briciole

vegetable and quinoa salad / insalata di verdure e quinoa

[cliccare il link per andare alla versione in italiano] ingredients ready to be turned into a salad (placemat by La FABBRICA del LINO) Last summer I started taking photos of produce I brought back from the farmers' market. I enjoy letting fresh vegetables take center stage before they are transformed into dishes. Some of you will wonder: What about the quinoa? It comes from a local farm too.1 Lake Llanquihue and Osorno in the background (image taken outside Puerto Varas, Chile) One of my last restaurant meals before the pandemic changed our lives was in a delightful place called El Humedal2... Read more →

romanesco broccoli soup / zuppa di broccolo romanesco

comfort soup for winter evenings (placemat by La FABBRICA del LINO) Our current Cook the Books Club selection is Eat Joy: Stories & Comfort Food From 31 Celebrated Writers, edited by Natalie Eve Garrett 1, a collection of short pieces focused on food memories, some joyful, some painful, all interesting. Each writer shares a moment or an aspect of their life, describes the food associated with it and provides the recipe. It is a pleasant read, a reminder of our deep connection with food which crosses nationalities and cultures and brings us together as humans. In the years I have been... Read more →

honeynut squash, blue cheese and walnut bites / bocconcini di zucca, formaggio erborinato e noci

Appetizer in progress (placemat by La FABBRICA del LINO) Our current Cook the Books Club selection is the novel The Secret, Book and Scone Society by Ellery Adams1, a mystery that revolves mainly around a bookstore (libreria). The bookstore's owner, Nora, having once been healed by books, has chosen to do the same with other people. Besides Nora, the society of the title includes three other women, quite different from each other, each with a secret, a story she will at some point share. One of them is a baker with a special gift of baking 'personalized' scones, which evoke intense... Read more →

Novel Food #40: the finale (readings and recipes)

I am proud to present the roundup of the 40th edition of Novel Food. I repeat that number to myself: 40th! I have been hosting the event for 13 years and it's been a constant pleasure. Particularly in a year like this, I like to pause to contemplate small successes. I am happy to celebrate this important milestone with a group of book-loving food bloggers, who have contributed posts to the event. Each post describes a work of written words and the dish that the reading inspired. You are invited to join me on a literary/culinary tour. For each contribution, I... Read more →

tromboncino squash soup / zuppa di zucchetta

creamy delight (placemat by La FABBRICA del LINO) In the year of COVID, in the summer (and now fall) of fires, I am clinging to cooking and reading to keep my balance. Among my to-read books, I recently chose a novel by the late Swedish author Henning Mankell (without Kurt Wallander2 as protagonist): The Man from Beijing.1 The book opens with a horrific mass murder in a remote Swedish village. Judge Birgitta Roslin, who is connected to some of the victims, gets involved the case, whose roots go back in time and space to the construction of the Pacific Railroad, which... Read more →

Announcing Novel Food #40

Summer is quickly moving to fall in the Northern Hemisphere, which means it is time to launch a new edition of the culinary/literary event Novel Food, the 40th to be precise. Novel Food is a voyage of literary discovery and a party featuring literary-inspired dishes contributed by event's participants. This is the 13th anniversary edition: this is a hard year for the world and for California right now it is even more so. Still, I think it is important to focus on the small joys of daily life and certainly reading and cooking have been a comfort to me in the... Read more →

roasted eggplant, zucchini and tomatoes / melanzane, zucchine e pomodori in teglia

farm fresh and fabulous (placemat by La FABBRICA del LINO) Our current Cook the Books Club selection is Recipe for a Perfect Wife by Karma Brown1, a novel that follows the stories of two women, Alice and Eleanor (Nellie). In 2018, Alice and her husband, Nate, move from Manhattan to a house in a town outside New York sold because the previous owner had died. In the basement, Alice finds a cookbook and a box of old magazines. Her neighbor, Sally, tells her a bit about Eleanor, who lived in the house from the mid-1950's until her death, and gives Alice... Read more →

konjac noodles and kelp noodles with greens and mushrooms / pasta di konjac e pasta di alghe con verdure a foglia verde e funghi

a bowl of great flavors (napkin by La FABBRICA del LINO) Our Cook the Books Club selection this time brings us to China (Cina) with the novel Kitchen Chinese by Ann Mah1, which follows the adventures of the two Lee sisters in Beijing (Pechino). Born and raised in New Jersey, the sisters follow different careers: Claire becomes a lawyer and moves to the Chinese capital to work for a prestigious firm, while Isabelle works as a fact-checker at a magazine in New York and wants to be a writer. Isabelle loses her job in a bad way and her boyfriend ends... Read more →

Novel Food #39: the finale (readings and recipes)

You certainly don't need me to add to the myriad stories about the pandemic we are experiencing, so while I acknowledge it and its consequences on all aspects of our life, here I would like to create a small corner of relief from the intense pressure. While different for each of us in content, such pressure is a reality for all of us. One element that has helped me cope with the situation has been the continuing ability to shop at our farmers' markets, to support our farmers and to bring to my kitchen season's produce. The other has been access... Read more →

summer side dish: zucchini, carrots and tomatoes / contorno estivo: zucchine, carote e pomodorini

summer on the plate (napkin by La FABBRICA del LINO) The Twenty-Seventh Letter of the Alphabet by Kim Adrian1 is the most engrossing memoir I have ever read and one I heartily recommend. The writing is delicate and evocative. The author tells her difficult, often deeply painful, story through vignettes organized in glossary format. The vignettes work like pieces of a puzzle: as the book proceeds, the reader reconstructs the lives of the main characters—the author, her parents and her sister. Adrian's husband and children also play an important role, one of hope, as we see that she has been able... Read more →