Our Fifth book was another galley book graciously provided to us by Book Club Cookbook. http://www.bookclubcookbook.com It was another book by Frances Mayes. Frances discovers hidden pleasures in this travel narrative that crisscrosses the country of Italy. She is accompanied by her husband and also at times with her grandson.
As a group we decided to each take a region that she traveled to and make a dish from that area. I made Eggplant Caponata. This dish is from Sicily. There is a lot of cutting to be done in preparation to put this together, but it looks and tastes beautifully at its completion. This southern version has no raisins or olives and I added more garlic because according to me……one can never have too much garlic.
We celebrated Italy and friendship and had a fantastic luncheon. We also each spoke about the region we chose and why we chose the dish that we recreated. That day was so successful in cooking pot luck style that we have decided to make each club meeting like that. It takes some of the pressure off of the hostess.
(from left to right)
Babs, Lynne, Joanne, Me, Jeanine (our hostess) Dee Dee and in front Karie
