Silvia's Cucina

When it comes to food and cookery, it certainly helps to be Italian. "Growing up in Italy, in a family of natural cooks," says author, food-blogger and actress, Silvia Colloca, "I very quickly developed an interest in culinary matters, but it was only in my early twenties and touring Italy with theatre shows that I saw first hand the vast diversity of my country, from dialects, politics and religion, to the very core of our national identity: our food."

Born in Italy with a Nonna whose bruschetta now lives on in these pages (along with her Christmas consomme, potato and Marsala doughnuts, and sausage stew with soft polenta) Silvia is never happier than when she is creating healthy versions of food she has loved all her life.

As a mother of two young sons, Silvia knows that speed and flavour count for much, and so her piadina (a ham and stracchino cheese wrap) and eggs poached in tomato sauce - another Nonna-specialty - will soon become favourites in her readers' kitchens, as they are in hers.

With grandmothers from two different regions, she was doubly blessed with heritage recipes from both sides of the family. Fortunately Silvia took the time to save as many of her family recipes as possible. When her maternal grandmother was very old, Silvia cooked along with her, converting 'some' and 'just enough' into actual measurements so that she (and now others) can cook those dishes and achieve the same delicious results.

But being Italian, there is no way the recipes have landed on the page as cold hard numbers and words. You'll meet the creators of them, learn their stories, share their tips, and realise why Italian food is so universally loved. Teaching herself these recipes, half a world away from her homeland, she admits: "I feel I have found my authentic Italian identity in my Sydney kitchen."

Silvia's Cucina, by Silvia Colloca, published by Lantern, 2013, paperback, rrp $39.99.

- reviewed by Sally Hammond

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