My Calabria (WW Norton & Co)

Rosetta Costantino grew up in Calabria-the beautiful, mountainous region at the tip of Italy's "boot"-her father, a shepherd and wine maker, and her mother his tireless assistant. When her family emigrated to California, they recreated Calabria on their property, cooking with aubergines, tomatoes and peppers from their garden, fresh ricotta made from scratch and pasta fashioned aby hand. A frugal people, Calabrians are master preservers, transforming figs into jam, canning tuna in oil and sun-drying peppers. The first cookbook of a little-known region, My Calabria celebrates the richness of the landscape and the allure of its cuisine. This is a cookbook for our time: a reminder of how ingenious and resourceful cooks can create a gorgeous local cuisine.