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"Everyday a Soup" is an old Garfagnano proverb. If a cookbook devoted solely to soups from just this section of Northern Tuscany sounds limited, a look at its recipes proves otherwise. There are soups rich with meat, hearty with grains, swimming with fish, graced with cream, or creamy with puréed vegetables. One of the chapters tells the story of farro, a pleasingly flavored wheatlike grain cultivated by the ancient Assyrians that is becoming popular with cooks who want to prepare whole grains. Anne Bianchi, an American, starts every chapter with stories of life in the Garfagnano, which she visited from her cooking school that was located in a 500-year-old farmhouse in Lucca. Recipes include End of Season Tomato Soup, Bread Soup (which is full of beans and served layered with stale bread), and Tiny Meatballs in Chicken Broth.
From Publishers Weekly
On the move again, Bianchi (From the Tables of Tuscan Women) here travels the Garfagnana, a remote area of Northern Tuscany where rugged mountain terrain and hearty soups "go together." She offers regional food and local lore at the beginning of each chapter to introduce the reader to the traditional peasant culture, a backdrop she considers integral to appreciating the recipes that follow. Nine chapters focus on specific types of soups, e.g., broths, meat, fish, cream, vegetable, bean and grain, including the unusual farro, a native grain now "rediscovered by trendy Italians." Capturing a lifestyle are such recipes as Zuppa alla Boscaiola (Woodcutter's Soup) which simmers wild mushrooms that have been sauteed in pork fatback in meat broth and adds, just before serving, an egg beaten with Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese. Zuppa alla Frantoiana (Soup Olive Presser Style) is a bean soup cooked with bread, herbs and 13 additional vegetables, all of which is passed through a food mill and served over more bread with a drizzle of fresh olive oil. Drawing recipes and her narrative from visits with home cooks, bus drivers, butchers, restaurant owners and others, Bianchi imbues this collection with what seems an uncommon authenticity and with an undeniable, irresistible enthusiasm for these hearty dishes and the tradition they represent. Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Library Journal
There seems to be something about Italian soups that inspires enthusiasm?or at least exclamation points. The Romagnolis, well known for their many previous books and television series (Margaret died before this book was published), offer a culinary journey through the 17 regions of Italy, north to south and then onto Sicily and Sardinia. Each chapter starts with a travelog, providing background information and highlighting the regional specialties?sort of a mini-Michelin guide. Recipes are generally simple?most of this is robust peasant food, although some of the richer regions do have some more elegant dishes?and many will be unfamiliar to American readers. Bianchi offers a more intimate account, concentrating on the soups?the brodi, minestre and minestrone, creme, and hearty zuppe?of one small corner of Italy, the Garfagnana in northern Tuscany. A New York City food writer, Bianchi also runs a cooking school in Campo Romano, Tuscany, not too far from where she grew up, and she knows her subject. The people of the Garfagnana are as important to her as the recipes, and their stories and history are captured in her well-written, respectful prose. With their quite different approaches to the same subject, both these titles are recommended.Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Booklist
Because of its simplicity and its reliance on seasonally fresh ingredients, Tuscan food has garnered a lot of attention from contemporary cookbook writers. Bianchi's new book examines Tuscan cuisine at an even finer level than that found in other books, concentrating her attention on soups produced in Garfagnana, a tiny, mountainous segment of northern Tuscany. These soups are not just vegetable-studded broths but extend into rich, thick concoctions more suitable to eating with a fork than a spoon. Bianchi devotes a full chapter to soups based on farro, a grain raised in Garfagnana and currently in great demand in chic eateries in both Italy and the U.S. Bianchi frames her recipes with long essays that animate the people surrounding the soup pots. By rigorously analyzing terms and techniques, Bianchi brings to life and makes tempting what might otherwise be simply a culinary curiosity. Mark Knoblauch
Book Description
In the rugged landscape of northern Tuscany, where the mountain air is crisp and most villagers work out-of-doors, soup never comes from a can. Homemade and hearty, soup-zuppa-is the meal of choice, and each household harbors its own family secrets for preparing the traditional recipes of the region. Here are one-dish meals to inspire the most harried or jaded cook-from zuppa alla povera con erbe di prato (a "poor people's soup" of fresh greens seasoned with wild field herbs) to crema di zucca (a cream of butternut squash soup celebrated for its rich texture and color), from pancotto (a thick, succulent soup of cooked bread, plum tomatoes, and meat broth) to zuppa di carciofi (a fragrant artichoke soup with diced pancetta).
For Zuppa!, Anne Bianchi has once again ventured into the kitchens of some of Italy's most passionate cooks, returning not just with instructions and ingredients but with ample evidence that simple, great food nourishes the soul as well as the body.
Beginning with basic brodo, or broth, Zuppa! explores a different soup category in every chapter, from bean soups ("poor of ingredients but rich in appeal") to fish, meat, grain, and cream soups. Sidebars focus on such fundamentals as choosing the right soup pot, de-fatting stocks, and clarifying broths.
Illustrated throughout with black and-white photographs, Zuppa! is a pungent evocation of a region where ancient traditions are still central to everyday life-and an indispensable collection for anyone who relishes great soup, Italianstyle.
About the Author
Anne Bianchi is a food writer who lives in New York and the Tuscan province of Lucca. She is the owner and Director of the Toscana Saporita Cooking School and Director of Toscana Saporita Food Imports. She has written a number of books, most recently Solo Verdura: The Complete Guide to Cooking Tuscan Vegetables, Zuppa! Soups from the Italian Countryside, and From the Tables of Tuscan Women, all published by Ecco.
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