Just when you think there couldn’t be anything left that you didn’t already know about Italian cooking, a book like Cucina Povera comes out. If you’re reading this blog, there is a good chance you are a fan of Italian cooking. And like me, I’m sure that you have all of Marcella’s books on your shelf, as well as classics like those by Evan Kleiman, Nancy Jenkins, Michele Scicolone, Carol Field and Ada Boni. You’d think that about does it.
So I was as surprised (and happy) as anyone to open up Pamela Sheldon Johns’ Cucina Povera and find so many recipes that I’d never heard of, much less eaten or cooked. Peas and Eggs? Chestnut Crepes? Who knew?
Cucina Povera translates into Poor Cooking. And this is just what it is: cooking from the peasant side of things. The kind of cooking that has been going on forever in central Italy, in farmhouses, where families make do with what is available.
As it turns out, what is available is pretty great. Home grown vegetables, olive oil, grains and legumes make for pretty tasty – if ‘poor’ – cooking. Not a lot of meat, which sounds just right to me.
I received Pamela’s gorgeous book (with mouth-watering photos by Andrea Wyner) about four weeks ago. And I had every intention of writing about it since the day it arrived. But I didn’t want to just write about it. I also wanted to cook about it. But life in the past few weeks has been full of travel and other commitments which meant I never got it together to shop for, and then cook, a recipe from the book. So every evening, as I went to prepare dinner, I set aside Cucina Povera and just made do with what we had in the house.
But then I remembered: Cucina Povera is all about making do, right? So the other night I decided that I’d cook from the book, no matter what, making do with what I found on my farm in my apartment.
Luckily the night before I’d set some beans to soak and had cooked them up that morning. Seemed like a good enough starting point. A starting point which lead me straight to Pomodori, Fagioli, Cipolline : Roasted Tomatoes, Beans and Onions. I had all the ingredients on hand, even a bulb of fennel from last weeks farmer’s market.
This recipe is typical of the rest in the book, in that it takes the simplest of ingredients, and turns them into a nourishing, delicious meal.
I didn’t have any cipolline onions on hand, but I did have some beautiful home-grown big onions from our friend Paolo. I also had some of his potatoes as well. While Pamela suggests using cherry tomatoes, I used bigger ones and just chopped them into quarters. And the beans? Cannellini would have been perfect, I’m sure, but mine came from the bag of ‘haricot beans’ I’d picked up at Waitrose during my last trip to London.
In other words, I made do. As you can with this recipe. I’d say you can roast just about any combo of vegetables, adding beans at the end to turn it into a meal. And it makes perfect leftovers, which I ate the following night topped with a poached egg from my chicken fridge.
If you’d like to cook like a peasant, just leave a comment below. I’ll be throwing all the names in a hat in two weeks, and winner will receive a beautiful copy of Cucina Povera. But don’t worry. If you don’t win, you can always buy your own copy, here. 
Pomodori, Fagioli, e Cippoline
(adapted, almost verbatim with just a few changes, from Cucina Povera)
2 pounds/ 1 kilo potatoes, peeled and cut up into chunks
2 pounds/ 1 kilo onions, cut into thick wedges
1 big bulb fennel, cored and cut into thick wedges
2 tablespoons olive oil (Pamela calls for 1/4 cup. I’m on a diet this week)
salt and pepper
2 cups tomatoes, quartered
3 cups cooked white beans
8 sprigs fresh thyme
Preheat oven to 400F/200C
Place potatoes, onions and fennel in a roasting pan. Add oil, and toss to coat. Season with salt and pepper, and 6 of the thyme sprigs.
Roast, stirring once or twice, for about 20 minutes
Add tomatoes, toss, and roast for another 15 or 20 minutes until everything is tender and browned.
Add beans, toss well, and serve.*
*I added a poached egg atop mine, which was delish.
What a fantastic book to giveaway! This would definitely get used at my house!
This is just the sort of cookbook I would love. Your photos are beautiful as always Elizabeth.
I would love to cook from this book. You can never have too many Italian cookbooks!
This book looks *fantastic*. Please put me on the list!
This book looks great! I love the idea of cooking with what you have. My dream is to one day improvise a delicious recipe based on the ingredients I already have in my fridge.
That looks very nice indeed. Sounds like the type of food my Love would like to eat.
Peasant cooking… perfect, especially good at this time of autumn harvest. The book, “Cucina Povera” looks like a gem!
Thank you for all you share in words and pictures on food, Rome, Tuscany and Umbria.
Recipes of “peasant cooking” are always the most delicious ones. This book sounds wonderful.
I look forward to your email everyday, I then forward it on to my mother and aunts and if I don’t, I get an email asking where they are!!
Thank you for the joy you bring.
Ciao Elizabeth! Your blog is my daily escape to Italy everyday! Your words, thoughts, experiences and sweet and savory dishes and lucious cocktails transports me to another life and time. Thank you so much for that. And this “peasant cookbook” will bring that feeling to my home where I can create my own experiences! Molto grazie!
Now, personally I don’t have a single Italian cookbook on my shelves, for two reasons: my French honey would scoff and I am intimidated, thinking “I can’t actually DO that.” Well this book most certainly seems different as I know that I can cook what you listed and almost have every ingredient otherwise I would cook it tonight!
Your blog always inspires me and always makes me hungry! More cocktails please…it has been awhile…
Nothing looks “poor” abou that book or the recipe that you have posted here. Would make a great reference when cooking for my vegetarian daughter.
Book looks fantastic, and I want to second the request for more cocktail recipes…
I would love to win a copy! Thanks.
