Crowned the Queen of Italian Cuisine, Lidia Bastianich presides over six restaurants in three cities, multiple public television shows, a close-knit brood of children and grandchildren and a growing series of cookbooks based on travels throughout her homeland.

Bastianich appears Saturday at Miami Book Fair International on behalf of her sixth book, Lidia Cooks From the Heart of Italy (Knopf, $35), with 175 rustic recipes from lesser-known parts of the peninsula such as Molise, Liguria, Umbria, Abruzzo, Calabria, Valle d'Aosta, Le Marche, Trentino Alto Adige, Basilicata and Sardinia, including surprising dishes like meatless meatballs, apple and bean soup and chocolate biscotti pudding.

``I want to take the reader into the heart and soul of these regions,'' she says.

Gorgeous photos as well stories and history by her daughter Tanya Bastianich Manuali, who has a doctorate in Italian Renaissance art from Oxford University, add another level of depth and interest.

Bastianich came with her family to the United States in 1958 when she was 12 to escape communism in Pula, Istria, an area of northern Italy that had been given to Yugoslavia after World War II. She worked her way through school in bakeries and restaurants.

``I was very into science, biology, and wanted to be a doctor.''

Meeting fellow Istrian Felice Bastianich, whom she married in 1966, changed all that. ``He wanted to open a restaurant and I said I would help him.''

After running a tiny neighborhood eatery in Forest Hills, Queens, for nine years, they opened Felidia -- a combination of their first names -- in Manhattan in 1981, and were greeted with a rave three-star review in The New York Times.

Bastianich has done much to elevate Italian-American cooking.

``It has been called an impostor but it is not an impostor,'' she says. ``The labor of immigrants in trying to retain their culture and cuisine is honorable. It has to be given its rightful place.''

She derives inspiration from devoted readers.

``They seem to connect to the love and warmth I put in my writing. There is a huge longing for home and family at the table, and I seem to connect that for people.''

Victoria Pesce Elliott is The Herald's Miami restaurant critic.

Join the discussion

The Miami Herald is pleased to provide this opportunity to share information, experiences and observations about what's in the news. Some of the comments may be reprinted elsewhere in the site or in the newspaper. We encourage lively, open debate on the issues of the day, and ask that you refrain from profanity, hate speech, personal comments and remarks that are off point. In order to post comments, you must be a registered user of MiamiHerald.com. Your username will show along with the comments you post. Thank you for taking the time to offer your thoughts.

     Showing: Oldest first Newest first Most-recommended first Least-recommended first

@Nyx.AuthorDisplayName@ wrote on @Nyx.PostedAtTime@:

@Nyx.repliedToText@

@Nyx.replyAnswerText@

Reply to this Comment @Nyx.Recommender@ @Nyx.AbuseReporter@