"In other markets, on other shores, the unfamiliar fishes may be vivid, mysterious, repellant, fascinating and bright with
splendid color; only in Venice do they look good enough to eat. In Venice even ordinary sole and ugly great skate are striped with delicate lilac lights, the sardines shine like newly-minted silver coins, pink Venetian scampi are fat and fresh, infinitely enticing in the early dawn." — Elizabeth David, “Italian Food,” 1954.

Elizabeth David was one of the first food critics to explore the full range of Italy's regional cooking. The foods of Italy, she reported in vivid prose, reached far beyond the simple pleasures of minestrone and ravioli to complex traditions in Tuscany, Sicily, Lombardy, Umbria, and many other regions:
Italian Food (Penguin Classics) by Elizabeth David, foreword by Julia Child (Amazon).