Cook the Book: 'Cucina del Sole'
Although Tuscany and other regions of northern Italy have become the fashionable food areas that food writers have explored in recent years, southern Italy has been mostly ignored (with the exception of Arthur Schwartz's seminal Naples at Table).
Until now. Cucina del Sole
For modern American cooks and diners, la cucina del sole is the kind of food we want to eat right now—the bold simplicity of easy, straightforward techniques and natural ingredients smartly combined.
Thanks to the good folks at William Morrow, we are giving away ten copies of Cucina Del Sole. To enter the drawing, tell us what your favorite southern Italian dish is. Ten (10) winners will be chosen at random from the comments here. Comments will be open until 9 p.m. ET Friday, August 3. The usual Serious Eats contest rules apply.
Comments are closed: 64 Comments:
Seeing as Naples is down south, this one's easy & obvious: Pizza, Neapolitan, Neo-neapolitan, or otherwise.
dikaryon at 2:54PM on 07/30/07
I love everything Italian. I have been growing a special fondness for risottos lately. I also love playing around with timbales...they are always fun.
malenky at 3:46PM on 07/30/07
Tomato, fresh mozzarella, basil and olive oil. Those tomatoes are almost ready!
Colorado Jim at 3:55PM on 07/30/07
linguini alla puttanesca.
I think that is southern, but I am not sure. I just like puttanesca sauce.
intheyearofthepig at 4:20PM on 07/30/07
Spaghetti with arrabiata sauce - yum!
Rebecca F. at 4:26PM on 07/30/07
A slice of crusty ciabatta with eggplant caponata. heaven.
avryan at 4:26PM on 07/30/07
Gnocchi - so, so tasty. I love all that starch...
Peasantwench at 4:57PM on 07/30/07
I was just in Sicily, and though lumping the island together with the southern part of the boot of Italy may provoke howls, I still feel that I can speak from my recent experience and say that pasta alla Norma is tops for me. I was lucky enough to have a feast at the home of a friend's friend in Taormina, and her mother made the dish by cooking the pasta (thin spaghetti), then making bundles of it and wrapping them in slices of fried eggplant, and baking all of that in a tomato sauce. Mouthwateringly good.
harlem_panadera at 5:05PM on 07/30/07
I have a sweet tooth so I am going with a cannoli as my favorite.
cherierj at 5:09PM on 07/30/07
My favorite southern Italian meal would consist of some form of pasta with puttanesca sauce and a nice loaf of paesano bread from Zingerman's Deli (they claim the bread is traditional loaf of Puglia). Yummy.
aburke at 5:19PM on 07/30/07
Zuppe de mussels with bruschetta.
spanklin at 5:35PM on 07/30/07
During the summer I can't get enough caprese, heirloom tomatoes take it up to perfection!
bobcatsteph3 at 6:32PM on 07/30/07
Any fresh pasta with ripe tomatoes!
LA_Eater at 6:59PM on 07/30/07
Caprese salad. That's what I've been eating all this week.
Antipasto platter's are also a fantastic go-to at any meal.
Erinay77 at 7:02PM on 07/30/07
I love calamari and any dish that features it.
0bs01337 at 8:17PM on 07/30/07
I love caponata, simple as it is.
Littlebluesiren at 11:27PM on 07/30/07
Caponata! I had one with carrots in it that was odd but delicious recently.
Although a good pancotto to use all my left over bread in is always a pleasant surprise.
Overworked Barista at 12:04AM on 07/31/07
Mandorla (almond) Granita...the best I've ever had was in Sicily.
grubgirl at 12:56AM on 07/31/07
Spaghetti con le Seppie alla Calabrese is by far my favorite
zekks at 8:05AM on 07/31/07
Frutti di mare!
lily314 at 9:03AM on 07/31/07
I'll have to go with ricotta and spinach stuffed crepes with a basic tomato sauce that I learned when I went to a cooking school for a week in a villa in Tuscany. So light you wouldn't believe it.
amyi at 9:15AM on 07/31/07
any pasta
hedgehog at 10:34AM on 07/31/07
Pasta carbonara, poor person's good food!
I also love Sicilian sweets, except anything with figs.
dksbook at 2:09PM on 07/31/07
I would have to say caprese as well. Fresh tomatoes, mozzarella and basil can't be beat, but I love all Mediterranean flavors so anything from the southern Italian regions could probably be called a "favorite" of mine :)
Jeana at 2:33PM on 07/31/07
maybe cuz i'm on a diet and trying to stay away... but i've really got a fever for a baked ziti. especially when the cheese gets all brown on top.... mmmmmm
Tenbucc2 at 2:34PM on 07/31/07
Lasagna
Lilartist at 3:13PM on 07/31/07
Southern italian food is my favorite southern italian dish. How can you make me pick?
Ambrose_Slade at 3:30PM on 07/31/07
Not to sound like a broken record but... Caprese salad with a very good olive oil or balsamic reduction. So simple. So good.
darth_kittius at 3:54PM on 07/31/07
Artichokes fried in olive oil. Yummy
jkiller5150 at 4:23PM on 07/31/07
Caprese salad. simple and delicious.
Koren at 4:51PM on 07/31/07
Caprese Salad, with some nice olive oil....freshly ground pepper and a nice glass of wine....that's all. Who needs anything else if the tomatoes are nice and fresh and the basil came from my garden?
mollymorris at 4:59PM on 07/31/07
Love Caprese salad, linguini carbonara, pasta putanesca, lasagna,gnocchi,ravioli,pizza, meatballs, manicotti, Italian bread, etc............
