Carmela's Cucina Povera

Carmela D’Amore, explores her Sicilian heritage and finds her

true cultural identity through the Italian cooking style

of Cucina Povera.

Readers are taken on her journey of self-discovery and

acceptance, as she remembers and recreates her beloved

family recipes from generations past.

Carmela revisits her teenage years as a Sicilian Australian

growing up in Melbourne’s South Eastern suburbs and the

struggles she faced, straddling two very different cultures.

She shares the emotional journey she undertook

to reconnect with her cultural origins and embrace

her Australian identity.

She finds inner joy and peace, revisiting childhood

memories, good and bad, and reigniting the flame of

her Sicilian culture.

In the book, Carmela comes face to face with many of

the struggles she encountered navigating a clash of

cultures and the intergenerational challenges within

her own close-knit family.

In her journey to understand and embrace Australian life,

Carmela illustrates how she became comfortable in her

Sicilian and Australian ‘skins’, to embrace her new

cultural identity that remembers the past and has a future

rich with possibility and potential.

Bringing over 40 years’ expertise with the Sicilian cooking

technique of Cucina Povera to Carmela’s Cucina Povera,

she has placed her own, modern twist on Cucina Povera

recipes which she has masterfully recreated –

and she shows a generosity in sharing over

75 soulful recipes with readers.