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The Heart of Sicily
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The Heart of Sicily in the media
Nancy Krcek Allen writes in ForeWord Magazine, December 2003:
If the mark of a culture can be found in its food and enjoyment of life and land, then Sicilians take top honors. This cookbook-memoir of a life spent on the author’s family’s idyllic Sicilian estate, “Regaleali,” tells of her deep love for the place and her passion for its culinary gifts. The photos, stories, and recipes that bind Sicily and Regaleali to Anna Tasca Lanza’s soul will captivate all who open this glistening offering.
Lanza begins with a history lesson: Regaleali stands on many hectares of land with a powerful history, from prehistoric times through Greek, Roman, Arab, French, and Spanish influences. The Tasca Lanza family came to own the estate in the early nineteenth century. The vast agricultural holding was at first planted mainly in wheat with some produce. Lanza’s grandfather increased the vineyards and introduced sheep for meat and cheese making. Regaleali still employs shepherds, cheese makers, a baker, winemaker, and chef, among others. Lanza runs an acclaimed cooking school there.
Like many Sicilian estates, Regaleali is primarily self-sufficient, so its meals reflect what grows there, the seasons, festivals, and celebrations. Lanza arranges her book to mirror a year at Regaleali. Spring brings the feast of San Giuseppe, with treats like wild bitter greens, asparagus, the essential wild fennel, artichokes, peas, fava beans, spinach and chard, in classic dishes like San Giuseppe’s cream puffs with ricotta, Fava bean and garden pea soup, Braised artichokes, and Pasta with bitter greens.
Between the seasons, Lanza captivates the reader’s sensual imagination with stories, photos, tips, and beloved family recipes. In a series of photos by photographer Franco Zecchin, one can almost smell the fresh Semolina bread coming from the capable hands of baker Carmelo and his wood-burning oven. The Tuna ragu, Baked swordfish with herbs and capers, Pigeon ragu, and Roast lamb are enough to make any reader lope longingly into the kitchen.
Seafood salad, Eggplant caponata, Cold minestrone, and Chickpea chips hint of Regaleali’s abundant summer pantry. Autumn heralds the grape harvest, game hunting, and a wide array of produce. Green cauliflower with black olives, Lamb stew with fresh mint, Apples baked in Regaleali red wine, Preserved mushrooms, Swordfish rolls, and Grapes in champagne gelatin satisfy cooler weather appetites.
Regaleali meals range from rustic to refined. After Napoleon left Sicily, French-trained chefs (monzu) became a prized status symbol for baronial kitchens in Sicilian aristocratic households. Many of Lanza’s recipes, like Prince of Wales cheese brioche, reflect the French influences of monzu chef Mario.
The author has written two other books, The Flavors of Sicily (also available from Ici La Press and Herbs and Wild Greens of the Sicilian Countryside. Like many good cooks, she works from the food around her. So, although some of her dishes require seasonal ingredients that might be hard to find in, say, a Midwestern winter, many are flexible. Canned and frozen foods make most recipes attainable. Lanza details each procedure—simple or somewhat complex—with meticulous care, helping the cook to stay true to the spirit of Sicilian food.
Throughout this book, the reader hears Lanza’s voice strongly and clearly. She tells of a winter when she, her sister, and brother-in-law decided to visit their parents at Regaleali for New Year’s. Rain mixed with snow fell and they joked about not being able to get back to Palermo. When they awoke the next morning they found they couldn’t: “Everything was covered with snow, a lot of snow. The snow on the branches of the pomegranate trees—and the quince and the olive—looked like lace.... One day Costanza made her famous Minestra di fagioli. Another day our mother made Minestra di lenticchie. She and Costanza really rule the soup kettle. They throw everything in without measuring, cook it for a while, and ladle out something heavenly.”
With simple but luxuriant food, a heart-achingly beautiful countryside, sea, and sun, Sicily exerts a strong hold on everyone it touches. This book is a distinctive, personal look at Sicilian cooking through the eyes of an adoring daughter. Americans seem to favor fast food, fast building, and fast moving. Anna Tasca Lanza’s generosity in sharing her timeless Regaleali will make these readers yearn to slow down, strengthen family ties, and learn to savor a fuller, more meaningful life.
Bill Marsano writes the following review published on www.amazon.com:
The year 1993 was a landmark year for cookbooks: That was the year Contessa Anna Tasca Lanza first published The Heart of Sicily. Long out of print, it is now restored to us at last. Cause for rejoicing!
The Contessa seldom uses her title; in fact, she prefers to be known for her cooking and her cooking school. And so she is--internationally. The importance of her title is only this: It ties her to Regaleali, the great estate that has been at the heart of Sicily for centuries--since the time, in fact, of the Arab conquest, when the place was known as Rahal-Ali or Village of Ali.
Sicilian cooking isn't "Italian cooking": It's one of the 20 or so related cuisines to be found in Italy, and it is at the same time the most and least original. Most, because it is so little akin to any of the others. Least, because it's really a composite, developed from so many other source cuisines: Greek, Roman, Arab, Norman, French, Spanish. Still, it's not exactly a mystery because so many of the 19th century immigrants to America were Sicilians, and their food was, for many of us, the first "Italian food" we tasted.
The book naturally follows a seasonal menu. Regaleali, though mostly a winery, remains enough of a farm to grow most of its own food. Also, since the sea in Sicily is never far away, there is much to be made of anchovies and swordfish and tuna. Finally, since we are in Sicily, the sweets and pastries are breath-taking.
The Contessa is a no-nonsense cook, I was relieved to find. For all her fame and stature, she is perfectly content with bouillon cubes, noting only that pepper and especially salt must be added with great care at the end of cooking to avoid over-seasoning. Likewise she's not one of those who claim that olive oil cannot be kept for more than a year--keep it cool and in the dark, she says, and it will keep far longer.
You will find here recipes familiar and recipes startlingly new to you, and there is overall a conversational approach: You feel as if you and she are cooking on the same side of the stove. Most important, you will find that the Contessa's beauty and dignity infuse her prose style as well. To take but one example:
"The winter sunshine in Sicily is one of the most beautiful things you can experience. I remember one magical day, one of those days I call a gift from God. The sky was blue, blue, blue, and the countryside green everywhere. From where I stood, I could see the Madonie Mountains, covered with snow, and Etna, also snowcapped, in the distance. All around me was silence, except for a few birds here and there talking to one another."
The recipes are clearly laid out and easy enough to follow. You will want to take care to purchase Regaleali wines, which bear the label of the Counts Tasca d'Almerita, to serve with them (look them up at www.winebow.com). The many, many photographs are spectacular.
--Bill Marsano is a James Beard Award-winning writer on wine, food and travel.
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Mary Taylor Simeti on "The Heart of Sicily" - "In 'The Heart of Sicily,' it is Anna’s voice that provides the most distinctive flavor of all. Together with her recipes, she shares with us her world, in a delightful blend of personal and regional history." |
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