Bitter Almonds : Recollections and Recipes from a Sicilian Girlhood Book

Bitter Almonds is the true story of a woman's extraordinary courage, and a gift from the past of an almost-lost tradition. At the heart of the book are forty-six recipes, written down for the first time, of unique Sicilian specialties. In the early 1950s, Maria Grammatico and her sister were sent by their widowed, impoverished mother to a cloistered orphanage run by an order of lay Franciscan nuns in Erice, a mountaintop town on the western coast of Sicily. It was a spare, harsh existence, but here Maria learned to prepare the beautifully handcrafted pastries that were sold to customers outside the convent walls. This book is a tribute to Sicily, a record of a unique and vanishing craft, and a witness to the endurance and the ultimate triumph of a Sicilian life.

This combination of recollections and cookbook is an inspiring story of triumph over adversity. Raised in an orphanage, Maria left at age 22 with nothing but the centuries-old secrets of the orphanage's divine pastries. Maria presents these one-of-a-kind treats in 50 delicious recipes. 8 pages of color photos.