Eating My Way Through Italy: Heading Off the Main Roads to Discover the Hidden Treasures of the Italian Table

by Elizabeth Minchilli

Overview

A cultural and culinary celebration of everything that makes Italian cuisine great, from Rome’s resident gastronomic expert

After a lifetime of living and eating in Rome, Elizabeth Minchilli is an expert on the city's cuisine. While she’s proud to share everything she knows about Rome, she now wants to show her devoted readers that the rest of Italy is a culinary treasure trove just waiting to be explored. Far from being a monolithic gastronomic culture, each region of Italy offers its own specialties. While fava beans mean one thing in Rome, they mean an entirely different thing in Puglia. Risotto in a Roman trattoria? Don’t even consider it. Visit Venice and not eat cichetti? Unthinkable. Eating My Way Through Italy, celebrates the differences in the world’s favorite cuisine.

Divided geographically, Eating My Way Through Italy looks at all the different aspects of Italian food culture. Whether it’s pizza in Naples, deep fried calamari in Venice, anchovies in Amalfi, an elegant dinner in Milan, gathering and cooking capers on Pantelleria, or hunting for truffles in Umbria each chapter includes, not just anecdotes, personal stories and practical advice, but also recipes that explore the cultural and historical references that make these subjects timeless.

For anyone who follows Elizabeth on her blog Elizabeth Minchilli in Rome, read her previous book Eating Rome, or used her brilliant phone app Eat Italy to dine well, Eating My Way Through Italy, is a must.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781250133045
Publisher:	St. Martin's Publishing Group
Publication date:	05/29/2018
Pages:	304
Sales rank:	652,540
Product dimensions:	6.70(w) x 8.40(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

Elizabeth Minchilli is the author of numerous books on the joys of Italian life including Eating Rome and Eating My Way Through Italy. She has written for over 40 magazines and today shares her passion for Italy through her blog, her best-selling apps, and her tour company. She divides her time between a rooftop apartment in Rome and a restored farmhouse in Umbria, with her husband, Domenico.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments xi

1 Food in Mind… 1

2 Capesante, Scampi, and Vongole in the Suburbs of Venice 5

3 Barrels of Balsamico in Emilia-Romagna 21

4 Stuffing Myself with Stuffed Pasta 37

5 Risotto, Cassoeula, and an Understated Sense of Style in Milan 51

6 A Crash Course in Parmigiano Reggiano 69

7 A Sense of Place and a Bowl of Farinata 85

The Soul of Florence

8 Hunting for Truffles 101

Umbria Part One

9 From Farm to Table 111

Umbria Part Two

10 My Olive Oil Story 123

Umbria Part Three

11 Rustic Sardinia and the Secret of Su Filindeu 137

12 Naples 149

Where All Roads Lead to Pizza

13 Gragnano 161

Home of Artisanally Dried Pasta

14 Fishing for Anchovies on the Amalfi Coast 171

15 Eating Meat in Puglia 183

16 The Bari Chronicles 197

Eating Fish with Nonna

17 The Bari Chronicles 211

The Pasta-Making Ladies of Bah Vecchia

18 Savory Sicily 225

19 Sweet Sicily 239

20 Caper Capers in Pantelleria 251

21 Home to Rome … and an Escape to Paradise 261

22 The Next Trip 275

Resources 277

Index 279

Editorial Reviews

★ 04/16/2018
Minchilli (Eating Rome) has lived in Italy for 40 years, since her parents moved the family to Rome from St. Louis when she was 12. Encyclopedic knowledge earned over decades informs this hybrid guide, cookbook with 34 recipes, and deep dive into essential ingredients such as Parmigiano Reggiano. To escape the crowds, Minchilli encourages visitors to Florence to head outside the city gates by bus or on foot and suggests that tourists may want to exit the “almost Disneyland-like area” around Venice’s Saint Mark’s Square and hightail it to the less busy islands nearby. The industrious author ferrets out unpretentious eateries like the fornelli of Bari—butcher shops that grill customers’ meat and may have a few tables. She goes anchovy fishing on the Amalfi coast and hunts down one of the few people remaining on Sardinia who makes thin-stretched filindeu pasta. Accessible recipes range from octopus cooked in the liquid it exudes to a tart filled with ricotta, cherry jam, and balsamic vinegar. Minchilli’s writing is crisply informational and often funny. Squeamish about seeing fish served with their heads? “Get over it,” she commands. Minchilli’s sure grip on Italian culture makes her an excellent culinary guide. (May)

Publishers Weekly

"Discovering Italy is all about traveling through the back roads and sitting down at the table with Italians. That is exactly what Elizabeth has done in her new book; she takes you to beautiful hidden gems all over Italy. She guides you regarding what not to miss and what to locally eat and where to eat it. On top of that, she scattered delicious regional recipes throughout the book. Eating My Way Through Italy is a savory book on Italy, one that you will take with you on your next trip to Italy AND to your kitchen when you long for those Italian flavors at home."
—Lidia Bastianich, chef/restaurateur and host of Public Television’s Lidia’s Kitchen.

"Minchilli’s writing is crisply informational and often funny... [her] sure grip on Italian culture makes her an excellent culinary guide" —Publisher's Weekly, Starred Review

From the Publisher