Many Beautiful Things: Stories and Recipes from Polizzi Generosa

This was a book I knew my son would like. He is a very good cook and particularly enjoys preparing Italian food. In addition, he is partly Sicilian and proud of it.

I happened to pick this book up while needing something to read on a traveling layover. I instantly recognized the name of the author and the size of the volume promised to add little to the weight of my baggage, so I chose it over the hundreds of other cookbooks at the out of town Barnes and Noble I happened to find in my travels.In the back of my mind was the opinion that this was an exercise in exploitation of the actor's fame in movies and on the stage. Although Vincent Schiavelli has had relatively minor roles, they were in some major films such as `Amadeus' and `One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest' and a major TV show, `Taxi'. The blurbs on the back cover from Martin Scorsese and Danny DeVito did nothing to change this prejudice. But here was also a blurb from Alice Waters. Not exactly your typical show business paison. Rather, a culinary heavyweight of the first Water (sic). The watercolor painting on the cover also enchanted me. Not exactly the sort of thing used by Patti LaBelle or Al Roker on their tie-in culinary efforts.The first thing which gave the lie to my prejudice was the fact that the bio at the inside bottom of the dust jacket briefly mentions that Schiavelli is an actor and goes on to focus more on the fact that this is the fifth book he has written, all apparently on Sicilian / culinary topics.This book is very much about both food and Sicily, specifically a small hilltop town in north central Sicily named Polizzi Generosa. The book opens with the story of the town's rather odd name. The town was founded in Roman times and the full name came to be in the thirteenth century. Read the book for all the spicy details. The relevance of the town to the author is that Schiavelli's family came from this town and some distant relatives still live there.It took less than two pages to be hooked on the story in the book that provides a framework for the recipes. I often judge cookbooks by how interested I am in making the recipes after reading them. A comparable `gut level' criterion for non-cookbooks is how interested I am in reading other books by the same author. Schiavelli made me very interested in reading his earlier books. Unlike most other culinary memoir writers, Schiavelli also succeeded in my wanting to make the recipes in his book. Most of the recipes are absurdly simple and certainly inexpensive to make. The potato gratin recipe, for example, has immediately become my recipe of choice for this dish, avoiding all the headaches of dealing with curdling dairy products by replacing it with olive oil. This is Sicily, after all.Not leaving things at that, Schiavelli adds significant value to the book by including a supplementary table of contents which list all recipes by category, since the primary table of contents is ordered more to events in the author's visits to Polizzi Generosa than to things culinary. The categories are Antipasti, First Courses (usually pasta), Second Courses (usually protein), One Course Meals (pastas with h

Every once in a while a book comes along that doesn't try to be dark and mysterious, or technical and scientific, or highfalutin in any way. Instead this book simply wants to tell some pleasant stories. Many Beautiful Things is a book that does just this, it shares great stories (and recipes) in a simple, yet unforgettable way. In his new book, Vincent Schiavelli takes us along on his journey to Polizzi Generosa, a quaint Sicilian town. Along the way, we witness the natural beauty of Polizzi; meet its people, who find joy and happiness in the simple lives they lead; and taste Polizzi's exquisite culinary creations (don't worry, Mr. Schiavelli gives you the recipes for them all)! Although Mr. Schiavelli has successfully taken on many roles as an actor, in Many Beautiful Things, he takes on a role in which he is equally successful - that of a masterful writer. Schiavelli brings to life the landscape, people, and food of Polizzi through vivid images that seem to come more from the strokes of an artist's brush than from an author's pen. "...[S]emolina bread toasted in the wood-burning pizza oven and topped with the ripest chopped tomatoes mixed with fragrant fresh basil, and drizzled with local extra-virgin olive oil" makes a dish that is, basically, a typical "bruschetta" seem worthy of being displayed next to the Mona Lisa in the Louvre! Those unfamiliar with Polizzi Generosa need only to read Schiavelli's words to understand what an incredible place it is; "Before us lay a mountain pasture, dotted with olive trees ...The room filled with clean, cold mountain air. It was scented with wild fennel, and bay laurel, and earth - rich, fertile earth." Reading Many Beautiful Things seems to transport you to a different world where the only things important in life are helath, friends and family, and a good spread of food. This book is filled exactly with what the title says, "many beautiful things!" There is one problem, however, that you may have with this book after reading it - you won't know whether to hop a flight to Sicily or fire up the stove! Thanks Vincent for showing us "many beautiful things!"

The author/actor Vincent Schiavelli has done it again. His latest cookbook with stories and recipes is a real treat, not only for the tummy but for the soul too. The recipes I have tasted so far are wonderfully delicious. The stories are so touching to the heart that I found myself teary eyed over the pasta sauce. This beautiful book should be in everyone's cook library, and it can hold it's place in any other library as well. Bravo Mr. Schiavelli for another great installment of Sicilian cuisine and culture.I highly recommend this book. 5 stars in my book.