false 50216 5 1 87473 0345457641 9780345457646 148 <![CDATA[A Thousand Days in Venice]]> http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1171103763m/87473.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/87473.A_Thousand_Days_in_Venice 3.45 589

He saw her across the Piazza San Marco and fell in love from afar. When he sees her again in a Venice café a year later, he knows it is fate. He knows little English; and she, a divorced American chef, speaks only food-based Italian. Marlena thinks she is incapable of intimacy, that her heart has lost its capacity for romantic love. But within months of their first meeting, she has packed up her house in St. Louis to marry Fernando—“the stranger,” as she calls him—and live in that achingly lovely city in which they met.

Vibrant but vaguely baffled by this bold move, Marlena is overwhelmed by the sheer foreignness of her new home, its rituals and customs. But there are delicious moments when Venice opens up its arms to Marlena. She cooks an American feast of Mississippi caviar, cornbread, and fried onions for the locals . . . and takes the tango she learned in the Poughkeepsie middle school gym to a candlelit trattoría near the Rialto Bridge. All the while, she and Fernando, two disparate souls, build an extraordinary life of passion and possibility.

Featuring Marlena’s own incredible recipes, A Thousand Days in Venice is the enchanting true story of a woman who opens her heart—and falls in love with both a man and a city.


]]> 50216 3.53 1117 296 87474 0345481097 9780345481092 71 <![CDATA[A Thousand Days in Tuscany: A Bittersweet Adventure]]> http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1171103763m/87474.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/87474.A_Thousand_Days_in_Tuscany_A_Bittersweet_Adventure 3.58 284
Once again, it was love at first sight. Love for the timeless countryside and the ancient village of San Casciano dei Bagni, for the local vintage and the magnificent cooking, for the Tuscan sky and the friendly church bells. Love especially for old Barlozzo, the village mago, who escorts the newcomers to Tuscany’s seasonal festivals; gives them roasted country bread drizzled with just-pressed olive oil; invites them to gather chestnuts, harvest grapes, hunt truffles; and teaches them to caress the simple pleasures of each precious day. It’s Barlozzo who guides them across the minefields of village history and into the warm and fiercely beating heart of love itself.

A Thousand Days in Tuscany is set in one of the most beautiful places on earth–and tucked into its fragrant corners are luscious recipes (including one for the only true bruschetta) directly from the author’s private collection.]]> 50216 3.53 1117 296 106345 1565124731 9781565124738 30 <![CDATA[The Lady in the Palazzo: At Home in Umbria]]> http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1171563614m/106345.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/106345.The_Lady_in_the_Palazzo_At_Home_in_Umbria 3.61 108
Rich with history and a vivid sense of place, her memoir is by turns romantic and sensual, joyous and celebratory, as she searches for the right balance in this city on the hill, as well as the right home—which turns out to be the former ballroom of a dilapidated sixteenth-century palazzo.

De Blasi meets and makes friends with an array of colorful, memorable characters, including cooks and counts and shepherds and a lone violinist, and their stories, too, become a part of the tapestry of life that she weaves for herself in Orvieto. With a voice full of wonder, she brings to life these engagingly quirky people and the aloof, almost daunting society that exists in Umbria. Not since Peter Mayle's A Year in Provence has a writer so happily succeeded in capturing the essence of a singular place and in creating a feast for readers of all stripes.]]> 50216 3.53 1117 296 2001948 0345497651 9780345497659 31 <![CDATA[That Summer in Sicily: A Love Story]]> http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-111x148.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2001948.That_Summer_in_Sicily_A_Love_Story 3.88 75 50216 3.53 1117 296 2169376 0761512314 9780761512318 0 <![CDATA[Regional Foods of Northern Italy: Recipes and Remembrances]]> http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-111x148.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2169376.Regional_Foods_of_Northern_Italy_Recipes_and_Remembrances 4.00 4 Regional Foods of Northern Italy, de Blasi finds that her adopted homeland is filled with tastes, smells, and textures that evoke far more than great meals--they are the stuff of memory and dreams.

Regional Foods of Northern Italy focuses on 10 "gastronomic regions," areas in which the author has worked, lived, and cooked: Tuscana, Umbria, Romagna, Emilia, Veneto, Lombardia, Piemonte, Val D'Aosta, Friuli-Venezia Giulia, and Marche. The recipes in this book are, as de Blasi explains, only "interpretations" of these regional cuisines, since it would be nearly impossible to replicate the exact qualities of the local ingredients--the sweet white butter of the Romagnans or the chile peppers of La Marche. Still, wherever it's cooked, Pasta di Alberto Bettini, with its lacing of basalmic vinegar, is a loving expression of its native Emilia, while so simple a meal as olive oil drizzled over bread and eaten with a glass of red wine evokes the ageless hills of Tuscany. Whether you live in Stockholm or San Diego, Marlena de Blasi's fine collection of recipes can transport you--for the length of a meal, at least--on an extraordinary journey through Northern Italy. So Buon viaggio--e Buon appetito!

