The Southern Italian Farmer’s Table: Authentic Recipes and Lore from Tuscany to Sicily

Husband-and-wife chef and restaurant owners Scialabba and Pellegrino present a sequel to The Italian Farmer’s Table, continuing the farm-to-table experience, but this time focusing on more than 30 farms ranging from Central to Southern Italy, Tuscany to Sicily. Broken down by region, recipes are balanced with essays, portraits, maps, and landscape shots, making this equal parts cookbook and travelogue. Sharing the “taste and flavor of Italian working farms” begins with crucial building-block basics such as semolina pasta dough, tomato sauce, and chicken broth before moving on to regional dishes such as broccoli tortelli with white sausage ragu from Tuscany, fried spaghetti nests with prosciutto and scamorza from Molisse, and grilled meatballs with bay leaves and lemon from Sicily. Desserts, appetizers, and side dishes balance out the pasta dishes and entrées. Headnotes, numbered recipe steps, and a solid resource section make this an easy-to-navigate title that’s well researched and filled with inspiration. (May)