Mangia, Little Italy!: Secrets from a Sicilian Family Kitchen 
asked by spiderman on October 29, 2006 9:31 PM
Mangia, Little Italy! is both a valuable book and a frustrating book. It's valuable for preserving a singular style of cooking, that of the small-town Sicilian cook from early in the century dropped into the Little Italy of New York--an experience repeated all over the nation in one Little Italy or another during the great wave of 20th-century immigration. Where some ingredients were never available, or seldom available, back in Italy--mozzarella, for example, or a plethora of seafood--in Little Italy they were there for the haggling. And as a result, Italian American home cooking changed from all that it was back home to some of what it could be in the New World. This book captures that, and you can put the results on your own table.
The book is frustrating because the tales of the family--of Grandma--while intended to be charming, need the hand of a skilled writer. Francesca Romina is a skilled cook and a skilled cooking teacher. She is not a skilled writer. It throws off the focus of the book, trying to be too many things (personal history, cookbook, food history, urban narrative, family history), and not all of them are accomplished with the same attention to quality.
That said, you'd be a fool not to have a go at the seven-hour Sunday Tomato Sauce, the Pizza with Salted Sardines, the Sicilian Meatloaf, the Fried Mushrooms with Lemon and Garlic, the Sesame Seed Biscuits, or Concetta Di Palo's Ricotta Cheesecake. Romina's careful collection of Italian American home cooking turns up some wonderful dishes you may not have encountered before.
"Eat, Little Italy!" is the exhortation of the title, and that seems the best advice. --Schuyler Ingle
Reviews
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This book was excellent. Any Italian cookbook with Aglio Olio in it (pasta in garlic oil with cheese) has got to be OK! This was a favorite dish of mine while growing up. The tomato sauce recipes were worth the price of the book alone! The author is a skilled writer in spite of what one reviewer said. I found the stories entertaining and interesting. And the recipes were as authentic as any my Sicilian mother or aunts had ever prepared. I love this book!
reviewed by glenn11 on November 7, 2006 5:39 PM
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After so many copies of Italian books that I've thrown out, this one works. It was recommended to me by several professional cooking teachers. I made the Cassata cake, the mother or all Sicilian cakes, and it was fantasik. Romina's 7-Hour Sunday Sauce is the best I've ever made. The family went crazy with the results. I even found pizzas here I have only heard about, such as "Sicilian Christmas Pizzas" stuffed with pork and spinach, and Salted Sardine pizzas. These recipes are impossible to find, and they all worked. I also made her Lemon Cakes which has that homemade taste in the crust topped with cinnamon that I remember Grandma making. This is a book you can read for folktales or cook with. That is rare. I particularly loved the author's tips called "Secrets of Success" on the side of the pages, it helps to make cooking easier. So if you want to make an authentic Lasanga the way it was at the turn of the century or a real Sicilian pizza, the way it's made in Sicily, this is the only book that I've found that is the real thing. Bravo Francesca Romina!
reviewed by casurf on November 17, 2006 3:41 PM
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Great book. Great read. Just love the stories and folklore from Sicily. This the food my grandmother made and I never could find the recipes. Well, they are in this book. The sauces, pizzas, fritattas are great. Francesca Romina just won the contest in Newsday for the best Sesame Seed (Regina) biscuits in Mangia Little Itay. They were terrific and easy to make. There are recipes in this book that I have never seen before and great hints and tips along the way. The author seems to go to great lenghts to be specific for her readers. These recipes work and are well tested. I'm buying several copies for my family members.
reviewed by goonball on November 22, 2006 8:45 AM
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This book brings the Sicilian Kitchen to every home. It's a style of cooking that is rare in my area of the country, but memories of Sausage & Peppers and fried meatballs on Sunday made my childhood complete. Some of the items here I've never even seen in print before. A little slice of Grandma's house teeming with garlic!
reviewed by geo on November 23, 2006 12:38 PM
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The recepies in this book remind me of all the wonderful dishes that my Grandma used to make. I have found the pizza dough recepie tastes very close to my Sicilian Great Grandmother's pizza dough. I tend to agree that Italians keep these spicial recepies to themselves which unfortunatly die with the generations. This book brings them all back to life along with the wonderful stories and pictures that go along with them. I'm purchasing another copy for my father, who loved mine so much! I just couldn't part with it!
reviewed by runningscared on November 23, 2006 9:27 PM