This book examines contemporary food systems in Italy, paying particular attention to the landscape, innovative local practices and local cultural history. It illustrates the utility of the value chain concept in navigating the complexities of comparative advantage in an advanced market setting. It establishes the connection between the landscape and individual food practices, and how they have responded to the commodification of the agri-food system, maintaining a distinctive local character while ensuring development and a healthy diet. It explores how community gardens are now a consolidated part of Italian urban experience, as well as the multiple policy frameworks which govern these activities. The book then explores a wider range of food procurement channels, from food cooperatives to buying groups and institutional partnerships, including the strategies employed by large retail groups to respond to the growing environmental sensitivity of their customers. Multifunctional implications of antimafia activities involving social agriculture are also explored. Finally, the book ends with a survey of European and domestic Italian policies aiming to protect and promote healthy food practices while preserving the integrity of the landscape. This is fascinating reading for anyone interested in quality food and the territory, as well as academic readers from such disparate disciplines as sociology, urban studies, anthropology and Italian studies.

Each one of Italy's 20 regions has its own unique culinary traditions that reflect the country's varied landscape and local food products and wines. From the five-star restaurants of Rome and Milan, to the off-the-beaten-track "trattoria" in the heart of the Tuscan countryside, Italy's greatest food travel experts, The Touring Club of Italy, bring you the best of the Italian cuisine. Book jacket.

Here is an inspiring, wide-ranging A-Z guide to one of the world's best-loved cuisines. Designed for cooks and consumers alike, The Oxford Companion to Italian Food covers all aspects of the history and culture of Italian gastronomy, from dishes, ingredients, and delicacies to cooking methods and implements, regional specialties, the universal appeal of Italian cuisine, influences from outside Italy, and much more. Following in the footsteps of princes and popes, vagabond artists and cunning peasants, austere scholars and generations of unknown, unremembered women who shaped pasta, moulded cheeses and lovingly tended their cooking pots, Gillian Riley celebrates a heritage of amazing richness and delight. She brings equal measures of enthusiasm and expertise to her writing, and her entries read like mini-essays, laced with wit and gastronomical erudition, marked throughout by descriptive brilliance, and entirely free of the pompous tone that afflicts so much writing about food. The Companion is attentive to both tradition and innovation in Italian cooking, and covers an extraordinary range of information, from Anonimo Toscano, a medieval cookbook, to Bartolomeo Bimbi, a Florentine painter commissioned by Cosimo de Medici to paint portraits of vegetables, to Paglierina di Rifreddo, a young cheese made of unskimmed cows' milk, to zuppa inglese, a dessert invented by 19th century Neapolitan pastry chefs. Major topics receive extended treatment. The entry for Parmesan, for example, runs to more than 2,000 words and includes information on its remarkable nutritional value, the region where it is produced, the breed of cow used to produce it (the razza reggiana, or vacche rosse), the role of the cheese maker, the origin of its name, Molière's deathbed demand for it, its frequent and lustrous depiction in 16th and 17th century paintings, and the proper method of serving, where Riley admonishes: "One disdains the phallic peppermill, but must always appreciate the attentive grating, at the table, of parmesan over pasta or soup, as magical in its way as shavings of truffles." Such is the scope and flavor of The Oxford Companion to Italian Food. For anyone with a hunger to learn more about the history, culture and variety of Italian cuisine, The Oxford Companion to Italian Food offers endless satisfactions.

'Every bookshelf needs this - it's Italian food, but not as you know it' The Times Jamie returns to cooking the food he loves the most, getting right to heart of the Italian kitchen in his ultimate go-to Italian cookbook. He shows you that truly authentic Italian cooking is simple, beautiful and achievable. Find all of the recipes from Jamie's Channel 4 hit-series Jamie Cooks Italy, and many more inside this book. _____________ This wonderful, best-ever collection of recipes, deliver on big flavours and comfort; a celebration of truly great Italian food you'll want to cook for yourself, your friends and your family. Delicious recipes include . . . · GRILLED APRICOT SALAD with thyme, mozzarella, pink peppercorns and proscuttio · TUNA FETTUCCINE with baby courgettes, cherry tomatoes, pecorino and crushed almonds · CHICKEN SKEWERS wrapped in proscuttio with salsa verde stuffing, potatoes and tomatoes · LIMONCELLO TIRAMISU with vanilla mascapone, crushed cherries and white chocolate Featuring 140 recipes in Jamie's fuss-free and easy-to-follow style, the book has chapters on Antipasti, Salads, Soups, Pasta, Rice & Dumplings, Meat, Fish, Sides, Bread & Pastry, Dessert and all of the Italian basics you'll ever need to know. ______________ *SHORTLISTED FOR A NATIONAL BOOK AWARD* 'An irresistible collection of classic Italian recipes . . .An essential purchase for any fan of Italian cuisine' Daily Express 'Food is described in Jamie's trademark cheeky chappy style, but infused with real, in-depth knowledge of Italian food. Bravo, Jamie' Daily Mail

