• SULibraries on October 20, 2025

  CJ 394.109458 S589p (LOU)

• mama_c on November 11, 2022

  Thank you robm. I just purchased this book again today at a thrift shop, even though it looked very familiar! I bring my phone and look up ISBNs while I'm shopping, to avoid purchasing duplicates, but this ISBN was not found in the index (not by author or title either). My second copy is: 9780394568508. It's a terrific history and enjoyable read.

• robm on June 03, 2021

  mama_c is correct: this wonderful book was reissued under the title "Sicilian Food." It's otherwise the same book, it seems. This is an invaluable addition to the library of anyone interested in seeing how foods and cooking methods have come down to us from antiquity and medieval times. Most people, I dare say, have no idea just how old some of the dishes we eat today really are. Simeti does a wonderful job tracing and describing contemporary recipes as far back as the days of ancient Greece and Rome. She does sometime take a somewhat authoritarian tone, like some other well-known cookbook authors ("Do it exactly the way I say or don't bother even trying this.") But her history and research are impressive and illuminating. Some of her recipes are more "modern." Pasta came to be known in Italy as much as 1000 years ago, and tomatoes and New World ingredients nearly 500 years ago. So all of these foods have long pedigrees!

• mama_c on June 13, 2020

  I purchased this on Amazon in May 2020; I think a newer edition, ISBN 978-1-63561-851-8

Notes about Recipes in this book

• Fava beans with breadcrumbs (Fave con la mollica)

  • nicolepellegrini on October 22, 2025

    Simple but nice way to enjoy fava/pole beans when in season.

• Pasta and sardines (Pasta con le sarde)

  • salumist on November 24, 2024

    this dish is amazing, even if you think you don't like sardines, you will like this!

• Tomato sauce 2 (Salsa di pomodoro 2)

  • abrownb1 on August 22, 2025

    A lovely sauce - tastes like my Nana's! I left the garlic whole to lightly flavor it in the background since I wanted the tomatoes front and center. It took closer to 35 minutes for my puree to reduce. Make sure to use good tomatoes or it's not worth the effort to start from fresh.