Sunflower Publishing Book Reviews

    Preserving Italy   Domenica Marchetti SUMMARY: A wonderful collection of over 150 recipes for conserves, pickles, infusions, sauces, which capture the flavours of Italy. It is beautifully presented with a personal note to introduce each recipe, suggestions for how to use what you preserve, comprehensive instructions and illustrated with excellent photographs. The book also includes recipes for making cheese, curing meats, infusing liqueurs and some confectionary. Domenica grew up in an Italian family. Her mother is a native of Chieti, Abruzzo. Consequently, she and her sister were shaping gnocchi and ravioli by the time they could see over the kitchen counter. Her father’s parents were from Molise and Lazio. They spent their summers travelling all around Italy when she was growing up.   MY REVIEW: I love all recipe books but this one has an honest and simple authenticity, written not just from a love of food but to uncover and preserve recipes which have been handed

    SUMMARY: Growing up in Brisbane in the 1970s and 80s, Zoë Boccabella knew if you wanted to fit in, you did not bottle tomatoes, have plastic on the hallway carpet, or a glory box of Italian linens. Though she tried to be like 'everyone else', refusing to learn Italian and even dyeing her dark hair blonde, Zoë couldn't shake the unsettling sense of feeling 'half-and-half' - half Australian, ‘mezza italiana’ - unable to fit fully into either culture, or merge the two. Years later, she travels to her family's ancestral village of Fossa in Abruzzo and discovers a captivating place of medieval castles, mystics, serpent charmers and witches. As Zoë stays in the house that has belonged to her family for centuries, the village casts its spell. She begins to realise the significance of her Italian heritage and discovers old family traditions which become a treasured part of her life. MY REVIEW: The book starts with a harrowing description of the L’Aquila ea