Bitter Almonds: Recollections and recipes from a Sicilian girlhood Book + PRICE WATCH * Amazon pricing is not included in price watch

Bitter Almonds: Recollections and recipes from a Sicilian girlhood Book

Bitter Almonds is a remarkable memoir, a tribute to Sicilian food and culture, and the record of an historic and vanishing craft. At the heart of the book are forty-six recipes of unique Sicilian specialities, written down for the first time.In the early 1950s, Maria Grammatico and her sister were sent by their impoverished mother to the San Carlo, a cloistered orphanage in Erice, an ancient hill town on the western coast of Sicily. It was a Dickensian existence - beating sugar mixtures for six hours at a time, rising before dawn to prime the ovens, and surviving on an unrelenting diet of vegetable gruel. But it was here that Maria learned to make the beautifully handcrafted pastries that were sold to customers from behind a grille in the convent wall.At 22, Maria left the orphanage with no personal possessions, minimal schooling and no skills other than what she carried in her head and her hands - the knowledge acquired during a childhood spent preparing delicacies for other people's celebrations.Today, she is the successful owner of her own pasticceria in Erice, a mecca for travellers the world over. Her counters are piled high with home-made biscotti, tarts, cakes, and jams - Torta Divina, Cassata Siciliana, Cotognata. A frequent customer, Mary Taylor Simeti became first friend and then chronicler of Maria's moving story.Read More

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  • Blackwell

    In the early 50s, Maria Grammatico and her sister were sent by their impoverished mother to live in a convent in Erice, on the western coast of Sicily. Leaving at 22, Maria had nothing to show for her hard life there except the ability to make the...

  • Product Description

    A remarkable memoir as well as a hymn to Sicilian food and culture, Bitter Almonds is also an intimate record of a vanishing craft, with 46 authentic recipes.

  • 0553814656
  • 9780553814651
  • Mary Taylor Simeti, Maria Grammatico
  • 1 September 2002
  • Bantam Books (Transworld Publishers a division of the Random House Group)
  • Paperback (Book)
  • 240
  • illustrated edition
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