Product Description

Praise for Erica De Mane

"Erica De Mane is an experienced, generous home cook who understands how both Italians and Americans like to eat, and she deftly manages to bridge the two cultures."
-Corby Kummer, The New York Times

"De Mane tells you things you need to know. . . . Her philosophy is contagious. The tone is friendly. The result is liberating. The confidence can't help but build."
-Ronalie C. Peterson, The Washington Post

"I found myself nodding in appreciation of Erica De Mane's willingness to hand over the keys to being a good cook."
-Susie Middleton, Fine Cooking magazine

Savor the rich flavors of Southern Italy with this exciting collection from experienced cook and food writer Erica De Mane. From classic recipes to new interpretations, from multi-course meals to easy antipasti, here are dishes for cooks of all levels that capture the taste and spirit of one of the world's most beloved cuisines.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #392347 in Books
• Published on: 2004-04-23
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 464 pages

From Publishers Weekly
DeMane (Pasta Improvvisata) hones her flavor-combining philosophy and skills in this volume that successfully-and wonderfully-improvises on traditional recipes of southern Italian cuisine. She bases her dishes on the cooking of her grandmother, who emigrated from a town on the Campania-Apulia border; from there, DeMane has adapted her recipes according to ingredients available in the U.S. (mostly New York); the busy lifestyle of today's home cooks; and, finally, her own personal taste. DeMane's adaptations are subtle, but their effect is powerful. For example, she eschews sausage for prosciutto in Orecchette with Broccoli Rabe, Prosciutto, and White Wine. For main courses, she brings to the table Braised Sausages with Green Grapes, Wine and Bay Leaves; Pork Chops with Gentle Vinegar Peppers (into which she mixes anchovy fillets and marjoram); and Grouper Wrapped in Prosciutto and Served with a Winter Tomato Sauce (made with Marsala wine, sage and rosemary). Her salads are standouts (many, she maintains, can be a full dinner): Strawberry and Wild Watercress Salad with Pine Nuts; and Spinach Salad with Pears, Spiced Walnuts, and Ricotta Salata. Equally simple though enticing are DeMane's antipasti (e.g., Sautéed Cerignolo Olives with Fennel and Mint) and contorni, such as Potato and Sweet Pepper Gatto, Calabrian Style (made with vermouth, pecorino and caciocavallo cheeses). While lacking essential photos and illustrations, DeMane's clear and easy narrative and her abundance of flavorful recipes make this a valuable collection.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Review
There are plenty of southern Italian cookbooks; what makes De Mane's comprehensive volume special is recipes like Caponatina, her simple but inspired version of the classic Sicilian eggplant salad which she spikes with pears. (Kate Heddings, Food & Wine Food Senior Editor, June 2004)

DeMane (Pasta Improvvisata) hones her flavor-combining philosophy and skills in this volume that successfully-and wonderfully-improvises on traditional recipes of southern Italian cuisine. She bases her dishes on the cooking of her grandmother, who emigrated from a town on the Campania-Apulia border; from there, DeMane has adapted her recipes according to ingredients available in the U.S. (mostly New York); the busy lifestyle of today's home cooks; and, finally, her own personal taste. DeMane's adaptations are subtle, but their effect is powerful. For example, she eschews sausage for prosciutto in Orecchette with Broccoli Rabe, Prosciutto, and White Wine. For main courses, she brings to the table Braised Sausages with Green Grapes, Wine and Bay Leaves; Pork Chops with Gentle Vinegar Peppers (into which she mixes anchovy fillets and marjoram); and Grouper Wrapped in Prosciutto and Served with a Winter Tomato Sauce (made with Marsala wine, sage and rosemary). Her salads are standouts (many, she maintains, can be a full dinner): Strawberry and Wild Watercress Salad with Pine Nuts; and Spinach Salad with Pears, Spiced Walnuts, and Ricotta Salata. Equ ally simple though enticing are DeMane's antipasti (e.g., Sautéed Cerignolo Olives with Fennel and Mint) and contorni, such as Potato and Sweet Pepper Gatto, Calabrian Style (made with vermouth, pecorino and caciocavallo cheeses). While lacking essential photos and illustrations, DeMane's clear and easy narrative and her abundance of flavorful recipes make this a valuable collection. (May) (Publishers Weekly, April 26, 2004)

From the Inside Flap
If you love the pungent aroma of simmering garlic, the rich tang of spicy tomato sauce, or the salty bite of Parmesan cheese, you’re already well on your way to mastering the secrets of Southern Italian cooking. Now, you can learn to improvise with these enticing flavors and combine them in new and exciting ways that bring variety and vitality to every delicious dish you create.

With her unique flavor-based approach to Southern Italian cooking, celebrated Italian chef and author Erica De Mane shows how to use the simplest techniques and purest ingredients to create surprisingly innovative dishes that add new dimension to the flavors you savor most.

Insisting that the best results occur when we cook from the heart, the memory, and the senses, De Mane returns to the culinary region of her ancestry to rediscover the enchanting tastes that form the foundation of Southern Italian family recipes. She unveils the secrets of blending sweet and sour flavors; using wild mint to accent the flavors of meat and pasta; and adding distinctive character to stews and soups with cinnamon, saffron, and other spices that Americans may not associate with the cooking of Southern Italy.

More than 250 recipes highlight the versatility and subtlety of this immensely popular regional cuisine–from Fusilli with Sautéed Green Olives and Bread Crumbs to Tuna Tartare Crostini with Capers and Avocado. You’ll perfect techniques for preparing vegetables, meat and poultry, tarts, soups, pasta, desserts, and more.

