Liguria: The Cookbook : Recipes from the Italian Riviera

For a limited time we have bookplates signed by Laurel Evans.

Regional Italian cookbooks seem to fall into ruts. Or at least their publishers do. For a few years, Tuscan books are ubiquitous. Then Sicilian books replace them. A few years later, Venetian books surge, then Roman.

Oddly, Liguria, which is home to the stored Cinque Terre cities featured in countless travel articles, has been the subject of very few books in English

American Laurel Evans has been exploring Ligurian food for 15 years, connected by marriage to the region and its people and customs.  She's interested in the ways that individual cooks personalize recipes, and what the dishes say about history and tradition.

Evans offers well-known Ligurian dishes such as pesto and focaccia, but she also includes distinctive preparations that have not become so familiar to American readers, from brandacujin, a cousin of bacalao and brandade, and pasta stuffed with foraged greens to an artichoke pie and an olive-oil shortbread.

A refreshing entry in the Italian category.

Hardcover. Color photography throughout.