Keeping House

Clara Sereni, Susan Briziarelli, Giovanna Miceli Jeffries

Description

Part autobiographical novel and part cookbook, Keeping House tells the story of a young Italian woman struggling to find self-definition and self-identity. Born into a prominent Jewish Italian family full of strong personalities and colorful figures, Clara narrates the humorous, dramatic, and often poignant events that inform her life. Intertwining recipes with her narrative, Clara uses food as markers for the cornerstones of her life, allowing her to discover and remember both public and private events—a Yom Kippur dinner, fascism and antifascism, the early years of the young Italian republic, the politics and culture of the Italian left, the openness of the 1960s and '70s, and the retreat into privacy of the 1980s.

Preface

Acknowledgments
Translators’ Note
Introduction

1 For a Baby
2 Appetizers
3 First Courses
4 Second Courses
5 Eggs
6 Vegetables
7 Sweets
8 Preserving

Notes
Works Cited

Sujets

• Cuisine
• Cuisine du monde
• Cuisine d’Europe
• Cuisine d'Europe
• Cuisine d'Europe
• National
• My Last Duchess
• Italy

Informations

• Publié par: State University of New York Press
• Date de parution: 02 juillet 2011
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9780791483190
• Langue: English

Extrait

a novel in recipes

Translated from the Italian by GIOVANNA MICELI JEFFRIES and SUSAN BRIZIARELLI

Keeping House

S U N Y s e r i e s ,

W O M E N W R I T E R S I N T R A N S L A T I O N

M a r i l y n G a d d i s R o s e e d i t o r

Keeping House

a novel in recipes

Clara Sereni

Tr anslat ed from t he It alian b y Gio v anna Miceli Jef fr ies and Susan Br iziarelli

S T A T E U N I V E R S I T Y O F N E W Y O R K P R E S S

Cover Art: Watercolor “Keeping House” by Brian Peterka. Illustrations on pages 21, 25, 37, 67, 97, 107, 117, and 131 by Brian Peterka.

Excerpts from “Caring and Nurturing in Italian Women’s Theory and Fiction: A Reap- praisal,” inFeminine Feminists: Cultural Practices in Italy, edited by Giovanna Miceli Jef- fries, are reprinted with permission from the University of Minnesota Press.

Excerpts from “La tensione civile nella narrativa di Clara Sereni,” inStudi in onore di Umberto Mariani: da Verga a Calvino, edited by Anthony G. Costantini and Franco Zan- grilli, are reprinted with permission from Edizioni Cadmo.

Published by S TAT E U N I V E R S I T Y O F N E W Y O R K P R E S S A LBANY

© 2005 State University of New York

All rights reserved

Printed in the United States of America

No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission. No part of this book may be stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means including electronic, electrostatic, magnetic tape, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise without the prior permission in writing of the publisher.

Fo information, address For information, address State Universityof New York Press, State U iversity of New York Press 194 Washington Avenue, Suite 305,Albany, NY 12210-2384 194 Washington Avenue, Suite 305, Albany, NY 12210-2365

Production, Laurie Searl Marketing, Fran Keneston

Library of Congress CataloginginPublication Data

Sereni, Clara, 1946– [Casalinghitudine. English] Keeping house : a novel in recipes / Clara Sereni ; translated by Giovanna Miceli Jeffries and Susan Briziarelli. p. cm. — (SUNY series, women writers in translation) Includes bibliographical references. ISBN 0-7914-6479-2 (hardcover : alk. paper) 1. Cookery, Italian—Fiction. I. Miceli Jeffries, Giovanna. II. Title. III. Series.

PQ4879.E718C3713 2004 853'.914—dc22

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 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

2004015111

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Contents

Preface

Acknowledgments

Translators’ Note

Introduction

For a Baby

Appetizers

First Courses

Second Courses

Eggs

Vegetables

Sweets

Preserving

Notes

Works Cited

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25

37

67

97

107

117

131

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Preface

Once, for a presentation ofCasalinghitudinein Tuscany, the orga- nizers had the idea of pairing my talk with a glass of good wine and a sampling of the dishes from the book. Naturally I, too, par- took of this, discovering to my surprise that the dishes were all good, but all different from how I knew them. This was because the Tuscan beans were not the same ones I used to buy in Rome, because distances of just a few kilometers make for different cheeses and cold cuts, and, above all, because cooking is not an exact science. My pinch of salt is different from yours, my idea of “a little oil‚” is certainly so subjective that it does not allow exact replication. But I, too, when cooking my “seven grain soup” in another country, came up with an entirely new taste, even though I had made it with my own hands, my amounts, and my methods. With the passing of time, needs and recipes change. Indeed, in my experience, in the years since the book first appeared in Italy, almost none of the dishes have remained exactly the same. Every- thing flows, everything changes: how could food remain the same? The number of people around the table changes, the avail- ability of money and time changes, our physical and creative needs change. If I had kept my cooking more rigid, my life would have stopped as well, frozen, blocked. Because the nice thing about cooking (the only truly creative act of housekeeping) is just that inexactness, with its gray area that allows space for invention, modification, appropriation. For every- one, knowledge and memory are at play each time, as they are in this book, whose placement I imagine somewhere between living room and kitchen, with its cover made richer by the presence of the occasional floury or greasy fingerprints. Therefore, I explicitly

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k e e p i n g h o u s e

authorize the reader to use it simply as an outline, as technical sup- port to retrace one’s own story, one’s own roots, the scents and fla- vors that guide us (and pursue us) from past to present. And per- haps with the strength that comes to us from memory it will be possible for us to face the future with greater confidence.

Clara Sereni, Perugia (Italy), January 2005 Trans., Susan Briziarelli

Acknowledgments

A heartfelt thank you to my family for their encouragement, support, and resources while working on this project, especially Tom and Carla.

G. Miceli Jeffries

I am grateful to Mary Moog for her careful and insightful reading of the translation, and to the University of San Diego for its support. A special thank you to my children, Chiara and Matteo, for their patience.

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Susan Briziarelli