VALENTINA'S ITALIAN FAMILY FEAST

Where the pictures, text, and recipes in Harris's Recipes from an Italian Farmhouse (1990) evoked a rustic paradise, this very personal effort focuses on the meals themselves: It's a re-creation in photos, recipes, and recollections of the festive celebrations- -whether Tuscan picnic or Sicilian wedding—that the author herself put on or attended in different parts of her country. As traditional as pastiera, the Neapolitan Easter cake made with soaked wheat berries (and enjoyed here after a leg of lamb); as ``baroque'' as ``the Leopard's timbale'' at a Sicilian women's dinner; as simple as a tossed green salad; or as odd (to us) as strawberry risotto, the dishes look irresistible and come boosted by Harris's equally compelling enthusiasm. (Ninety color photographs—not seen.)