An authentic guide to the festive, mouthwatering sweets of Southern Italy, including regional specialties that are virtually unknown in the US, as well as variations on more popular desserts such as cannoli, biscotti, and gelato. As a follow-up to her acclaimed My Calabria, Rosetta Costantino collects 75 favorite desserts from her Southern Italian homeland, including the regions of Basilicata, Calabria, Campania, Puglia, and Sicily. These areas have a history of rich traditions and tasty, beautiful desserts, many of them tied to holidays and festivals. For example, in the Cosenza region of Calabria, Christmas means plates piled with grispelle (warm fritters drizzled with local honey) and pitta 'mpigliata (pastries filled with walnuts, raisins, and cinnamon). For the feast of Carnevale, Southern Italians celebrate with bugie ("liars"), sweet fried dough dusted in powdered sugar, meant to tattle on those who sneak off with them by leaving a wispy trail of sugar. With fail-proof recipes and information on the desserts' cultural origins and context, Costantino illuminates the previously unexplored confectionary traditions of this enchanting region.

A beautiful new edition of one of the most beloved cookbooks of all time, from “the Queen of Italian Cooking” (Chicago Tribune). A timeless collection of classic Italian recipes—from Basil Bruschetta to the only tomato sauce you’ll ever need (the secret ingredient: butter)—beautifully illustrated and featuring new forewords by Lidia Bastianich and Victor Hazan “If this were the only cookbook you owned, neither you nor those you cooked for would ever get bored.” —Nigella Lawson Marcella Hazan introduced Americans to a whole new world of Italian food. In this, her magnum opus, she gives us a manual for cooks of every level of expertise—from beginners to accomplished professionals. In these pages, home cooks will discover: • Minestrone alla Romagnola • Tortelli Stuffed with Parsley and Ricotta • Risotto with Clams • Squid and Potatoes, Genoa Style • Chicken Cacciatora • Ossobuco in Bianco • Meatballs and Tomatoes • Artichoke Torta • Crisp-Fried Zucchini blossoms • Sunchoke and Spinach Salad • Chestnuts Boiled in Red Wine, Romagna Style • Polenta Shortcake with Raisins, Dried Figs, and Pine Nuts • Zabaglione • And much more This is the go-to Italian cookbook for students, newlyweds, and master chefs, alike. Beautifully illustrated with line drawings throughout, Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking brings together nearly five hundred of the most delicious recipes from the Italian repertoire in one indispensable volume. As the generations of readers who have turned to it over the years know (and as their spattered and worn copies can attest), there is no more passionate and inspiring guide to the cuisine of Italy.

Breakfast, lunch, and dinner may mark the beginning, middle, and end of the day, but for centuries Italians have eaten two small informal meals that come in between. Italy in Small Bites is the first-ever collection of recipes for these bite-size treats, known as spuntini and merende, the soul food of Italy. Spuntini, the midmorning snack, can be as simple as a sublime walnut-and-raisin-studded coffee cake, while merende, which are enjoyed midafternoon, might be a wedge of onion frittata or artichoke tart, a crunchy pillow of fried dough served with figs or prosciutto, a purée of fava beans, or sweet peppers mounded on a slice of rustic country bread. The best-known merende in America are pizza and focaccia, but there's an entire universe of appealing food revealed in this book. Though the recipes are tied to centuries of tradition that go back to a time when merende reinvigorated laborers in the fields, they're singularly perfect for contemporary eating in America and are as versatile as they are delicious. Merende make perfect impromptu meals because they are stunningly simple foods meant to make life easy. Some -- bruschetta with various toppings, frittate, vegetable tarts, polenta crostini -- may be familiar, while others are welcome new discoveries. Served individually or in combination, they can become a meal -- any meal -- and they are healthy, inexpensive, and casual, perfect for the way we live.

