Preserving Italy: Canning, Curing, Infusing, and Bottling Italian Flavors and Traditions

Seasons come and seasons go, but with Domenica Marchetti’s new book “Preserving Italy” you can save the flavors of the season, Italian style. From start to finish, Ms. Marchetti guides the reader from market to kitchen, from chopping board to canning jar. Technique, inspiration, and recipes come together to give the reader everything needed to create an Italian preserver’s pantry.With a copy of this book in hand there is no need to fear canning. Enzymes, molds, yeasts, and bacteria, all are explained clearly, and fears and concerns are allayed. Tips for safe preserving are included along with a thorough discussion of both water-bath canning and pressure canning.The reader need have no fear of being faced with recipes that call for twenty pounds of produce; this is small batch canning at its most delicious. You’ll find recipes, real savory Italian classics, in the chapter Foods Preserved in Oil. Whether you favor baby artichokes, asparagus, garlic scapes (the newest darling of the food world), eggplant, grilled mushrooms, grilled zucchini, or eggplant, there is enough here to transform your American pantry into a real version of Italian abbondanza.One of the nicest things about this book is that it is more than just a collection of recipes. Ms. Marchetti offers suggestions for how to incorporate her recipes into other dishes. Oil-Preserved Butternut Squash makes an appearance in Farro Salad. Lemon Olive Oil adds flavor to Spaghetti al Limone and Baked Whole Trout with Citrus Salt. Fiery Hot Olio Santo adds its inimitable kick to Vegetable Zuppa, and Savory Mint Sauce brings a bright mouthful of flavor to Grilled Summer Vegetables.Did you grow up snacking on Giardiniera, that toothsome mélange of vegetables and spices? Ms. Marchetti includes her version in the chapter Foods Preserved in Vinegar. You’ll find Cippollini in Agrodolce - tiny Italian onions preserved in balsamic and white wine vinegar, sugar, and spices. Add them to Insalata di Riso or include them on an antipasto platter, and you are sure to please family and friends. Think of Wine-Spiked Julienne Carrots as carrot pickles, and enjoy them straight from the jar or in a salad or vegetable platter. You’ll also find recipes for pickling cauliflower, beets and spring onions, zucchini, mushrooms, and peppers along with suggestions for how to use them in recipes.There’s plenty here for those with a sweet tooth. Sweet Preserves offers a generous collection of preserves, jams, jellies, conserves, spoon fruits, and marmalades. Rich red Plum Preserves offer up vibrant flavor and are surprisingly easy to make. They are delectable atop toast with Buttermilk Ricotta. Fig Jam with Orange Zest has rich figgy flavor and a delightful seed-flecked appearance. With a grace note of citrus this jam, as Ms. Marchetti suggests, makes a terrific filling for a crostata and a sumptuous accompaniment for roasted or grilled pork. If it’s a familiar jam you are after try the Blackberry-Apple Jam. This classic owes its perfect texture to the addition of a green apple added for a bit of pectin. The flavor is pure blackberry, and it is delicious on toast, even better as a filling for bomboloni, the Italian version of jelly doughnuts. Peach and Almond Conserva is an absolute delight. With almonds for added texture and Marsala for the real flavor of Italy, this is bound to be a family favorite.Tomatoes and Sauce gives these wonderful summer fruits the royal treatment. Bottled Whole Tomatoes, ripe plum tomatoes preserved in passata (tomato puree) are a must for any Italian pantry. A shelf full of these will keep you in sauce all through the year. Recipes for Passata di Pomodoro, Tomato Conserva (tomato paste), Small-Batch Tomato Sauce, Classic Meat Sauce, Oven-Dried Tomatoes, and Oven Roasted Tomatoes in Oil will turn you into a tomato expert in no time.The chapter Infused Oils, Vinegars, and Condiments is a real treasure trove. Easy recipes like Citrus Salt and Porchetta Salt bring flavor to everything from meat to vegetables. You’ll find recipes for Seasoned Vinegars and flavored olive oils. Fans of hot peppers can indulge their love for the fiery with Peperoncino Cream or Abruzzo’s famous Olio Santo. You can even pick up a needle and thread and string a Peperoncino Garland. There are recipes for Spiced Tomato Jam, Quince Paste, Classic Pesto, Caponata, and Pesto Abruzzese. Plus you’ll learn to be cure your own olives.If you have ever wanted to make your own cheese or cure your own meat, the chapter Fresh Cheeses and Simple Cured Meats provides an informative introduction. Ricotta made with buttermilk is the perfect place to start. Or try Liguria’s famous Prescinseua for a trip down the road slightly less traveled. If sausages and salumi are your pleasure, the author’s recipes will whet your appetite and get you started curing your own meat and making your own sausage.Some of my favorite recipes are found in the penultimate chapter Syrups, Liqueurs, and Fruits Preserved in Alcohol. Mint Syrup, Orzata (almond syrup), and Blood Orange Syrup will wake memories for all who grew up Italian. Classic Limoncello and Nocino both make appearances along with a most delicious Coffee Cream Liqueur. Fans of Marsala will enjoy Zabaglione Cream Liqueur. Strawberry Cream Liqueur is delicious chilled, but even better half-frozen.Fittingly, a chapter on Confections wraps up the book. From the classic nut-studded nougat Torrone, to the Italian nut brittle known as Croccante, to Panforte di Siena, and Fig and Walnut Salami, this chapter could be a sweet book all on its own, a collection of some of the finest Italy has to offer.This volume is Ms. Marchetti’s paean to the Italy she loves, a wealth of information interwoven with personal recollections shared with generosity and grace.