Italy has long been romanticized as an idyllic place. Italian food and foodways play an important part in this romanticization – from bountiful bowls of fresh pasta to bottles of Tuscan wine. While such images oversimplify the complex reality of modern Italy, they are central to how Italy is imagined by Italians and non-Italians alike. Representing Italy through Food is the first book to examine how these perceptions are constructed, sustained, promoted, and challenged. Recognizing the power of representations to construct reality, the book explores how Italian food and foodways are represented across the media – from literature to film and television, from cookbooks to social media, and from marketing campaigns to advertisements. Bringing together established scholars such as Massimo Montanari and Ken Albala with emerging scholars in the field, the thirteen chapters offer new perspectives on Italian food and culture. Featuring both local and global perspectives – which examine Italian food in the United States, Australia and Israel – the book reveals the power of representations across historical, geographic, socio-economic, and cultural boundaries and asks if there is anything that makes Italy unique. An important contribution to our understanding of the enduring power of Italy, Italian culture and Italian food – both in Italy and beyond. Essential reading for students and scholars in food studies, Italian studies, media studies, and cultural studies.

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Sip, savor, and get the most out of every bite with Rick Steves! With this fun and practical guide to eating well in Italy, you’ll: Indulge in the best of Italy’s cuisine, from tantalizing antipasti and saucy pastas to luxurious gelato Get a taste of the coffee culture and vibrant wine scene Discover what to eat where with food and wine specialties from the country’s 20 regions Find lists of Rick's favorite restaurants in every region Follow Rick’s tips to find restaurants for any budget, smartly navigate the menu, and decipher the check Hurdle the language barrier with the ultimate Italian food glossary Enjoy full-color, inspiring photos throughout Commemorate your culinary adventures with a foldout souvenir poster map Rick Steves and co-author Fred Plotkin have devoted decades to traveling through Italy. In this book, they pass along those lessons to you. Appreciate good food the way Italians do with Rick Steves Italy for Food Lovers.

With her new book, Italian Food Activism in Urban Sardinia, cultural anthropologist Carole Counihan makes a significant contribution to understanding the growing global movement for food democracy. Providing a detailed ethnographic case study from Cagliari, the capital of the Italian island-region of Sardinia, she draws upon Sardinians' own descriptions of their actions and motivations to change their food as they pursue grassroots alternatives to the agro-industrial food system through GAS (Gruppi di Acquisito Solidale or solidarity-based purchase groups), organic and urban agriculture, alternative restaurants, and farm-to-school programs. They link their activism to the sensory and emotional resonance of food and its nostalgic connections to place, tradition, and culture. They stress the importance of education through experience, and they build relationships and networks through workshops, farm visits, and commensality. The book focuses on three key themes to emerge in interviews with Cagliari food activists: the significance of territorio (or place), the importance of taste, and the role of education. By exploring these areas of concern, Counihan uncovers key tensions in consumption as a force for change, in individual vs. group actions, and in political and economic power relations, which are of crucial importance to wider global efforts to promote food democracy.

Tuscany is a landscape whose cultural construction is complicated and multi-layered. It is this very complexity that this book seeks to untangle. By revealing hidden histories, we learn how food, landscape and architecture are intertwined, as well as the extent to which Italian design and contemporary consumption patterns form a legacy that draws upon the Romantic longings of a century before. In the process, this book reveals the extent to which Tuscany has been constructed by Anglos — and what has been distorted, idealized and even overlooked in the process.