Book cover of Pomp and Sustenance: Twenty-Five Centuries of Sicilian Food

Book description

This gem is more than just a cookbook. Walk through history with Pomp and Sustenance author Mary Taylor Simeti as she shares the secrets and eccentricities of Sicilian cuisine. Straddling the East and West, Christian and Muslim, land and sea, this Mediterranean island is a place of unique convergence. Nowhere…

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Why read it?

1 author picked Pomp and Sustenance as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

This book immediately swept me up in its glorious evocation of Sicily: the island's ancient history, the ways of its people, and above all the flavors of the sun-kissed land. In gorgeous prose, American-born Mary Taylor Simeti combines the illuminating insights of an outside observer with a passion for her adopted homeland. The recipes range from the cucina povera that sustained most of Sicily's inhabitants over the centuries to the ornate court cuisine that developed in the 16th century. We also journey to Sicily's convents, where the nuns became famous for their wondrous confections with fanciful names like "Virgins'…

From Darra's list on cookbooks for armchair travelers.

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