Sicily

Melissa Fasulo Muller is the chef of two restaurants in New York City and has been featured in the New York Times, Saveur, and La Repubblica, as well as on the Food Network, Martha Stewart Radio, and Mike Colameco s Real Food on PBS. Muller divides her time between New York and Sicily, where she cultivates her own orchards and farm.

“Melissa shares her lifelong passion for Sicilian food, through firsthand narrative loaded with recipes and beautiful photographs, giving us an insider’s view of this magical island.”—Mike Colameco, host of Mike Colameco’s Real Food  “Melissa’s book is like poetry to me. Her attachment and sense of belonging to her land and its heritage is palpable in every paragraph, captured in each picture, and summed up in a beautiful and delicious story. We share that bittersweet melancholy for our Italian land that is at the origin of our passionate work: being able to tell these stories is a privilege and an honor, and Melissa has done an impeccable job at it.”—Gabriele Corcos, New York Times bestselling coauthor of Extra Virgin: Recipes and Love from Our Tuscan Kitchen  “Just about everything I’ve come to know and love about Sicilian food, wine, history, and culture is thanks to Melissa Muller. Now, with this captivating book, Melissa can share her ardor and wisdom about Sicily with the wider world of readers, cooks, and diners. Sicily: The Cookbook is a definitive work of culinary brilliance, family lore, and narrative writing. It announces the arrival of a new generation’s M.F.K. Fisher or Alice Waters.”—Samuel G. Freedman, author of Letters to a Young Journalist and professor at Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism"Sicily is a center of fusion cuisine — spicing traditional Italian recipes with flair from elsewhere in the Mediterranean. Here Melissa Muller funnels summers spent visiting her grandparents on the island into recipes for antipasti, fish, meat and dessert in language even novice cooks can understand. It feels like learning family recipes in her grandparents’ kitchen. Her text also offers tips on finding great produce and attending festivals if you plan to visit."—Metrosource NY"If I could give 100 points to a tomato sauce, I would give it to Feudo Montoni. Call me the Tomato Advocate. Fabio Sireci gives the estate its wine identity, and Melissa Muller its food identity (check out her beautiful book "Sicily: The Cookbook: Recipes Rooted in Traditions"). The Montoni farm has grapevines, grains, legumes, and vegetables. It makes pasta and the best tomato products I have ever tasted, such as sugo from crushed tomatoes, passata and tomato concentrate or paste. I got my hands on a few jars of their tomato sauce, and I can still taste it in my mind. Happily, I am reminded of that perfection every time I have the opportunity to taste these meticulous and beautifully crafted wines." —Robert Parker