Excerpt From 'Cooking With Italian Grandmothers: Recipes and Stories From Tuscany to Sicily'

That first day, Carluccia and I floated between gathering olives for curing, and preparing lunch for everyone else. Carluccia had some things already set aside for the meal, so all we really had to do was make a batter for fried squash flower blossoms, warm up a big pot of mixed beans, and fill a glass bottle with the olive oil they had on tap. As we folded the tight squash buds into a thick batter of semolina flour, water, and eggs, Carluccia and I talked about Calabrian food traditions, past and present. "The young people of today don't know good taste," Carluccia told me. "Those who grew up on the land, with parents as farmers, do. There are a few that have remained in the countryside. But the small farmer basically doesn't exist anymore. She just doesn't exist. We are all but lost." … Back to Article