Mich23 at 6:57PM on 07/31/07
The Lemon and Garlic Chicken is in the oven now. Looks and smells great - I'm looking very, very forward....
k2kid at 7:12PM on 07/31/07
Best S. Italian Dish?
Caponata.
Anchovies, capers, eggplant - how can you go wrong?
k2kid at 7:15PM on 07/31/07
cannoli!
Na at 11:08PM on 07/31/07
A worthy successor to Arturo? That alone makes this a must read in my book. Many thanks for the heads up.
JJofWianno at 2:22AM on 08/01/07
Anything with a strong tasty fish...anchovies, octupus.....yum!!
stareater at 7:55AM on 08/01/07
Anything with eggplant: caponata, fried eggplant, eggplant parmesean.
NO_Pam at 11:07AM on 08/01/07
Since it's so hot, i'm going with granita . . .ask me again in a few months, and I'm sure i'd come up with a nice, heavy pasta dish, but right now a big coffee granita would hit the spot!
bpjc at 12:44PM on 08/01/07
Bacala with potatoes and olives in a tomato sauce.
Don Luis at 1:00PM on 08/01/07
I'm not totaly sure it's southern, but I love any pasta with carbanara sauce. I recently had baked angelhair carbanara that was very garlicy, it was oh so tasty. Not sure about authenticity, but I'll be having it again.
smokingina at 2:32PM on 08/01/07
Caponata, cannoli, bake ziti, and anything with tomato sauce.
AustinSage at 3:38PM on 08/01/07
Pizza Margharita, lasagne, and Caprese Salad.
elysek at 9:14PM on 08/01/07
I'll take the cannoli
izzy's mama at 11:20PM on 08/01/07
pasta alla norma
maggi at 12:38AM on 08/02/07
Gotta go with veal saltimbocca. Mmmmm... so good!
FullOn at 3:12AM on 08/02/07
Love pizza Margherita and now that it's summer, various zucchini dishes and stuffed fried squash blossoms from my garden.
ChrisC at 11:21AM on 08/02/07
Caponata. Pasta with garlic and clams. Pasta with fresh tomatoes. Seafood any way. How can I pick just one?
ride&cook at 12:08PM on 08/02/07
Although I adore caponata, I have to say if I could just have some fresh buffalo mozzarella and a chewy ciabatta, I'd die a happy woman.
carolie at 12:27PM on 08/02/07
I LOVE fried zucchini blossoms...so tasty!
jpark107 at 3:31PM on 08/02/07
biscotti! (preferably hazelnut). any sort of dish with pine nuts and raisins.
emmab at 4:25PM on 08/02/07
pizza margherita always makes me happy :)
wing at 6:22PM on 08/02/07
I might be too American to know the difference, but i believe that eggplant parmesan is southern Italian, so I'll put myself for that
xalexx at 7:01PM on 08/02/07
From the Southern Italian soil -- olives and the best tomatoes I have ever tasted. (And I used to grow my own!)
cookbookchick at 8:43AM on 08/03/07
Cauliflower with anchovies, olives and lots and lots of garlic and olive oil.
doglover at 9:38AM on 08/03/07
pasta puttanesca-I can't get enough of it
psychsarah at 9:49AM on 08/03/07
a caprese salad with the freshest tomatoes, basil, and mozzarella and a nice high quality olive oil
pezbabypez at 10:11AM on 08/03/07
My favorite Southern Italian foods are just about anything with fresh basil and home-grown tomatoes. I make bruschetta topping with diced fresh tomatoes, basil, a little olive oil, and some salt & pepper. When tomatoes are in season (my husband grows lots of varieties), we eat bruschetta often, and also our favorite salad made with slices or chunks of fresh tomatoes with basil leaves, olive oil, fresh mozzerella, and salt & pepper. YUM!
amylou61 at 12:49PM on 08/03/07
Just make it great Meatballs and a great ragu!
margot at 1:06PM on 08/03/07
Spaghetti all vongole... My mother-in-laws' was made with squid instead of clams though. :)
cheffy at 1:34PM on 08/03/07
I'm fascinated that so many people picked caponata as a favorite Southern Italian dish--it may just be my favorite, though Lord knows there's lots from which to choose. But caponata seems like such a right-now dish, hot summer days, a dish you can prepare in the cool of the early morning and serve--with drinks, with dinner, whatever--once the heat of the day has passed over the yardarm, it's perfect for August.
I also want to mention that I have been made aware since writing Cucina del Sole of the serious depletion of stocks of bluefin tuna in the North Atlantic and the Mediterranean (it's the same population, in different phases of activity). Delicious as the various tuna dishes are in the book, I wouldn't and couldn't in good conscience recommend using Atlantic bluefin tuna any more. Give the poor fish a rest--most of those dishes are just as good or almost as good using swordfish or even salmon instead.
Nancy Harmon Jenkins
nancyjay at 6:20PM on 08/03/07
Got to be pesto!
dexter at 8:28PM on 08/03/07
i don't know what region gelato is from, but I will go with gelato anyway. Nothing else in Italy matters when compared to gelato. in fact, nothing in the world matters when you've got gelato. i don't even care what flavor it is. if it's gelato from Italy, it's gotta be good.
mercuryhime at 10:12PM on 08/03/07
Something chicken with a lot of sauce.
Mike13241 at 10:58PM on 08/03/07