De Mane’s delightful meditations on the art of cooking and the ways in which flavors combine give you both the inspiration and the understanding necessary to dream up your own innovative and delectable dishes.

Complete with colorful anecdotes on the history of Southern Italian cooking, useful instructions on traditional preparation methods, and helpful tips on how to hunt down the freshest ingredients, The Flavors of Southern Italy fills your kitchen with the tempting aromas, exquisite textures, and bold and vibrant flavors of the cuisine you love best–at its very, very best!

Customer Reviews

BOTH SERIOUS CHEFS AND AMATEUR COOKS WILL LOVE THIS BOOK!
I have the author's pasta cookbooks and I am so glad to finally have a collection of more diverse recipes. I find her writing very warm and friendly with cooking advice given that is neither pretentious or intimidating. Many of the recipes can be made with whatever you have in the kitchen. This is a cookbook to be enjoyed by everyone with every level of cooking expertise.

Great Treatment of Italian Ingredients. Highly Recommended
'The Flavors of Southern Italy' by Erica De Mane is one of the most revealing expositions of a regional cuisine I have had the pleasure to read. This includes about twenty books covering Italy, regions of Italy, France, regions of France, Morocco, regions of China, and regions of the United States, plus several on the Mediterranean as a whole and the Arabic lands of the Mediterranean. The quality of the presentation is due to the most distinctive approach revealed clearly in the title of the book.

Most writers on regional cuisines do a gloss on the ingredients of the cuisine and proceed to a presentation of many of the classic dishes of the region. This is certainly the approach of the three different books I have read and reviewed on the cuisine of Rome. As long as the recipes are reasonably authentic and not the author's overly interpreted versions of these representative dishes, this approach can be quite good, as it is in these three treatments of Roman food.

Ms. De Mane's approach is most similar to the ingredients driven monograph 'The Essential Mediterranean' by co-Italian specialist Nancy Harmon Jenkins.

Ms. De Mane makes no claim whatsoever to being true to the recipes of southern Italy. This is not to say there are not some authentically Italian dishes here, but this is not Ms. De Mane's game. Her book is not on the recipes of southern Italy, it is on the FLAVORS of southern Italy. Her approach to her subject begins with a very long chapter entitled 'Essential Southern Italian Flavoring Ingredients'. This chapter covers virtually every major spice, herb, and condiment used in southern Italian cooking plus sections on olive oil, tomatoes, peppers and chilies, salumi, cheeses, nuts, and wine. The remainder of the book is organized not by course as is tradition with many other Italian cookbooks, but primarily by principle ingredient or type of preparation. In this way, salads and appetizers are not treated in a separate chapter. They are presented with other dishes with a common principle ingredient.

The chapters of recipes are:

Vegetables, including sections on shopping, cooking, and making salads
Seafood, including sections on buying and flavoring seafood
Meats and Poultry, including sections on typical usage and cooking for a group.
Savory Tarts, including sections on pizza and calzones.
Soups
Pasta
Desserts

The book ends with a chapter on the author's favorite southern Italian wines and a chapter on menus.

The author's definition of southern Italy is comprised of the provinces, in order of emphasis, of Sicily, Apulia (heel of the boot), Campania (Naples, Capri and the Amalfi coast), Basilicata (instep of the boot), and Calabria (toe of the boot). Sicily, Apulia, and Campania are the rich regions, which produce great quantities or olives, grapes, and wheat. Calabria and Basilicata are poorer, having a geography inhospitable to agriculture.

The author's strategy in the book is based, among other things, on three important aspects of what is available to her. First, many native southern Italian products simply do not travel well beyond their native land, in spite of the author's access to an excellent Manhattan source of Italian foods, DePalo Cheese, run by a family native to Basilicata. Luckily, this problem does not affect most classic ingredients like olive oil, hard cheeses, procuitto, and wines. Second, many Italian salumi products cannot be imported into the United States. Third, for many fresh ingredients, native American products are actually superior to what is available in Italy.

While the author relishes the wealth of American ingredients, she remains true to the Italian simplicity, especially in salads and soups. Unlike American and French salad constructions, she does not pile in everything but the kitchen sink. On the other hand, some classically influenced dishes such as the recipe for meatballs with green beans and potatoes does have a rather large ingredients list; however, the recipe is for meatballs, green vegetable, and starch.

My conviction that this is a superior treatment of it's subject is based on the fact that it says nothing which disagrees with things I have heard and read from reliable sources and it tells me much about the skillful use of many classic ingredients which I did not know or fully appreciate before.

If you are fond of an authentic Italian approach to food, like good writing about food, or are simply an all around foodie, then get this book. The spirit is all Italian, but the ingredients are very supermarket friendly. No heavy use of truffles or porcini or balsamic vinegar or even Parmesano Reggiano here. Unfortunately, you will probably feel just a bit left out if you don't have a good source of buffalo mozzarella at hand.

Highly recommended, especially for salads, vegetables, seafood, and pasta recipes. Intermediate skill level.

Not just another Italian cookbook
There are Italian cookbooks enough to build a Great Wall of Italy, but this one stands out.

DeMane knows her stuff and writes for respected publications like Food and Wine. She adapts traditional recipes for US home cooks who might not have a lot of timr or access to "weird" ingredients. The book is formatted based on tastes. In the mood for tomato? Find a great tomato recipe! Want something sweet and tangy or bitter? You'll find the recipe to suit your tastes and culinary skills.

This is a great book for entertaining! The recipes are fool-proof and DeMane's menus are wonderful. Try the Roasted Figs with Gorgonzola for a great starter, side dish or even dessert, yummy!