guide to regional Italian cuisine?

[alacarte]

Can anyone direct me to a guide to regional Italian cuisine?

I'm looking for a quick-and-dirty rundown of what identifies and differentiates Italian food in different areas of the country: not just northern vs. southern, but things like Ligurian, Tuscan, Pietmontese, etc.

I want to understand better which foods are used in each region, and why. I've seen some of the overviews on About.com, which are helpful, but I'm looking for something that delves further into the regions and is easy to follow without assuming an in-depth knowledge of Italy and Italian terms (which I do not have).

There's lots of great pockets of knowledge in this forum -- which I fully intend to read when I have more time -- but for now I'm looking for something that can get me up to speed fast.

Thanks for your help!

[slkinsey]

A good place to start is Ada Boni's "Italian Regional Cooking," if you can find it (it's out of print).

[Kevin72]

Waverly Root has another out-of-print book on Italian cooking whose title escapes me.

Micol Negrin's Rustico is more readily available.

Culinaria: Italy is a great coffee-table book broken down by region. It's pretty hefty at retail, but I've often seen it at used bookstores as well.

Marlena di Blasi has two cookbooks, one on Northern and one on Southern cooking, that separated by regions, but she conspicuously leaves out Liguria.

[alacarte]

thanks, Sam and Kevin!

oh, and Kevin, your eG blog on your year of Italian cooking is one of those aforementioned "resources" I plan to browse through further when I find the time!

[hathor]

Alacarte, can you read Italian?

I have a gorgeous reference, cookbook: "Specialita' d'Italia" Le Regioni in cucina", looks like the publisher is "Konemann"

Also Slow Food does a series of books on meat, cheese, etc. that has great regional reference info. Like what a cut of meat is called in different areas...but, again I'm not sure if its available in English.

[alacarte]

Alacarte, can you read Italian?

No, I can't read Italian, but thanks for the suggestion anyway...

[DaleJ]

Ada Boni's book is the treasure of my library and worth the search. Nice prose, good pics and very detailed recipes.

[SuzySushi]

If you want a really quick rundown without recipes, the food pages of the Eyewitness Guide to Italy is pretty good, showing photos and brief desctiptions of typical regional dishes.

[docsconz]

I'll second the mention of Culinaria: Italy. Their other books are good also.

[Hector]

I'll second the mention of Culinaria: Italy. Their other books are good also.

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Culinaria: Italy is mostly excellent.. I was very surprised about the great chapter about Bascilata, and mostly dissapointed at the pizza-making chapter. But it's really great, really great photos, really great facts, really great food.

[Kevin72]

Waverly Root has another out-of-print book on Italian cooking whose title escapes me. 

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The Food of Italy. After twice recommending it here based on its reputation, I decided to put my money where my mouth is and order it myself. I've been a giddy little kid waiting for it this past week and it finally arrived last night. Sat down and read the Umbria and Le Marche chapters right off.

This is a whopper of a book: 700 pages, no pics, no recpies (I think), all text. Got flashbacks from college just hefting it out of the box. A little dated: he refers to ricotta as "cottage cheese" but still, how have I missed this book for so long? Endlessly informative.

[Adam Balic]

Waverly Root has another out-of-print book on Italian cooking whose title escapes me. 

←

The Food of Italy. After twice recommending it here based on its reputation, I decided to put my money where my mouth is and order it myself. I've been a giddy little kid waiting for it this past week and it finally arrived last night. Sat down and read the Umbria and Le Marche chapters right off.

This is a whopper of a book: 700 pages, no pics, no recpies (I think), all text. Got flashbacks from college just hefting it out of the box. A little dated: he refers to ricotta as "cottage cheese" but still, how have I missed this book for so long? Endlessly informative.

←

Kevin - I have his 'The Food of France' not this book. While I really enjoy reading this book and is is full of lots of good information, there are a fair few errors as well. Have you found this in the Italian book?

On topic: "The Splendid Table: Recipes from Emilia-Romagna" by Lynne Rossetto Kasper is a great regional Italian cookbook. If it wasn't for the annoying American measurements ( ), I would say it was perfect.

[Kevin72]

Any specific errors jump out? Is it just factually wrong stuff?

I noticed some inaccurate ingredients here and there but I attributed them to limited understanding of the cuisine at the time (1971): i.e., the cottage cheese/ricotta thing.

[Adam Balic]

Yep proper factual wrongness, but I will have to read the book to remember specifics. It doesn't detract from the pleasure of reading the book in any case.