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Hollister author Lauretta Avina tells the story of her coming to America from Lucca, a town in the Tuscany region of Italy, and her search for her culinary roots, in her latest book, Tuscany with Love: Recipes and Remembrances of an Immigrant Child. Published in January by Hollister’s MSI Press, Avina’s book has already garnered a place on Amazon’s Hot New Releases list.
“I talk about the challenges I faced as an eight-year-old coming to a new country,” Avina said. “It’s my memoir, but it’s told through different recipes, each with its unique story. That approach helped me better share my culture through cooking.”
At first, Avina said, she thought nobody would be interested in her life story, thinking, “Who’s going to want to read about me?” But after drafting a short memoir, she settled on a way of telling her story that she thought would be engaging.
“I was just barely starting third grade,” she said, “but I was already being beaten up over being an immigrant. Having it constantly pointed out that you’re different and don’t belong here added to the feeling of isolation.”
Avina said that writing the book helped her overcome the lingering emotions attached to feeling unwelcome. The breakthrough, she said, was when she traveled back to Italy to show her husband John Avina where she had grown up, bringing back her sense of pride in her heritage.
“In this book,” she said, “I write about the people who helped me overcome the problems I had, who the recipes reminded me of, and how the food made me feel.”
Avina said she was not a natural cook growing up, knowing how to bake but not much else. She began to hone her cooking skills earnestly when she married John. Without formal training, she relied on phone calls to her mother to point her in the right direction. She said it took a year of trial and error before she felt confident, but even now, she still uses her mother as a living cookbook.
“I am not by any means a perfect chef,” she said, “Just last Friday, I wanted to make a fried dough, and I called her—‘OK, mom, help me remember.’ And she told me, ‘Don’t forget to do this and don’t forget to do that.’”
Avina first mastered a simple spaghetti sauce recipe, similar to the one at the end of this article, and Lasagna alla Lucchese, a dish she prepared for me to try during our interview.
“This is how we make it at home.,’’ she said, “It uses bechamel sauce instead of ricotta— it’s called ‘salsa di colla’ or ‘glue sauce’ because it binds together things like vegetables. I love the creaminess it adds and the way it blends with the red sauce.”
Never having been a fan of ricotta, I found the bechamel to work very well. It smoothed out and highlighted the tomatoes, which had been cooked down to a rich, almost sundried intensity. Her homemade pasta was thin and tender, keeping the dish more about the simple flavors of the sauce. It’s a perfect lasagna.
Avina’s first cookbook, Ricette Del Mio Paese—Recipes From My Country—was published in 2011 as a way to help fund a scholarship in memory of her sister, Franca Barsi, a victim of domestic violence.
“I thought. ‘I’m going to put this book together, and we’ll see how it does,’” she said. “It wasn’t professional or anything. Once I’d paid off the publisher, I want to say I probably made $400 profit, which is better than nothing, right?”
Meeting Dr. Betty Lou Leaver, managing editor of MSI Press, provided a turning point in her literary ambitions. MSI was founded in 2003 by Leaver and her husband, Carl Leaver, as an adjunct to the Coalition of Distinguished Language Centers.
In 2012, the Hollister-based publisher expanded into areas beyond foreign language books, including the creation of San Juan Books, which helps first time authors get published.
“She looked at my self-published book,” Avina said, “and she told me it would be cool to add more culture to the book—and if I did, she would publish it. It planted that seed about talking about my coming to this country.”
Avina tinkered with the text, integrating her own story while digging into the history of Italy and its food, the unlikely influence of the French, and how the regions differed. Dissatisfied with her work, she rewrote her manuscript five or six times and even considered hiring a ghostwriter to help.
“She was a great writer and a nice person,” Avina said, “but I didn’t feel like she understood what I was trying to get at. Dr. Leaver looked at my work and gave me some ideas and suggestions, which helped me move forward.”
Avina said that writing the book helped her become more aware of the experiences of her youth, and allowed her to accept its difficulties.
“There were times I cried a lot,” she said. “My husband would come over, and he’d hug me and tell me it’s going to be okay. But some of them were happy tears, thinking of people who are gone and places that are no longer there.”
Avina said one of the hardest parts of writing the book was translating the recipes she had learned from her family to the weights and measures needed for others to reproduce them. Finding the words to express her love of her heritage was even harder.
“I hope when people read this,” she said, “they find my joy of cooking. And find the joy of cooking for their friends, bringing people together at the table like a communion. That’s what I hope.”
When asked for her simplest recipe, Avina recited one for Poorman’s Pasta, a dish made with garlic, olive oil, red pepper flakes (optional) and pasta. The steps begin with boiling the pasta and sauteeing the garlic in olive oil.
“You start when the pasta’s almost done,” she said, “because garlic cooks fast, and you don’t want to burn it. You use lots of olive oil and lots of garlic. When the pasta’s done, strain it and add it to the pan. You mix it in, add lots of Parmesan cheese, and just stir, stir, stir, stir, stir. Then serve it on a plate.”
Avina also shared her recipe for Pomarola, which she said is her “go-to and favorite summertime pasta sauce.”
“I use the tomatoes from my husband’s garden,” she said. “Beefy tomatoes work best, rather than really juice ones; I like San Marzano, Roma tomatoes, or Fiorentini.”
The recipe:
- 8 tomatoes diced (or more; it’s good to have leftover sauce).
- A bunch of fresh basil leaves (as-is or chopped).
- Salt to taste
- Olive oil to taste. (I usually start with about 3 tablespoons)
- 1 lb of pasta
Place a medium-to-large skillet on the burner and drizzle in the olive oil. Let it warm a bit, then add the diced tomatoes, basil and salt. Allow all of your ingredients to simmer for about 30 minutes.
Once your sauce is cooked, you can do a couple of things. You can pour it over your cooked pasta as is, with chunks of tomatoes and basil, or you can use something like a Baby Bullet to blend the sauce. I like to use what we call a “passatutto” or “passaverdura,” which is similar to a potato ricer.
Either way, you will want to add freshly grated parmesan cheese to your taste. I like a lot of it. Toss the pasta to coat it all well and serve.
Another option, if you blend it, is to add about 1/3 to 1/4 cup of heavy whipping cream, blend it in the sauce and then dress your pasta. You can also add this sauce to soups for an extra zing.
“It’s simple yet so flavorful,” Avina said, “and that is one of the beauties and secrets of Italian cooking: simple recipes using fresh ingredients. It’s common for me to make some Pomarola around lunchtime. I relish those moments, enjoying each other’s company and basking in our blessings.”
Tuscany with Love: Recipes and Remembrances of an Immigrant Child by Lauretta Avina (ISBN 9781957354637) is available through MSI Press, Amazon and Barnes and Noble.
Recommendations for future Eat, Drink, Savor articles can be emailed to roberteliason@benitolink.com.
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