Sicilia: A love letter to the food of Sicily

A London-based chef, Ben Tish has a fascination with what he calls the "frustratingly complex" nature of Sicily and its food. "At once both a frugal, peasant land with a simple, robust cuisine yet also a land full of ornate glamour and shameless extravagance. There isn't a country I know with a richer or more diverse tapestry of cultural influences."

Sicilia celebrates those influences: the Moors and the Berbers, the Romans, Normans, Spaniards, French, and Greeks. It's not always easy to draw a line from a dish to a single culture, but it can be intriguing to speculate about the origins of dishes such as roast pork belly with fennel and quince; a rice timballo with tomatoes, marjoram, and eggplant; or a flourless orange cake with a Marsala caramel (Tish cites Sephardic Jews who fled to Sicily from Spain).

This is a British-originated book. Measurements are largely in metric and by weight rather than volume.

Hardcover. Color photographs throughout.