Salvatore Vona

A Taste of Calabria: 140 Recipes from Southern Italy Salvatore Vona

Publisher Marketing: Salvatore Vona is the chef at Le Puzelle, an 'agriturismo' (converted farmhouse accommodation) near the small hill-top town of Santa Severina in the Calabrian province of Crotone. As well as providing holiday accommodation, Le Puzelle is well-known locally for its cuisine and many Calabrians and others travel considerable distances to wine and dine at Salvatore Vona's table. Salvatore's book of recipes, 'A Taste of Calabria', began life as the third edition of his popular 'I Sapori delle Puzelle' (literally the tastes and flavours of the Puzelle) and reflects the demand, expressed by many of Le Puzelle's English-speaking guests, for an English language edition. The book's 150 recipes are representative of southern Italian cuisine and that of Calabria in particular; above all, however, they reflect the innovative style of Salvatore Vono. Niall Allsop's translation also includes detailed and helpful notes on those ingredients that are not always available outside Italy in the hope that the reader will not be be put off because he or she cannot find the same cheese or pasta mentioned in the recipe. Niall also acknowledges that there is, of course, no substitute for the real thing ... Salvatore Vona's door at Le Puzelle is always open. Contributor Bio:  Allsop, Niall Niall Allsop was born and educated in Belfast, Northern Ireland, but began his working life as a primary school teacher in London and in 1971 took up his first headship. He left teaching in 1981 to pursue a career as a freelance photo-journalist specialising in the UK's inland waterways and wrote extensively in this field both as a contributor to several national magazines and later as author of a number of related titles, one of which, in a fourth edition, remains in print. By the early '90s he was a graphic designer and the in-house designer for a photographic publishing house in Manchester before becoming a freelance graphic designer based in the south-west of England. In September 2008 - the point at which 'Scratching the toe of Italy' begins - he and his wife, Kay, moved to Calabria, the toe of Italy, where they enjoy a sort of retirement and where they continue to struggle daily with the language in a small hilltop town where they are the only English-speaking people. Niall Allsop is also the author of 'Stumbling through Italy: Tales of Tuscany, Sicily, Sardinia, Apulia, Calabria and places in-between' and 'Keeping up with the Lawrences: Sicily, Sea and Sardinia revisited'