When Iranian creator and food photographer Saghar Setareh moved to Italy on the age of 22, she used to be enchanted by the wealthy food culture of her adopted country, and this inspired a curiosity within the cuisine of her native land and the surrounding countries of the Levant and Eastern Mediterranean.
Pomegranates and Artichokes is the story of Saghar’s own culinary journey from Iran to Italy, during which she describes the many parallels that link Middle Eastern and Mediterranean food cultures, and shows how ingredients and recipes–unconstrained by borders–are shared and transformed in the course of the immigrant experience.Divided into three sections representing stops on Saghar’s culinary “road travel”–Iran, In Between, and Italy–this book features more than 80 recipes celebrating the foods of these regions. A few of the highlights are a simple Iranian breakfast platter, a celebratory Persian feast, Sicilian-style stuffed artichokes, guinea hen braised with pomegranate, sweet–sour meatballs from Aleppo, a Roman ricotta and wild cherry pie, and a velvety Middle Eastern milk pudding.
Illustrated with Saghar’s own beautiful photography and peppered with personal insights and experiences,
Pomegranates and Artichokes tells the story of two food cultures, and the delicious space in between.
