Nancy Harmon Jenkins has been in love with Italy for more than 30 years and has written extensively about the country's cuisines. Now, in Cucina del Sole, she turns her cook's and writer's eye to the magnificent region from Naples to Italy's heel and toe and across the straits to Sicily, an area still untouched by tourism and with dazzling culinary traditions quite different from those of Tuscany and northern Italy. In addition to a wealth of recipes Jenkins has included capsule portraits of local features: a fish market, an olive press, a bakery, a shepherd cheese-maker, and others. She describes local folklore and traditions, and explains what makes the food of southern Italy a very special world of its own. Here, too, are recipes for both familiar and unusual dishes.