George Clooney’s film, “The American” is likely to spark new interest in the cookery of Abruzzo.
In the film, which is to be released in the US on Wednesday, Clooney’s character, Jack, is seen eating in several cafés in mountain villages in the region and audiences will be curious to learn more about typical abruzzese food.
Now there is a book which will not only answer their questions but will also enable them to help victims of the 2009 earthquake as all profits from “Breaking Bread in L’Aquila” will be donated to the earthquake relief fund.
The author, Maria Filice, is a Canadian Italian whose parents were from Calabria. She learnt to cook by watching and listening to her relatives, who all told stories as they cooked. In 1997 she married Telos publisher Paul Piccone and moved to New York, where she continued to cook the traditional Italian dishes she knew so well. She also began to visit L’Aquila, her husband’s home town. There, she was immediately impressed by the cooking, based on simple, fresh ingredients. Widowed in 2004, Maria took over her husband’s publishing company, where she works as Mary Piccone.
“Breaking Bread in L’Aquila” is Maria’s first book and is intended to be the first of a “Breaking Bread” series. Many of the recipes are inspired by the San Biagio restaurant in L’Aquila but, Maria assures us, do not take hours of preparation or require ingredients which are difficult to find. The 49 recipes are organised in menus for each day of the week but the menus are flexible.
There is also a section on the region’s wines and a chapter about Maria’s philosophy of entertaining. Every recipe is beautifully illustrated.
This is truly a cookbook written with love.
The book is available on Amazon UK and Amazon US.
You can buy the book directly from the publisher, Food and Fate Press. All profits will be donated to the L’Aquila Earthquake Relief Fund.
