Southern Italian food—from bruschetta and tomato sauce to spaghetti and meatballs—is the most talked about and home cooked food in America. And the area's sleepy hill towns and rocky coastlines have become "it" destinations for in-the-know foodies and travelers from all over the world.

For more than a decade, award-winning cookbook author Arthur Schwartz delved deep into each region of Southern Italy, inviting himself into rustic home kitchens, making friends, and dining at the best local restaurants. Now, in The Southern Italian Table, he presents 130 recipes that celebrate local ingredients and simple flavor combinations behind authentic Southern Italian cuisine.

Follow Schwartz along country roads and city side streets to discover Neapolitan Pizza, Baked Tomato Sauce, and Walnut Pie from Campania, where tomatoes grow better than anywhere else in the world and walnuts ripen sweet and plump in the winter. From the mountainous region of Molise comes hearty Lamb Stew, and from the dry climate and wheat fields of Puglia hail dishes such as Orecchiette with Broccoli Rabe and Charcoal-Roasted Artichokes. Calabria's diverse landscape inspires Pasta Disks with Shrimp, Fennel Seed, and Arugula and Lamb Chops with Black Olives. Risotto with Sausage and Smoked Cheese showcases Basilicata's famous pork sausages and scamorza cheese, and Sicily's Salt-Seared Swordfish with Garlic and Mint, Ground Pork Ragù with Chocolate, and classic Apple Cake exemplify the island's variety of culinary influences.


The Southern Italian Table is organized from antipasti (appetizers) to dolci (sweets), and written for the American home cook. With beautiful full-color photography, easy-to-find ingredients, and headnotes and sidebars that put the recipes in historical and cultural context, Arthur Schwartz's new cookbook will become a dog-eared favorite and a friendly guide to la vita italiana.

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Schwartz (Arthur Schwartz's New York City Food and Naples at Table) showcases the cuisine and culture of Southern Italy in this lavishly photographed collection. An aficionado of all things Italian, Schwartz takes the reader on a culinary journey through Campania, Puglia, Basilicata, Calabria, Sicily and Molise. Along the way, he shares recipes along with tidbits of information about regional traditions, common ingredients such as olives and salumi, and items of special significance such as broken spaghetti. Schwartz provides recipe titles in Italian and in English, and he identifies which region(s) the dish comes from: lentil soup with sausage and broccoli rabe from Campania; fava puree and chicory from Puglia; and ricotta pancakes from Sicily. Including everything from appetizers to sweets, Schwartz exudes as much pleasure in savoring the simple tomato salad as he does salt-seared swordfish with garlic and mint. Recipes are easy to follow, don't require a ton of ingredients and don't take hours to make. Simple, hearty and wonderfully steeped in tradition, these dishes will tempt every palate and celebrate the rich cultural and culinary history of these remarkable areas. (Oct.)

- Publisher's Weekly

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ARTHUR SCHWARTZ has written five award-winning cookbooks, including Arthur Schwartz's Jewish Home Cooking, the 2009 International Association of Culinary Professionals (IACP) American Cookbook of the Year; Arthur Schwartz's New York City Food, the 2005 IACP Cookbook of the Year; and Naples at Table, which has been heralded as the definitive resource on Neapolitan cooking. He has owned and operated a cooking school in Southern Italy since 2001. Visit him at www.TheFoodMaven.com.

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