L'Italo-Americano

www.italoamericano.org 10 THURSDAY, JULY 12, 2018 L'Italo-Americano " Sicilian novels and mem- oirs that speak of food are more important to me than cookbooks," says M ary Taylor S imeti, a grande dame of the vibrant Sicilian kitchen and culture. "Sicily's culture, including its food, is a magnificent melting pot, an accumulation of contribu- tions from all the various civi- lizations that conquered the island throughout history," she says. "I am fascinated by this multilayered, multi-faceted qual- ity, which requires much more than one lifetime to explore and understand." Expert in Sicilian Medieval and culinary his tory, the acclaimed author w as born and grew up in New York. But a visit to Sicily in 1962 forever altered her destiny. "I came to Sicily in 1962 to work in a community develop- ment center for a year before going to graduate school," she explains from her country house in Partinico, a little town in the province of Palermo. "I fell in love with and mar- ried a Sicilian, and never went back to the States except to visit. My love affair with Sicily was a more gradual process," she says. After many years of urban liv- ing in Palermo, she settled on a family farm some 20 years ago with her husband agronomist Tonino Simeti and their daughter Natalia. At Bosco Falconeria they produce wine, olive oil, and organic fruit and vegetables. "I enjoyed city life when I was a young woman, but I don't mis s it at all now and can't imagine returning to the city," she says. Mrs. Simeti sees Paler- mo Capital of Culture 2018 as "an opportunity, but also a chal- lenge — the city has to function well enough to make sure that the tourists will want to return another time." H er books P ers ephone's Is land: A S icilian J ournal (Knopf, 1986) and Pomp and Sustenance (Knopf, 1989), the first history work on Sicilian cuisine in English, made her an authority on Sicily. In 1994, she co-authored Bitter A lmonds (M orrow ) w ith pas try chef Maria Grammatico. " Travels w ith a M edieval Queen (Farrar Straus Giroux) followed in 2001. Her stories in the New York Times and F inancial Times helped to spread authentic Sicil- ian culture throughout the US. In a recent delectable book entitled Sicilian Summer: An Adventure in Cooking with my Grandsons, (IngramSpark) Mary shared 28 beguiling dishes with readers and her family-proud, MARIELLA RADAELLI Mary Taylor Simeti, grande dame of Sicilian culinary culture food-loving grandsons. She acquired her knowledge of Sicilian food over a long peri- od, "first from friends and rela- tives, then from books," she says. "My husband's parents were both in poor health and by the time I arrived here my moth- er-in-law's cooking was vastly reduced and simplified," she explains. "But there were some things s he made for s pecial occasions - sweet ricotta fritters or crocchè di latte, to name two - that are still very much a part of our family fare." Her favorite Sicilian summer dishes are "Pasta con i tenerumi, and then almost anything made with eggplants or ammogghiu." Since she considers herself a culinary historian rather than a chef, she tends to stick with tra- dition. "I have cooked two meals almost every day for more than 50 years and am still doing so," she says. "My cooking varies with my mood, with American, Asian and M iddle Eas tern dis hes thrown in, but given the ingredi- ents that I have at hand, I mostly go with the Sicilian cuisine." Asked what dish she would recommend to someone cooking Sicilian cuisine for the first time, she replies: "Eggplants and bell peppers take on a whole new life in Sicilian hands, so I would suggest looking at some of the recipes for them." She describes Sicilian food as "produce rather than process — Sicilian food at its best is born of simple but top-quality ingre- dients combined w ith great sophistication." How is it evolving? "After a period in the '80s of being bewitched by "international" cuis ine, in the '90s S icilian restaurants rediscovered tradi- tional cuisine. In recent years top chefs have been concentrat- ing on reinterpreting traditional dishes with a focus on local ingredients and terroir," she explains. Her grandsons enjoyed cook- ing with nonna and that sur- prised her. "They worked hard, liked acquiring new skills, and were very proud of the meals that we served to their parents. I thought the difference in ages, which ranged from 5 to 14, would be challenging, but they w ere tremendously supportive of each other and amazingly coopera- tive," she says. "I realize in ret- rospect that I had picked the per- fect moment, and that a year or two later the results would have been very different." The secret to being a good cook? "P robably the mos t important is liking to eat and then paying attention to the quality of your ingredients," she says. And dulcis in fundo (sweet- ness at the end) is it difficult to make pasta di mandorle or can- noli at home? "I am not a DIY fanatic and since I can buy excellent pasta di mandorle and cannoli, I don't bother to make them myself," she reveals. "Either one would be difficult to make well in the States, since the ingredients (the ricotta and the almonds) aren't right." And when she visits her birth country, there's one thing she misses most from her home in Sicily: "the landscape." Mary Taylor Simeti at work with her grandchildren LIFE PEOPLE MOVIES MUSIC BOOKS The secret to being a good cook? Enjoying food and paying attention to ingredients

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