La Cucina Italiana - food is history and culture - and books!

So this morning I'm reading Walking in Sicily by Gillian Price.  Being a historian of Sicily, albeit in the 13th century, I'm still interested in all things Sicilian.  She talked about gelato and then one of my favorite Sicilian drinks - granite.   She gives some history along the way, includes lots of maps (a must in my opinion!) and talks about one of my favorite food-culture-history books about Sicily - Mary Simeti's On Persephone's Island.


So I'm inviting readers of this blog to talk about their favorite books on the food, history, culture of not only Sicily but Italy - who wrote your favorite books and why are they your favorites?


By the way, a good friend of mine and professor is going to visit Puglia in a few weeks.  Doing some Norman history and possibly even going to Mt. Gargano - lucky dog!

Mystery Book Club in Taos - at Stella's Italian restaurant

OK mystery fans, on to Stella's Italian Restaurant in Taos tomorrow to talk about Murder at the Leopard.  Will they serve arancini?  Remains to be seen but we will certainly ask the best Italian restaurant in Taos if they have a recipe for it!  Otherwise, you'll be stuck with mine - historical mysteries and recipes.  I'm bringing my ginger almond biscotti - yummers.  See you there!

The Leopard Tavern - What's Cookin'? Arancini anyone? Chefs - Any good arancini recipes?

In Malice Stalks the Leopard, we have Ysabella making arancini for everyone.  It's one of Amodeus's favorites.  What is arancini?  I'm asking any chefs to care to contribute their recipes or to explain their ingredients.  When I lived in Palermo and was doing archival research, I ate a lot of arancini.  Yummy!!!!