A Blissful Feast: Culinary Adventures in Italy's Piedmont, Maremma, and Le Marche

by Teresa Lust

Overview

A delicious journey through Italy and a celebration of the relationship between family and food.

Moving from the Italian Piedmont to the Maremma and then to Le Marche, chef Teresa Lust interweaves portraits of the people who served as her culinary guides with cultural and natural history in this charming exploration of authentic Italian cuisine.

We learn how to prepare bagna cauda—a robust dipping sauce of anchovies, garlic, and olive oil—with Lust’s relatives outside Torino. We learn about making hand-stretched grissini, Italy’s iconic breadstick, the secrets of whipping up zabaione, a classic dessert of ethereal foam made with egg yolks, sugar, and marsala. Then there is acquacotta, a rustic soup that nourished generations of the area’s shepherds and cowhands. In the town of Camerano, an eighty-year-old woman reveals the art of hand-rolling pasta with a three-foot rolling pin.

Underpinning Lust’s travels is our journey from chef to cook, mirroring the fact that Italians have been masters of home cooking for generations, so they are an obvious source of inspiration. Today, more and more people are rediscovering the pleasures of cooking at home, and Lust’s account—and wonderful recipes—will help readers bring an Italian sensibility to their home tables.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781643133300
Publisher:	Pegasus Books
Publication date:	03/03/2020
Pages:	304
Product dimensions:	10.30(w) x 6.00(h) x 1.20(d)

About the Author

Teresa Lust is the author of Pass the Polenta: and Other Writings from the Kitchen. She is a graduate of Washington State University and holds a master's degree from Dartmouth College. Lust currently teaches Italian for the Rassias Center for World Languages at Dartmouth and teaches cooking classes. She lives in New Hampshire.

Editorial Reviews

01/13/2020

Chef Lust (Pass the Polenta) chronicles her culinary journey across three regions of Italy—the Piedmont in the northwest, from where her maternal grandparents hail; the Maremma in southern Tuscany; and Le Marche in central Italy—in this inviting collection of essays. After a trip to Italy to visit extended family in the Piedmont, she decided that she wanted “to explore connection to my mother’s cooking, wanted to trace the origins of the dishes my grandmother used to make, wanted to expand my repertoire.” The narrative follows her across multiple visits to Italy, where she meets family, sharpens her Italian language skills, apprentices in village trattorias, and samples specialties such as scrambled eggs with asparagus in Le Marche and chestnut tortelli in Maremma. The book’s dozens of recipes include rabbit with white wine and rosemary; turkey and ricotta meat loaf; and bruschetta with figs and gorgonzola. Throughout, Lust offers entertaining food history facts, including the fact that pizza didn’t become popular in Northern Italy until after WWII and that Napoleon recruited Italian bakers to make bread sticks for him at home in Paris. This is a satisfying celebration of Italian food and family, complete with delectable recipes. (Mar.)

Publishers Weekly

Delightful reading.

Booklist

Teresa Lust has lived just about everywhere you've dreamed of living one day, and she is generous enough to walk you through each of those places. Come for the real Italian breadstick recipe, stay for the super regional alcoholic Italian desserts.

Delish (Named One Of The 7 Most Anticipated Cookbooks Of 2020)

"Beautifully written and deeply affecting."

The Baltimore Sun

"An unforgettable experience. Sharing bits of culture and history along with portraits of the home cooks, bakers, and others serving as her guides, Lust weaves more than 35 recipes into her charming story of transformation from chef to cook while discovering the intimate relationship between food, family and friends."

La Cucina Italiana

A Blissful Feast takes readers on a mouthwatering journey through Italy, and who could possibly resist authentic Italian food?

SheKnows

"Like Laurie Colwin and M. F. K. Fisher before her, Lust goes gunning for haute cuisine."

The Los Angeles Times

"How appropriately named is Teresa Lust—her passion for food is in every word of her evocative book. I'd live to be at the table when her platters come around."

Frances Mayes

Like Laurie Colwin and M. F. K. Fisher before her, Lust goes gunning for haute cuisine.

The Los Angeles Times

2019-12-09
A combination of a culinary travel adventure and a search for the author's Italian family's home cooking.

In a knowledgeable, robust narrative that emphasizes proud traditions, Lust (Italian/Dartmouth Coll.; Pass the Polenta: And Other Writings From the Kitchen, 1998) chronicles her trips of discovery to Italy's backcountry. After years working in a New England restaurant, she headed for Rocca Canavese in the Piedmont, where a sumptuous meal by her mother's cousin proved to be inspirational. In early chapters, the author details specific dishes from that menu, including gnocchi, braised rabbit, stewed turnips, bagna cauda (a fonduelike dish with garlic and anchovies), and trout baked in parchment. Gastronomic history and the lore behind certain dishes intertwine with memories of the author's relatives. She also describes her stateside quest to re-create rustic flavors, which highlights the differences in food culture between Italy and the U.S.—e.g., in America, rabbit never took hold as a staple. The many included recipes feature fresh ingredients and minimal steps, with helpful suggestions for substitutions. In the middle section of the book, Lust takes readers to the coastal area of Maremma, where she immersed herself in language study. "To make myself at home at the Italian table would require real fluency," she writes. Throughout the book, Lust emerges as both an observer and apprentice, and her journey toward an authentic, down-to-earth cuisine is sincere rather than pretentious. Beloved regional dishes and lessons from a skillful hostess make clear the seasonality and intuitive approach of Italian cookery. The final section, set in Le Marche, focuses on foraging, with a dense botanical appreciation that is sometimes dry but reflects Lust's farm-to-table ethos. A mildly humorous essay on the effects of eating asparagus offers a few curious historical references, but its place in the collection is tangential. For foodies, Lust hits all the right notes; she demonstrates abundant love and respect for the food and the people dedicated to making it right.

An exploratory, celebratory memoir that elevates family repasts.

Kirkus Reviews

One of my beach reads this year was your book A Blissful Feast. Enjoyed it very much as it brought back wonderful memories of my travels in those regions.

Ciao Italia! - Mary Ann Esposito