The current selection of Cook the Books is 97 Orchard, an edible history of immigrant families in NYC. I enjoyed the reading, particularly about the Italian family. The passage that really resonated with me was "No people are more devoted to their native food than Italians and Italian groceries are filled with imported edibles that flourish in the different colonies of the Americas....The prices or the imported goods is a drain on the purses of the patrons and they wearily try to get the same satisfaction from American-made substitutes, which have the same name and appearance but never the same taste"
The dish that inspired me from that chapter is zucchini-based, but it was made with eggs which I don't like so I chose one more familiar to our Abruzzo region from a book by Ada Boni which recipe follows:
Timbollo di Zucchini
Ingredients
3 lb zucchini, trimmed, cut into slices & fried in a skillet, set aside
salt, garlic, pepper, olive oil for frying
4 tsp tomato paste, one can prepared tomatoes
1 onion chopped fine & sauteed
several sprigs of basil
1/2 lb mozzarella
3-4 anchovy fillets
Preparation
Prepare the ingredients, lightly frying the onion & spices. Add the tomato products and cook for ~ 10 minutes. Pour into a in a baking dish in a preheated oven. lay anchovies on top. Bake at 375 degree oven for about 30 minutes until bubbling & cheese has melted.
Thanks to Simona Carini who is the host of this round of Cook the Books. She does a great job of organizing us. Looking forward to upcoming selection.
