Welcome to your source for the authentic and traditional foods of Italy and the Mediterranean in their cultural and historical context illustrated with hundreds of heirloom and innovative Italian and Mediterranean recipes fully-tested in the kitchen of James Beard award winning cookbook author Clifford A. Wright.

This is the site for people for whom food is glorious and not fearsome, for people who watch their happiness before they watch their weight, for people who believe that behind every swallow is an insight into who they are. Here is your entry into the world of the most popular cuisines in the world, the world of all the culinary regions of Italy and the Mediterranean. You will find the culinary cultures of Italy and all the countries of the Mediterranean offered with the same depth and balance of recipes and their histories as you would in a flavorful bouillabaisse.

Cuisine does not spring from nowhere and it does not spring from restaurants. Cuisine is a cultural phenomenon that evolves from real people in kitchens cooking to provide food for their families guided by culture, history, agricultural, and need and wants. Here you will find REAL food. I hope you enjoy the recipes and culinary history posted here.

Read Clifford's blog www.cook-coquus.com






[photo of Clifford A. Wright: Michelle van Vliet]

One-Pot Wonders

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Hot & Cheesy

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The Best Soups in the World

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Bake Until Bubbly: The Ultimate Casserole Book

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Some Like It Hot: Spicy Favorites from the World’s Hot Zones

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Little Foods of the Mediterranean: 500 Fabulous Recipes for Antipasti, Tapas, Hors d' Oeuvre, Meze, and More

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Real Stew: 300 Recipes for Authentic Home-Cooked Cassoulet, Gumbo, Chili, Curry, Minestrone, Bouillabaisse, Strogan

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A Mediterranean Feast: The Story of the Birth of the Celebrated Cuisines of the Mediterranean from the Merchants of

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Pizza Dough
(Bread Doughs, Short Doughs, and Batters)
pizza dough
posted: 03/13/2018

Crêpes
Crespelle
(Bread Doughs, Short Doughs, and Batters)
Classic recipe for French crêpes
posted: 03/04/2018

Braised Duck
Anatra in Umido
(Fowl)
Braised duck
posted: 01/02/2018

Sausage, Rice, and Chickpea Soup
Minestra di Salsicce, Riso, e Ceci
(Soups)
Thick soup of rice, sausage, kale, and chickpeas
posted: 12/01/2016

Snail Fritters
Beignets d'Escargot
(Antipasto, Meze, Tapas, and Hors d'Oeuvres)
Fried snail fritters
posted: 08/02/2016

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Just like what’s happening with barbecue and grilling books (and Italian cookbooks), publishers feel obliged to regularly come out with books covering the same subject over and over again. This is because it is difficult to keep books in print, and older books (with a few exceptions, like The Joy of Cooking) are simply not as marketable as newer books. That said, Wright’s collection of hot and spicy recipes from around the world [Some Like it Hot] is much like the dozens that have come before it. It is comprehensive and the recipes look like they are authentic and complete, with a lot of anecdotal information to delight the reader. ...  Anyone who can write a chapter title like “Hot Chicks, Wicked Ducks, and Killer Rabbits” gets a pat on the back from me! 
- Dave DeWitt, author of The Chile Pepper Encyclopedia; Fiery-Foods.com

“Real Stew” is a cookbook that doesn’t put on airs.  “Real Stew” is what it is–an authentic, exhaustive look at 300 recipes for stews, braises, ragouts, goulashes, chowders and the like.
- Larry Bingham, Baltimore Sun

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