My Napoli: Recipes and Memories from my Family's Kitchen

It's refreshing to see a book devoted to food of the legendary city of Naples, and this one, by cooking teacher Daniela del Balzo, delights by immersing us in the history and daily culinary life of the ancient metropolis.

Del Balzo's family story is woven through her collection of recipes, which are organized by course. She introduces us to her grandmother's escarole tart, traditionally served on Christmas Eve; to the pasta, cheese, and salami frittata her mother would make for picnics on the beach of the nearby Amalfi Coast; and to the spaghetti with fried zucchini that awaited at the end of trips around the Gulf of Naples in her Uncle Rino's dinghy.

We also learn that what Americans call Neapolitan Wedding Soup was once known as pignatto grasso, or fat soup for all the meats and bones in its broth; its current name, 'a menesta 'mmaretata, refers to a marraige between the meats and vegetables, leading to the US misnomer. And it was the Bourbons who ruled over Naples in the early nineteenth century who changed the Neapolitan perception that rice was a tasteless food by developing dishes such a rice timbale packed with local peas, sausages, and mozzarella and seasoned with sauce made from stellar local tomatoes.

Attractively illustrated with photographs of finished dishes as well as the city and surrounding countryside, My Napoli is a highly appealing and personal tribute.

Hardcover. Color photographs throughout.