A Thousand Days in Tuscany: A Bittersweet Adventure
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American chef Marlena de Blasi and her Venetian husband, Fernando, married rather late in life. In search of the rhythms of country living, the couple moves to a barely renovated former stable in Tuscany with no phone, no central heating, and something resembling a playhouse kitchen. They dwell among two hundred villagers, ancient olive groves, and hot Etruscan springs. In this patch of earth where Tuscany, Umbria, and Lazio collide, there is much to feed de Blasi's two passions--food and love. We accompany the couple as they harvest grapes, gather chestnuts, forage for wild mushrooms, and climb trees in the cold of December to pick olives, one by one. Their routines are not that different from those of villagers centuries earlier.They are befriended by the mesmeric Barlozzo, a self-styled village chieftain. His fascinating stories lead de Blasi more deeply inside the soul of Tuscany. Together they visit sacred festivals and taste just-pressed olive oil, drizzled over roasted country bread, and squash blossoms, battered and deep-fried and sprayed with sea-salted water. In a cauldron set over a wood fire, they braise beans in red wine, and a stew of wild boar simmers overnight in the ashes of their hearth. Barlozzo shares his knowledge of Italian farming traditions, ancient health potions, and artisanal food makers, but he has secrets he doesn't share, and one of them concerns the beautiful Floriana, whose illness teaches Marlena that happiness is truly a choice.Like the pleasurable tastes and textures of a fine meal, A Thousand Days in Tuscany is as satisfying as it is enticing. The author's own recipes are included. Publishers Weekly From its opening scene of an impromptu alfresco village feast of fried zucchini blossoms, fennel-roasted pork, and pudding made from the cream of a local blue-eyed cow, this memoir of the seasons in a small Tuscan village is rich with food, weather, romance and, above all, life. De Blasi continues the adventures begun in her A Thousand Days in Venice, as she and her husband, Fernando, leave Venice for Tuscany in search of "a place that still remembers real life... sweet and salty... each side of life dignifying the other." Fortunately, the two are adopted by Barlozzo, an elderly local eager to share his knowledge of the old ways. He introduces them to the local customs: grape harvesting, truffle hunting, bread baking, etc. Although the book teems with food references, including recipes for intriguing traditional dishes, de Blasi is more than a sunny regional food writer-she digs into the meaning of life. As she fights Fernando's periodic depressions and brings him back to joy, gains Barlozzo's trust and love, learns his troubling lifelong secrets and comes to terms with the death of a beloved friend, she immerses her readers in life's poignancy, brevity and wonder. Agent, Rosalie Siegel. (Nov. 5) Forecast: Fans of Frances Mayes's oeuvre will gravitate to this, as well as those who read A Thousand Days in Venice. Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.
ContentsPROLOGUE 1Summer1 The Gorgeous Things They're Cooking Are Zucchini Blossoms 72 Figs and Apples Threaded on Strings 303 The Valley Is Safe, and We Will Bake Bread 644 Are You Making a Mattress Stuffed with Rosemary? 815 Sit the Chicken in a Roasting Pan on a Pretty Bed of Turnips and Onions, Leeks and Carrots 90Fall6 Vendemmiamo--Let's Pick Those Grapes 1057 Dolce e Salata, Sweet and Salty--Because That's How Life Tastes to Me 1248 Now These Are Chestnut Trees 1509 Do Tuscans Drink Wine at Every Meal? 170Winter10 Perhaps as a Genus, Olives Know Too Much 19511 December Has Come to Live in the Stable 21812 Supper Made from Almost Nothing 24813 Fasting Was How We Were Living Anyway 264Spring14 Virtuous Drenches 29315 Florì and I Are Shelling Peas 30316 The First of the Zucchini Blossoms Are Up 314RecipesDeep-Fried Flowers, Vegetables, and Herbs 28The Holy Ghost's Cherries 62Schiacciata Toscana, Tuscan Flatbread (or "Squashed" Breads) 79Winemaker's Sausages Roasted with Grapes 120Fagioli al Fiasco sotto le Cenere, Beans Braised in a Bottle under the Cinders 122Braised Pork to Taste Like Wild Boar 147Castagnaccio 192The One and Only True Bruschetta (brew-sket'-ah)What It Is and How to Pronounce It 247A Tasting of Pecorino Cheeses with Chestnut Honey 301
