Sicilian Feasts

by Giovanna Bellia La Marca

SICILIAN FEASTS was born out of the author’s love for her native Sicily. She shares the history, customs, and folklore, as well as the flavorful and varied cuisine of her beautiful Mediterranean island in recipes, stories, and anecdotes. SICILIAN FEASTS offers more than 160 recipes, along with menus for holidays, notes on ingredients, list of suppliers, an introduction to the Sicilian language, and a glossary of food terms in Sicilian, Italian, and English. Illustrations demonstrate special techniques. Giovanna Bellia La Marca uses simple methods and readily available ingredients to teach the straightforward and delectable everyday cooking of Sicily, thus allowing even novices to create feasts in their kitchens. She features examples of elaborate dishes created by the monzu’, a class of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century professional cooks. These dishes are now effortlessly recreated with modern appliances. The astonishing ’Mpanata, a lamb pie from Ragusa, is sure to please one’s most exacting guests. La Marca also introduces her readers to the practice of transforming almond paste into beautiful and realistic marzipan fruits, a traditional Sicilian art form.

Genres: Cookbooks

203 pages, Hardcover

First published April 1, 2003

Reviews

[loafingcactus · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’ve been watching this chef’s YouTube videos, Kitchen on a Cliff, and had already made several of the items listed in this cookbook from the YouTube videos.

The cookbook is almost all simple recipes that a person would actually make for an everyday meal. Even the special occasion recipes are fairly simple. I think the cool kidz call that “honest” cuisine. They are so simple that sometimes it takes a long reach to realize it is the same dish as a much more complex recipe such as one that is also found in Mastering the Art of French Cooking.

[Marianna Randazzo · Rating 5 out of 5]

Those who know Giovanna will appreciate the fact that she could not just write a cookbook. Interwoven throughout the recipes are her stories and memories of Sicily, family and how to entertain in a proper Italian fashion. Bravo Giovanna.