Celebrate a Rustic, Aristocratic Italian Easter with Fabrizia Lanza’s “Coming Home to Sicily”

 

Sicily’s beloved author and cooking school director, Fabrizia Lanza has come to the United States to introduce her newest book, Coming Home to Sicily.  Even in a straightforward chef coat, Señora Lanza looks as aristocratic as her own background.  Sicily is a land that is both barren and also farmed for the heavenly produce that goes into equally stellar cuisine.  So it is an aristocracy unlike the Roman because of its defining sense of mystery and hardiness.  Think of Italy’s most famous novel that is about the region, Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa’s Il Gattopardo (The Leopard), which reviewer Adam Begley described in terms of Sicily: “a sensibility that savors the decaying grandeur of an island burdened with layer upon layer of tragic history — and blessed also with startling beauty, much of it perpetually waning.”

The very name “Sicily”  takes me back to the haunting 2003 film “Lo Non Ho Paura” (I’m Not Scared) about two little boys during “the times of “Lead, of kidnappings and terrorism” on the sun-drenched island. (It is available on HULU now).  

The Anna Tasca Lanza Cooking School was founded in the ’80s by Fabrizia’s mother on the Tasca d’Almeritawine estate in central Sicily. With her experience as an art curator in the north of Italy, Fabrizia’s creative eye and entrepreneurial spirit breathed new life into the farm at Case Vecchie. In addition to hosting guests on cooking holidays and for creative workshops, Fabrizia has developed a 10-week intensive program, Cook the Farm, for those interested in exploring the gaps between eating, cooking, farming and understanding food from global, Mediterranean and Sicilian perspectives.  

Case Vecchie has become the most notable cooking school in Sicily, a place where life is lived slowly and food is prepared the same way it has been for centuries. Fabrizia’s cookbook, Coming Home to Sicily, is a source of authentic seasonal Sicilian recipes and the story of coming back to work alongside her mother. She writes eloquently about the seasonal harvests, the foods produced, and the loyal and talented staff who make it all possible. 

Fabrizia’s story brings history to life and her upcoming projects are more fascinating than any film.  A modern day renaissance woman, Fabrizia also preserves Sicilian food practices and traditions through video documentation with Amuri: The Sacred Flavors of Sicily and currently in production, Amaro: The Bitter Taste in Sicilian Food Culture. She is a member of and well-respected by The Slow Food Movement. In fact, Alice Waters wrote the foreword to her book. 

Lanza’s work to protect the environment is crucial to Sicily, especially in a  work In a region whose prosperity depends agriculture, and where the ecosystem has suffered deforestation because of it.  Until the sixteenth century, vast forests still covered many areas. That simply isn’t true today. Entire provinces are virtually without woodlands and meant the end of many rivers.

As a sort of goodwill ambassador, Lanza travels regularly to the United States promoting Sicilian food, and has published three books: Olive A Global History, Coming Home to Sicily (her first cookbook, co-authored with former Gourmet magazine editor Kate Winslow), and Tenerumi (a family and culinary memoir published in Italy). She lives between Palermo, Regaleali and Veneto. You can find more information at www.annatascalanza.com