Lady in the Palazzo: At Home in Umbria
Author: Marlena De Blasi
With the breathless anticipation that seduced her readers to fall in love with Venice and then Tuscany, Marlena de Blasi now takes us on a new journey as she moves with her husband, Fernando, to Orvieto, a large and ancient city in Italy's Umbria. Having neither an edge to a sea nor a face to a foreign land, it's a region less trampled by travelers and, in turn, less accepting of strangers. So de Blasi sets out to establish her niche in this new place and to win over her new neighbors by doing what she does best, cooking her way into their hearts. (Her recipes are included.)
Rich with history and a vivid sense of place, her memoir is by turns romantic and sensual, joyous and celebratory, as she searches for the right balance in this city on the hill, as well as the right home—which turns out to be the former ballroom of a dilapidated sixteenth-century palazzo.
De Blasi meets and makes friends with an array of colorful, memorable characters, including cooks and counts and shepherds and a lone violinist, and their stories, too, become a part of the tapestry of life that she weaves for herself in Orvieto. With a voice full of wonder, she brings to life these engagingly quirky people and the aloof, almost daunting society that exists in Umbria. Not since Peter Mayle's A Year in Provence has a writer so happily succeeded in capturing the essence of a singular place and in creating a feast for readers of all stripes.
Publishers Weekly
Following A Thousand Days in Venice and A Thousand Days in Tuscany, de Blasi's new book, set in Orvieto, is ostensibly about her effort, with her Italian husband, first to find, then to renovate and at last to move into the ballroom of a splendid, dilapidated medieval palazzo. The renovation becomes an engrossing portrait of the town and some of its inhabitants. Nothing goes according to plan or schedule, but de Blasi uses the years (literally) of waiting to explore the life of the town, centering on the home-based caff -kitchen of her friend Miranda and the caff 's patrons. De Blasi's exuberance and her American disregard of Italian class distinctions at times distress her new friends and also her husband, but eventually, almost by accident, she pulls off a coup of diplomatic d tente just after they finally set up housekeeping in the palazzo. Vvid writing and an affectionate appreciation of the sounds, scenes and flavors of Italy, as well as of the somewhat eccentric Umbrians she meets, will charm lovers of that country. (Jan. 26) Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.
Library Journal
De Blasi's book will make you hungry, and that's a good thing. The latest gastronomic adventure from the author of A Thousand Days in Venice brings to life an Italian culture steeped in culinary tradition and social eccentricity. De Blasi's narrative focuses on the city of Orvieto a city "built on wine" in Italy's Umbria, where she and her husband, Fernando, search for a home and find one: a former ballroom in a 15th-century palazzo. Her exploration of her new life in Orvieto is meal-centered, showing us mouth-watering community feasts, fascinating culinary traditions did you know that polenta should only be stirred clockwise? and quirky characters who help pass the time between espressos and the construction in the author's home. Recipes are included, so in the end, de Blasi's Umbria may or may not be a place you need to visit, but, thanks to this book, it will already be a place that you have "tasted" and "seen." Recommended for public libraries. Mari Flynn, Keystone Coll., La Plume, PA Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.
Kirkus Reviews
A third sumptuous volume about the author's quest to find a home in Italy. After A Thousand Days in Venice (2002) and A Thousand Days in Tuscany (2004), de Blasi and her husband move to Umbria, a place where "stories and sins are passed down like sets of silver." There, they enter into a complex, decidedly Italian contract with a local family, the storied Ubaldini, who own a grand, decrepit palazzo. The couple will pony up money to repair the old building, then move in for a few years of rent-free living. While the palazzo is being made habitable, they set up house in a charming cottage-charming, that is, except for the mold and the absence of a kitchen, which poses quite a challenge for the gourmand author. In describing this new life in Umbria, de Blasi follows the formula of her two earlier books, and it works like a tried-and-true recipe. The local eccentrics (and all the locals are eccentric, of course) are charming and sometimes speak real wisdom, though not so often as to be precious. When one of de Blasi's friends cautions her that "Most all of us abide in ruins. . . . Our own, the ones we inherit," he is speaking about more than old houses. The food, of course, is an epicurean's fantasy. The author prepares and includes the recipes for "rustic, refined" dishes like pan-sauteed pears with pecorina and brown-sugar gelato with caramelized blood oranges. In her hands, food also becomes the stuff of metaphor and simile: Her eye shadow is a dab of milk chocolate, she flicks away fatigue "like crumbs of old cake," walls are red like pomegranate seeds. De Blasi is a skilled, quirky writer; her prose is by turns reserved, rococo, earthy and, above all, fresh-fresh, like rich cream andstrawberries, she might say. Delicious.
Books about: Perfecta Salud or Solid to the Core
Celebration of Herbs: Recipes from the Huntington Herb Garden
Author: Shirley Kerins
In this gorgeous cookbook, which was named the National Winner of the 2003 Tabasco Community Cookbook Awards, Shirley Kerins shares her wealth of knowledge about growing and cooking with herbs. Featuring a full range of dishes, from appetizers, salads, side dishes, soups and breads to entrees, preserves, desserts, and beverages, the book includes an innovative Pad Thai Pesto, a tried-and-true Herbed Vichyssoise, and a luscious Apple-Rosemary Tarte Tatin. Gardeners will find A Celebration of Herbs to be an essential reference, with information on cultivating, harvesting, drying, and storing herbs and an extensive listing of plant and seed suppliers in North America. Peppered throughout the cookbook are excerpts from the Huntington Library's collection of rare herbals and botanical books from the fifteenth to eighteenth centuries.