The only comprehensive book, in English or Italian, to cover the entire range of Italian baking, from breadsticks and cornetti to focaccia, tarts, cakes, and pastries. This latest edition, updated for a new generation of home bakers, has added four-color photography throughout, plus new recipes, ingredients and equipment sections, source guides, and weights. Carol Field introduces artisanal doughs and techniques used by generations of Italian bakers. Every city and hill town has its own unique baking traditions, and Field spent more than two years traversing Italy to capture the regional and local specialties, adapting them through rigorous testing in her own kitchen. Field’s authentic recipes are a revelation for anyone seeking the true Italian experience. Here’s a chance to make golden Altamura bread from Puglia, chewy porous loaves from Como, rosemary bread sprinkled with coarse sea salt, dark ryes from the north, simple breads studded with toasted walnuts, succulent fig bread, and Sicilian loaves topped with sesame seeds. One of the most revered baking books of all time, The Italian Baker is a landmark work that continues to be a must-have for every serious baker. Winner of the International Association of Culinary Professionals Award for best baking book Named to the James Beard Baker’s Dozen list of thirteen indispensable baking books of all time

‘Gennaro is an incredible baker – bread has always been central to everything he does. This is a great book – incredible food and full of Gennaro-style passion’ – Jamie Oliver Making bread has always been a natural passion for Gennaro Contaldo. Ingrained since childhood with memories of his mother’s weekly bread-making and visits to his uncle’s village bakery, it is a skill which has followed him throughout his career as a chef. In this book, Gennaro takes you onto a journey into the magical world of Italian bread and baking, giving you his secret tips on making the perfect dough to create wonderful Italian breads for all occasions. And not only bread – have you ever walked into an Italian panetteria (bakery) and marvelled at the amazing variety of freshly baked goods? Not only filone, filoncini, ciabatta, campagnia, panini, but also amazing focaccia, pizzette, biscuits and cakes. Included will be Gennaro’s fabled focaccia made in different regional varieties as well as mouth watering torte salate (Italian savoury pies) using seasonal ingredients such as spinach & artichoke oozing with fontina cheese for spring or escarole, black olives & anchovy for winter. There will be a section of rustic pane dolce (sweet breads) as well as delicious crostate (sweet pastry tarts), biscuits and traditional homemade cakes just like Nonna used to make. This book will be the ultimate in Italian bread and baking – it will be your Italian panetteria bible where you will be able to almost smell that dreamy, irresistible aroma of fresh baking as you flick through the pages. Word count: 55,000

The only comprehensive book, in English or Italian, to cover the entire range of Italian baking, from breadsticks and cornetti to focaccia, tarts, cakes, and pastries. This latest edition, updated for a new generation of home bakers, has added four-color photography throughout, plus new recipes, ingredients and equipment sections, source guides, and weights. Carol Field introduces artisanal doughs and techniques used by generations of Italian bakers. Every city and hill town has its own unique baking traditions, and Field spent more than two years traversing Italy to capture the regional and local specialties, adapting them through rigorous testing in her own kitchen. Field’s authentic recipes are a revelation for anyone seeking the true Italian experience. Here’s a chance to make golden Altamura bread from Puglia, chewy porous loaves from Como, rosemary bread sprinkled with coarse sea salt, dark ryes from the north, simple breads studded with toasted walnuts, succulent fig bread, and Sicilian loaves topped with sesame seeds. One of the most revered baking books of all time, The Italian Baker is a landmark work that continues to be a must-have for every serious baker. Winner of the International Association of Culinary Professionals Award for best baking book Named to the James Beard Baker’s Dozen list of thirteen indispensable baking books of all time

How is the meaning of food created, communicated, and continually transformed? How are food practices defined, shaped, delineated, constructed, modified, resisted, and reinvented – by whom and for whom? These are but a few of the questions Who Decides? Competing Narratives in Constructing Tastes, Consumption and Choice explores. Part I (Taste, Authenticity & Identity) explicitly centres on the connection between food and identity construction. Part II (Food Discourses) focuses on how food-related language shapes perceptions that in turn construct particular behaviours that in turn demonstrate underlying value systems. Thus, as a collection, this volume explores how tastes are shaped, formed, delineated and acted upon by normalising socio-cultural processes, and, in some instances, how those very processes are actively resisted and renegotiated. Contributors are Shamsul AB, Elyse Bouvier, Giovanna Costantini, Filip Degreef, Lis Furlani Blanco, Maria Clara de Moraes Prata Gaspar, Marta Nadales Ruiz, Nina Namaste, Eric Olmedo, Hannah Petertil, Maria José Pires, Lisa Schubert, Brigitte Sébastia, Keiko Tanaka, Preetha Thomas, Andrea Wenzel, Ariel Weygandt, Andrea Whittaker and Minette Yao.