Finding Valentino

Book excerpt: Angela Di Sciascio's father can no longer describe his past, lost in a world ravaged by Alzheimer's disease. Deciding not to let his story fade, Angela embarks on a voyage that takes her through four seasons in her father's Italy, reconnecting to her ancestry and absorbing all of its chaos, beauty and style. Meal by meal at her father's family table and step by step through the Italian countryside, she slowly comes to understand the young Valentino who left for the new world. Along the way, she discovers the simple pleasures of rustic polenta high in the mountains, pesto on the Ligurian coast and shares melt-in-your-mouth ragù with friends inla boisterous Rome. But she is always drawn back to the small hamlet tucked in the embrace of the Abruzzo mountains and the cuisine that feeds her soul, sharing with us her family's traditional recipes, as well as the joy of finding her father's home.