This is a great book on how to utilise good you grow and that you buying and making easy recipes and also jarring them up for the season.

I am fairly new to canning, 3 yrs now and I am building a cookbook library for canning recipes. Being Italian-American, I had to add this one too. I like that the gram weights are listed to the ingredients to be sure each time you make something, it is consistent. Solid ingredients that use Cup and Ounce measurements are shown with gram weights too, I appreciate that. There are sweet canning recipes too, but I have such an oversupply of jams and jellies, despite giving some away, I am focusing on veggies now. There is not just waterbath canning recipes, but refrigerator items too, pressure canning, and other offshoot recipes such as pestos (one is 'Sicilian mint pesto' using mint and parsley, etc., to drizzle fish, meat, or over veggies of any kind, which I will soon whiz up, sounds yummy), homemade pasta dough, limoncello and other alcoholic and non-alcoholic syrups, and other recipes that at first glance seem to be out of place in a book with this title. But for me, if I can get a few interesting recipes that stay in my 'keeper file' rotation, I'm happy. I love the Pickled Cauliflower with Lemon, will make it again and make more of it. I had another pickled cauliflower canning recipe I thought was my fave, but now this is the one. Easy to do also. You will find familiar Italian vegetables used, such as zucchini, fennel, peppers, and other items commonly used in antipasti such as mushrooms and onions and so on. I like the use of white WINE vinegar and white WINE as part of the brine, and the use of olive oil adds Italian authenticity to the recipes. If you are into canning and have room for one more book on your shelf, I'd say, check this one out.UPDATE: That Sicilian mint/parsley pesto is amazing. I have even made some for friends. I made the wine-spiked carrots, the zucchini (with EVOO), and today canning up the giardiniera. I never loved the ones I bought in the market, so I have high hopes for this one. I loved the cauliflower (mentioned above in review), so I suspect I will like this one too.UPDATE#2: THe giardiniera was great, better than from the store. Another book I had for a "jardiniera" recipe with only carrots, cauliflower and red pepper stated that any veggie can be used as long as it is the same amt to allow the brine to cover it. This one uses easy-to-find veggies, and when the celery and carrots are getting a bit tired in your refrigerator, this is a good way to use them up. There is another canning recipe in this book using just fennel and carrots I believe, it's like a simpler giardiniera of sorts. Any veggie basically works. I have a butternut squash ready to be canned up next.UPDATE#3: We had some of the zucchini last night (had to wait a week or two for it to cure before eating) and my husband said at first bite he liked it a lot, that is bc the EVOO in it softened the bite of the vinegar you seem to get in most pickled items. In those, you pucker up a bit too much and it is always the same pucker you get despite the changing recipe. The addition of EVOO and white WINE vinegar makes the flavor profile 'softer' and seem like you just whipped it up at that meal. I will make this recipe again and more of it!

This looks like a great book to have, and for only around $15, it’s worth having. I love reading the various recipes. Some people on the reviews complain that there are many recipes that cannot store for more than 3 months, but that’s fine by me. Three months is long enough for me, and there are recipes that can be preserved for longer periods, too.I have only made one dish, and I love it. The salted green tomatoes, recipe “Linda’s Salt-Preserved Green Tomatoes”. They are amazing. I accidentally sliced the green tomatoes 1/4 inch thick, instead of 1/2 inch as recommended, so I only fermented them for 6 days, instead of 10-14 days as recommended. Even at 1/4 inch, I love them. Maybe they are even better this way, if you plan to serve them as a side dish, with meats as an appetizer, or on a hot dog; or serve them as the author does, “I find them irresistible and often enjoy them for lunch alongside hard-boiled eggs or cheese and salami”.

Lots of good recipes to follow. However, will have to scale down the amounts for our consumption. Still lots of useful tips.

Some lovely recipes in here very pleased. lovely recipes and beautiful book.

I've used a couple of the recipes already and want to use more. They are all very interesting, along with the wonderful stories that the author writes.

So happy to have ordered this recipe book. It is chocked full of great recipes for all the wonderful foods we enjoyed on our recent trips to Italy. Well written, easy to follow instructions and great photos.

Have used many of these recipes and turned out very well. My personal favourite is the rede onion jam. I have used regular red onion and gotten excellent results.