Italy, the Romagnoli Way: A Culinary Journey

Like a modern-day Virgil and Beatrice, the Romagnolis, cohosts of the PBS series The Romagnolis' Table, conduct a breathless journey through the paradisiacal food and wine regions of Italy. Beginning at the northern Alpine border of Italy, the two move slowly south, savoring food and wine as well as people and places. Their love of the country shines through their adoring descriptions of locales. Chiavari, in the northwestern region of Liguria, is an elegantly simple, relaxed and pleasant city, facing a sheltered sea and untouched by winter. In Emilia-Romagno, the Romagnolis set off on a quest to find the perfect prosciutto ham and Parmigiano cheese for which the region is famous. They discover not only a prosciutto that ideally combines creamy marbled fat and salty crispness, they also stumble across a violin museum where they listen raptly to the lush strains of a 1715 Stradivarius that transports them to the baroque period. In Calabria, a young boy brings the Romagnolis a meal of super-fresh braided mozzarella, just-picked garden tomatoes, a warm loaf of country bread and a carafe of cool, dry and sharp as a blade white wine, which they declare is the best meal they have ever had. Recipes accompany every chapter, and the Romagnolis' intimate storytelling and love of Italian food and culture carry readers on an unforgettable journey.