Product Description

Sardinia now rivals its northern neighbor Provence as a vacation destination. The coastline lures visitors, but it is the food that will make you linger. Chef Efisio Farris is poised to become the next great ambassador of Italian regional cuisine. To promote the cooking of his native Sardinia, he has appeared on the Food Network, given demonstrations at food festivals across the country, and even launched his own company that imports Sardinian specialties for his restaurants and for retail. It is Mediterranean cooking at its purest, making liberal use of olive oil, fish, and fresh vegetables. But it’s also distinguished by indigenous ingredients that are becoming hot trends in America: pecorino, flatbread, fava beans, fregula, and bottarga. Farris has pulled together more than one hundred recipes–many of them family secrets. Among them are Watermelon Salad with Arugula and Ricotta Salata; Pannacotta with Bitter Honey; and Bruschetta with Sausage and Pecorino Sardo. More than 150 breathtaking images take you on a tour of the countryside–from the terraced olive groves to the riverbanks full of wild asparagus. In sidebars, the author relates charming anecdotes and Sardinian history. Readers will come away not just with a taste for the island’s flavors but also a sense of Sardinia’s magical beauty and culture.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #130468 in Books
• Published on: 2007-10-23
• Released on: 2007-10-23
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 272 pages

Publisher's Weekly Oct2007
With his first cookbook, Farris leaps into the front ranks of culinary regionalist and troubadour. He's a transplant to Texas, a restaurateur and importer, but his taste buds still twinkle to the lusty, muscular primal cuisine of his ancestral Sardinia. He stirs up an appetite for simple pasta dishes in which the sauce determines the shape of the macarrones, and any number of compositions featuring spiced and herbed lamb, artichokes, olives and various seafood stews enriched with bottarga. The author first tasted this "Sardinian caviar," the roe of gray mullet, at age three on a cherished expedition to catch and cook fish on the beach with his father and uncle. He balances sentimentality with frank delight in testing the reader's mettle. Roasted eels, pictured in full slither, are only a start. Anyone for abbamele, the honey and bee pollen reduction? Raw sea urchin under the full moon? Then there is casu murzu, rotten cheese, which owes its creamy texture to maggots. Our intrepid guide, who "cannot resist its charms," admits that even for him it was a childhood gross-out. Beautifully illustrated, often eminently cookable, the book also has the charms of a picaresque novel. (Oct.)

The New York Times
Mr. Farris's thoughtful essays on local ingredients and traditions (wild asparagus, household sausage-making) bring to life things that may be untranslatable. His carefully presented recipes try to translate them anyhow, with love and intelligence.

Newsday
Sweet Myrtle and Bitter Honey: The Mediterranean Flavors of Sardinia ... illuminates the culinary traditions of one of Italy's least-explored regions: Sardinia. The exotic recipes, as well as the author's personal recollections and photographs of both the island and its cuisine, made me want to travel to Sardinia, or at least to Texas, where Farris operates two restaurants

Customer Reviews

Not just a cookbook
This book is not just another italian cookbook. It shares detailed stories of the author's homeland. I have visted Sardegna twice and fell in the love with the island, the people and of course the food. Now I am able to cook the dishes at home. Not only are the recipes delicious but fairly simple to make. The natural food and simplicity of life are described in this book. No wonder Sardegna has the world's longest living people. After reading his stories and sampling the recipes, you will want to visit Sardegna. I've purchased three books to give as gifts and everyone has enjoyed them.

Unique and Delicious
I was intrigued by the flavors of the recipes; not just another italian cook book. The many cultural influences on the island culture are apparent in this book's recipes. Exquisite and delicious. I also recommend Finger Licking Different if you love something tasty, quick to prepare and unique.

Salute!
My most anticipated book purchase has exceeded all of my expectations!

If you think this is just another Italian cookbook, think again. As the author explains in the book, after centuries of raids from foreign cultures like Phoenicia, Arabia, and Spain (just to name a very small few), Sardinia finally became a part of Italy in the 1850s. This excerpt says it best; "Some of the pasta shapes, meats and cheeses (like lamb and pecorino) and of course olive oil will be familiar. But lingering Roman, Arabian, Moorish, Catalan, and other Mediterranean influences (like myrtle and saffron) make our cuisine a hybrid".

Efisio guides you through each of these exquisitely authentic recipes, shared from his own family's kitchen and effortlessly weaves in his deep devotion to Sardinian culture and history so that every page just drips with his love of country (and food). His use of indigenous ingredients such as Botarga (dried grey mullet), Miele Amaro (bitter honey) and Malloreddus (one of their pastas), paired of course with either a good Cannonau (red wine) or Vermintino (white wine) offer an exciting array of surprisingly uncomplicated recipes which makes this a treasure trove of refreshing new ideas for everyday cooking.

In true Sardinian style, you are his guest in his "home" as he takes you on tour through his beloved country. And, being the generous host, you almost don't realize that you too are falling in love with his country and its culture. Yet it seems that is the hope, for at the end Efisio has provided not only a "pantry" for places to purchase authentic Sardinian ingredients (a must have to do any of these recipes justice), he also provides a short list of hotels and restaurants to get your actual travels to Sardinia a leg up in the right direction.

This book is such a breathtaking tribute to Sardinia and its culture, it is a must read even for those with no interest in cooking, it's that good!