Naples at Table : Cooking in Campania
Naples gave the world pizza and spaghetti with tomato sauce. InNaples at Table, Arthur Schwartz reveals the unexpected breadth and depth of dishes to be enjoyed in Naples and throughout Campania, the rich region where this culinarily underappreciated city is located.Campania is the home of mozzarella. In fact, by Italian law, only cheese made from the milk of the water buffalo of Campania should be bear this name; the cow's-milk cheese we call mozzarella is more rightly calledfior di latte, "flower of the milk."To most people, southern Italy is the land of red sauce, from the lightsalsa insalata, made with raw tomatoes marinated in olive oil and seasoned with salt and basil, to hefty, long-simmered, meat-flavored ragu. Schwartz introduces us toLa Genovese, an onion-based sauce Neapolitans began making centuries before the tomato arrived from the New World so they could pair it with its soul mate, pasta.Anyone interested in Italian food will find the more than 250 recipes and the almost overwhelming wealth of information inNaples at Tablefascinating. There is history, going back to the ancient Greeks, and stories as only Schwartz can recount them. One of the best is howZuppa Inglesemay have gotten its name. Discover Woodman-Style Baked Pasta with Meat Sauce and Mushrooms; lusty Baccalà "Arrecanato," a casserole of salt cod and potatoes; an authenticZuppa Inglese; and so much more as you travel around Campania with Schwartz, meeting chefs and home cooks from Naples and Salerno, Benevento up in the mountains, out along the Amalfi coast, and the jewel-like islands of Ischia and Capri.--Dana Jacobi