good humor what Italians refer to as the "cornucopia of horrors" that constitutes American eating, Dickie moves from Mussolini to Sophia Loren to the modern Slow Food movement. But the "charisma" of Italian food comes across only in certain sections; the author's dense history of earlyItalian cuisine is overly comprehensive, though never entirely inaccessible. A bit of personality and humor interjected into this pastoral lesson might have been the seasoning the author needed to garner more crossover appeal. Agent: Catherine Clarke/Felicity Bryan Literary Agency
Table of Contents:
Tuscany: Don't Tell the Peasants 1The Medieval Table
Palermo, 1154: Pasta and the Planisphere 13
Milan, 1288: Power, Providence, and Parsnips 29
Venice, 1300s: Chinese Whispers 45
Cooking for Renaissance Popes and Princes
Rome, 1468: Respectable Pleasure 61
Ferrara, 1529: A Dynasty at Table 77
Rome, 1549-50: Bread and Water for Their Eminences 100
Street Food
Bologna, 1600s: The Game of Cockaigne 129
Naples, late 1700s: Maccheroni-Eaters 146
Turin, 1846: Viva l'Italia! 167
Food for the New Nation
Naples, 1884: Pinocchio Hates Pizza 183
Florence, 1891: Pellegrino Artusi 196
Genoa, 1884-1918: Emigrants and Prisoners 216
Fascists in the Kitchen
Rome, 1925-38: Mussolini's Rustic Village 243
Turin, 1931: The Holy Palate Tavern 249
Milan, 1936: Housewives and Epicures 256
The Land of Plenty
Rome, 1954: Miracle Food 269
Bologna, 1974: Mamma's Tortellini 290
Genoa, 2001-2006: Faulty Basil 303
Turin, 2006: Peasants to the Rescue! 311
Acknowledgments 323
Notes on Sources 327
Bibliography 333
Index 355
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China Bayles' Book of Days: 365 Celebrations of the Mystery, Myth, and Magic of Herbs from the World of Pecan Springs
Author: Susan Wittig Albert
A companion treasury from the author of the national bestselling series.
Readers of the China Bayles mystery novels are familiar with the usefulness and wonder of the many herbs the amateur sleuth sells in her beloved Thyme and Seasons shop. Compiled by national bestselling author Susan Wittig Albert at the request of her fans, China Bayles' Book of Days gathers together tidbits and treasures about plants and reveals ways you can put more green into your daily life.
Featuring 365 days of recipes, crafts, gardening tips, remedies, and more, this special volume is a personal calendar of the legends and lore of herbs and also features brand-new essays from the author, clues from China's mysteries, and some special contributions by the irrepressible members of the Myra Merryweather Herb Guild, Pecan Springs's oldest civic organization.
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