Bloomsbury Sicilia: A love letter to the food of Sicily

This beautiful brightly coloured book is, as you can probably guess from the title, a book of recipes from the Italian island of Sicily where Benb fell in love.I do really love cookbooks and have quite a few, different cuisines, different skills and I love reading them and gaining knowledge. My amazon basket is forever 'holding' books and I have over 100 that is on my wish list. These are made up of books I have read about, books I have been told about, chefs I have seen and books from authors I already have. Monthly I give myself a small budget and then I go to bookfinder.com, search for the book I want and find where it is listed at the lowest price so I can get as many books as I can in my budget. I like buying second hand books, I like the idea that a cookbook is being given a second chance at life.Anyway, back to my list, back in early 2021 I had two books show up on my recommended for you list on amazon. Both were entitled Sicily, this one by Ben Tish and another one. I chose the other one as I liked the idea of all the stories in there as well as the recipes and for my birthday I was given it, it is lovely. Then roll on just a few months and the book of the month is the Ben Tish Sicilian book. So here I find myself with two books on Sicily within a couple of months.I always buy the cookbook club book of the month. Whether I like the idea of the book or not I always get it and I always learn so much. So even though I already had a Sicilian book, how could I not get this one? No, this book is no exception and I am really very glad I have both, they are so different and this is a gorgeous book and I am really glad I did get it. The recipes I have cooked have been lovely, fresh and delicious and as I found out, Sicilian food is a little different from other Italian food because of the influence from the rich history of the island and so you will find lots of dried fruits, nuts and spices, all of which I love.One of the things I love about Europe is how regional foods are. The people in the North would for instance not cook food from the South and vice versa. I love how different the food is and have really enjoyed getting into the food of Sicily. My favourite recipe so far is a squid, pea and tomato dish, there are only a few ingredients but it really does pack a punch, it is gorgeous. The thing I have found is that lots of the recipes are 'simple' and so rely on good ingredients. I have earmarked lots of recipes and long for the summer when we can break out the braai, I love how good these recipes taste cooking outside.There is also a fair amount of offal which is not for everybody but offal aside it is still a beautiful book full of lots of delicious recipes.

I heard about this book (published only yesterday) and ordered it at 11.00 pm. It arrived at 13.00 pm the next day. Fantastic response. And the book is exquisite, interesting narrative and lovely photos plus great recipes.

This is am amazing cookbook, colourful, vibrant and full of delicious recipes. I couldn't wait to be released and I'm really excited to cook everything from it. It's perfect for summer so is going to be a good one.

Attractive book - enjoyed looking at the recipes & impressive photos. Not too many recipes that actually inspired me to have a go, sadly. I think the recipes are more for “weekend cooking”, when there is more time & energy to gather ingredients! Not so much for busy, midweek meals.

We have now tried around 12 dishes from this book - simple recipes to follow and every one a winner - too many favourites to list. Heartily recommend and have now given this as presents 5 times.