]]> 50216 3.53 1117 296 232313 0345487230 9780345487230 1 <![CDATA[A Taste of Southern Italy: Delicious Recipes and a Dash of Culture]]> http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1172945616m/232313.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/232313.A_Taste_of_Southern_Italy_Delicious_Recipes_and_a_Dash_of_Culture 4.00 4 –Marlena de Blasi


Marlena de Blasi’s lifelong affair with cooking began at age nine on a beach along the coast of southern Italy, where she met an elderly woman roasting potatoes coated with olive oil, rosemary, and sea salt over an open fire.

Now, in A Taste of Southern Italy, de Blasi brings to life the spirit as well as the cuisine of this bountiful region. With de Blasi we travel down remote country goat paths in tiny island villages and along sun-washed avenues of great cities in search of some of the most treasured recipes in the world. This is as much a storybook as it is a cookbook: a gathering of small rhapsodies, impressions, and romantic notions from a land where such delights are plentiful. In our journey through the kitchens of southern Italy we find tantalizing recipes for a host of mouthwatering dishes, including

Gnocchi di Castagne con Porcini Trifolati
Insalata di Pesce Dove il Mare Non C’é
Pane di Altamura
Frittelle di Ricotta e Rhum alla Lucana
Peperoni Arrostiti Ripieni
La Vera Pizza
Pomodori alla Brace
Pesce Spada sulla Brace alla Pantesca
Ricotta Forte
Pasta alla Pecoraio
La Torta Antica Ericina
Un Gelato Barocco

With these authentic recipes at your fingertips, you can master the luscious tastes and rustic ambiance of southern Italy. These dishes are sure to become a tradition in your home, and will fill it with tantalizing aromas and love.]]> 50216 3.53 1117 296 1037834 1741147581 1 <![CDATA[Dolce e Salata]]> http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-111x148.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1037834.Dolce_e_Salata 2.25 4 50216 3.53 1117 296 6493206 9781741149944 0 <![CDATA[An Umbrian Love Story]]> http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1243214519m/6493206.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6493206-an-umbrian-love-story 4.00 2
After two years in their barely comfortable stable in San Casciano, Marlena and Fernando de Blasi know it's time to move on. They are looking for a home in which to set a sumptuous table and, in Orvieto, they find it. The town is known as La Divina, the Divine, for its abundance of treasures but it's the friendships Marlena and Fernando make that bring richness to their lives. They learn that Orvieto offers life in its most embraceable form: love, work, food and wine - these are the most important things.

The third book in the trilogy of Marlena and Fernando's romance, which began with A Thousand Days in Venice and Tuscan Secrets, An Umbrian Love Story continues Marlena's passionate love affair with Fernando, with Italy, and with food, as she befriends the local aristocracy, the cooks and the artisan makers of mouth-watering breads, cheeses, wine and pastries as well as the shopkeepers, farmers and shepherds, each of whom brings a gift to the table and to the story. Each is part of the simple, sometimes chaotic, often celebratory daily life Marlena creates in Orvieto.
]]> 50216 3.53 1117 296 1037833 0670883840 9780670883844 0 <![CDATA[Regional Foods of Southern Italy]]> http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1180416253m/1037833.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1037833.Regional_Foods_of_Southern_Italy 3.00 2 Regional Foods of Southern Italy, Marlena De Blasi looks into the essential spirit of the eight regions encompassing the lower half of Italy south from Rome and out to the islands west of the tip of the boot. She believes that to cook from a particular region, understanding its history is as important as gathering recipes. "A cuisine that aspires to dignity even in the midst of insufficiency," this cooking of the poor is based on sheep's milk cheeses, swordfish, wild bitter greens, and whatever else cruel and capricious yet bountiful nature provides locally. De Blasi has unearthed culinary treasures, from the wine-stewed rabbit served with honey-and-spice-glazed chestnuts in the manner of Nicola Taurino, a hunter/innkeeper from Abigliano, to the potato pie in the style of Biddamanna, a town where Sardinians still cook communally on feast days. For this savory pie, potatoes mashed with garlic, nutmeg, clove, and orange zest are enveloped in a pastry crust crisp with ground corn meal and piquant with pecorino cheese.

The story of visiting restaurants serving Carciofi Alla Giudia, "Golden-Green Crisped Roman Roses," followed by a recipe for this Roman specialty is typical of this book's format. It makes this a good choice for armchair cooks and travelers. Ambitious cooks, particularly of local heritage, will get profound satisfaction out of preparing the 150 often complicated or time-consuming, authentic, and rarely-found recipes De Blasi has tailored to work with U.S. ingredients. While its literary language becomes annoyingly baroque at times, with olive oil described as a "tribute of fat, yellow juice," this unique book offers a perceptive look at the essence and substance of southern Italian food. --Dana Jacobi

]]> 50216 3.53 1117 296 6950200 0345507347 9780345507341 0 <![CDATA[Amandine: A Novel]]> http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-111x148.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6950200-amandine 2.00 1 50216 3.53 1117 296