I am checking my impulse to use “one click” on Amazon. The book looks amazing.
I thoroughly enjoy your blog, Elizabeth. Thanks for sharing! Cookbook is going onto my wishlist…
what a great recipe and a great cook book!!!
had the pleasure of perusing this book on a train trip and i can’t wait to have a copy one way or another!
This is so beautiful, inspiring, and enheartening. Oh, I hope my name is drawn from the hat! Nothing is as good as art from necessity. Cucina Povera, Arte Povera. Your blog is so enjoyable. Thank you!
Tricia Collins
[email protected]
What a beautiful cookbook and mouth watering illustrations.Thanks Nancy cotts
An amazing cook book
What a beautiful cookbook and mouth watering illustrations.Thanks Nancy cotts
[email protected]
Fresh simple local ingredients make the best food! Sounds like a wonderful cookbook.
This sounds like a cookbook I would love owning!
love love love it.
will be making this very soon.
“Cucina Povera”, usually the most delicious of dishes.
Looks amazing! Love your photos, and your blog. The Eat Italy app was a delicious addition to our trip to Rome in September =) Thank you Elizabeth!
Just the kind of comfort food I love! I’d get a lot of use out of this cookbook – please count me in.
My mother-in-law always talks about the incredible recipes from her mother’s tiny hometown in Puglia, but alas, she never wrote any of her recipes down! I imagine some that are similar are in this book!
Peasant cooking is REAL cooking. I believe it’s the inspiration for all great cuisines. I would love to cook from this book.
Sounds wonderful!!
Your chicken cross-out cracked me up! This book sounds like a must have.
I have all the same classic Italian cookbooks as you, and I love every one.
I grew up on “poor” cooking and look forward to checking out this book.
This recipe and the book look great! Thanks, Doreen
Always delicious, always enjoyable, a great blog and now, the chance of a book to boot!!!!!
From your blog in Rome, one day a few weeks ago I found myself at a gallery in Boston and visiting a ceramic store a few miles away from me. The magic of the internet and the smallness of the world. Isn’t it amazing.
I would love to have this cookbook. The recipe looks yummy and perfect for the cooler weather we’ve been having. Thanks!
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Can’t have enough of good cookbooks – especially Italian ones! Thanks for your inspiring blog – I always look for new restaurants to try and recepies to cook and your blog is a great source.
Would love eto try this…always love you pictures,
Kathryn
Having just returned from two weeks in Italy last month, would love to win the cookbook. Thanks for the contest!
Thanks for all of your comments! I”ll be drawing the name next week. So please check back. This is very important, so that I can get in touch with the winner (some people signed on anonymously, or without a contact).
I’ve just discovered your books, etc through a friend who lives in Orvieto! I would love to win this cookbook. the photos and recipes look wonderful!
I love Italian cooking! This looks like more than a cookbook; it would be a great coffee table book too. The giveaway idea is really nice, kudos to the winner.
I love books, I love cooking, I love Italian food….I would love to have this book…
Elizabeth, just wanted to tell you I have been following your blog for a long time. It is in my favorites tab. I click on it daily, just in case there is a new posting. Don’t want to miss any on them… Thank you!
Thanks from your vegetarian friends, at least this one. I cannot wait to try this recipe.
betta
This one was really GREAT! Everybody loved it. It was so thoroughly delicious and completely simple. I bought the book already. Hope the rest of it lives up to the initial promise. We did, however, get a laugh out of the Cucina Povera of Tuscany! Isn’t that a bit like the Cucina Povera of Larchmont or Greenwich CT?
Would love to try some of these recipes!
Hi,
I think that this book could be a great way to eat well and save money (even if you don’t own a farm!;)- especially for a young couple in the middle of a recession. Thanks for your review and I hope to be the lucky winner of this fantastic book!
The beauty of Italian food and cooking originated before refrigeration. So many ways to preserve the grape, olive, vegetable and grain harvest, and the meat and dairy. This book looks like it hits all my buttons
I hope I am in time 🙂 Thanks for the wonderful offer!
Well, we had this divine side dish at dinner this evening. Delish!
I am just as excited about having leftovers!
I have only read good things about this cookbook and I look forward to giving it a try! Thanks for an informative and interesting blog.
This sounds like a wonderful cookbook. Most of our grandparents cooked this way. They used what they had to create wonderful meals for their hardworking hungry families.
I was looking for a butternut squash chilli recipe & came across yours 🙂 The book looks like a great read too
hi elizabeth, i still have this deadly flu that won’t go away …. this recipe looks just about as high-maintenance as I can go for lunch 🙂 thanks a lot, ciao ciao – Ally
Looks like a great recipe to try here in New England.
You can never have enough cookbooks-the photos are making me hungry
mmmmmm give me the cookbook….I can use it!
mmmmmm give me the cookbook….I can use it!
Am I too late? The book looks beautiful!
What a gorgeous recipe and the book looks like one I’d love in my collection!
love the book love your blog the next best thing to being in Italy
being Barese and Scicilian
We ate like this every day except for Sunday I was so happy
I love making do in my kitchen and would love to discover new ways (recipes) of doing it. My roots are Calabrian where cucina povera was a way of life, so this cookbook would hold a special meaning for me.
Peasant cooking from Italy… be still my heart!
Looks like a great book. Always looking for more inspiring recipes for my vegetarian daughter to try!
Have you selected a winner yet? Inquiring minds and all that…
Yes, I have! The winner is Doreen Lepore.
http://www.elizabethminchilli.com/2011/10/book-giveaway-winner-cucina-povera.html