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Saturday, February 12, 2022

Light Lunch Southern Italy by Ruth Paget

Light Lunch Southern Italy by Ruth Paget 

Bargain buyers can find several delicious and inexpensive dishes amidst the Baroque prose and culinary culture insights in Marlena de Blasi’s cookbook A Taste of Southern Italy: Delicious Recipes and a Dash of Culture. 

The following 5 recipes and their main ingredients provide an idea of the recipe gems in this book: 

p. 21 – Pasta with Green Tomatoes (From the Lazio region around Rome) 

-green tomatoes 

-purple onion 

-basil 

-garlic 

-bread crumbs 

-bucatini or other string pasta 

-capers -pecorino cheese 

The green tomatoes are used to make a puréed sauce. 

p. 126 – Purée of Dried Beans and Bitter Greens Spread (From the Puglia region, the heel of the Italian Peninsula) 

-cannellini beans 

-fava beans 

-olive oil 

-fennel seeds 

-heavy cream 

-dandelion greens, mustard greens, or red chard 

-garlic 

-country bread 

p. 154 – White Bean Fritters (From the Basilicata region sandwiched between Puglia to the east, Campania to the West, and Calabria to the south)  

-cannellini beans 

-rosemary 

-yellow onion 

-garlic 

-cabbage -rosemary leaves 

-olive oil -

-egg 

-bread crumbs 

p. 168 – Spiced Ricotta Spread (From the Calabria region opposite Sicily on the southernmost tip of the Italian peninsula)

 -anchovies 

-whole milk ricotta 

-grappa or cognac 

-red chile peppers 

-garlic -capers 

p. 233 – Sardinian Bread Pudding (From the island of Sardegna above Sicily) 

-bread 

-whole milk 

-heavy cream 

-eggs 

-pecorino cheese 

-olive oil 

-garlic 

-red chile pepper 

For a vacation on an ordinary day, Marlena de Blasi’s A Taste of Southern Italy is a fun read with many appealing recipes. 

By Ruth Paget, author of Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France


Click for Ruth Paget's Books