briciole

chia pudding with blueberries / budino ai semi di chia con mirtilli

breakfast treat or dessert? The novel Winter Cottage by Mary Ellen Taylor is set in Cape Hudson, a coastal town in Virginia. I have never visited that part of the US, so reading descriptions of the landscape was one of the book's attractions. I also liked how the three connected stories unfolded chapter by chapter. In the present, Lucy Kincaid, still grieving for the recent death of her mother, Beth, inherits Winter Cottage and upon arriving discovers that it is actually a mansion. In a relatively recent past, Beth, then a senior in high school, interviews Mrs. Buchanan, the owner and... Read more →

Persian herb and greens frittata / frittata persiana di verdure ed erbe

green to celebrate spring (placemat by La FABBRICA del LINO) Our Cook the Books Club selection this time brings us to Ireland (Irlanda), yet the flavors are those of Iran (whose cuisine we savored also in a recent edition1). The novel Pomegranate Soup, by Marsha Mehran2 (zuppa di melograno), follows the adventures of the three Aminpour sisters, who escape from political turmoil in their native country to the UK and ultimately settle in the small Irish town of Ballinacroagh, where they open a small café serving dishes from their home country. The novel's cast include the sisters' landlady, the town's priest,... Read more →

bean, fennel and mushroom stew / stufato di fagioli, finocchi e funghi

a delicious combination of flavors (placemat by La FABBRICA del LINO) Our Cook the Books Club selection, the novel The Language of Flowers1 by Vanessa Diffenbaugh takes place in places familiar to me: San Francisco and Napa Valley. The book tells the story of young Victoria, who, after bouncing from one foster family to the next, ages out of the system and ends up homeless. The novel goes back and forth between the present and a time in the past when Victoria's foster mother was Elizabeth, a winegrower in Napa, who wanted to be a caring mother for Victoria, though the... Read more →

eggplant and yellow split pea stew / stufato di melanzane e piselli gialli decorticati

eggplant meets split peas (placemat by La FABBRICA del LINO) Our Cook the Books Club selection this time brings us to Iran, thanks to Jennifer Klinec, author of the memoir The Temporary Bride.1 The book starts with the story of Klinec's upbringing in Canada, her move to London to follow her corporate career and her decision to leave such career in favor of opening a cooking school out of her apartment. That is the background to her trip to Iran: Persian food called out to her and dissatisfaction with her life added its weight. In Iran, she meets a young man... Read more →

fruit salad with fresh dates / macedonia di frutta con datteri freschi

fruit fresh from the farmers market makes a great post-run salad (placemat by La FABBRICA del LINO) The story told by Daniel Stone in his book The Food Explorer: The True Adventures of the Globe-Trotting Botanist Who Transformed What America Eats1 is fascinating, at times riveting, and I found myself staying up late some evenings to read what would happen next. Before reading the book, I didn't know who David Fairchild was. Also, I didn't know who Frank Meyer was, though I am a great fan of the Meyer lemon, named after him; had never read the full story behind the... Read more →

tomato, cucumber and radish salad / insalata di pomodori, cetrioli e ravanelli

light, refreshing, colorful, flavorful: perfect! (placemat by La FABBRICA del LINO) Three months ago, I listened to an interview1 with science writer Christie Aschwanden2, author of the book Good To Go: What the Athlete in All of Us Can Learn from the Strange Science of Recovery3. I was so intrigued by what I heard that I purchased the book and learned a lot by reading it. While I am not a competitive athlete, I exercise regularly and a year and a half ago I started running regularly. Regardless of how far you push yourself, recovery is a fundamental component of physical... Read more →

green bean and torpedo onion salad / insalata di fagiolini e cipolla rossa di Tropea

a simple seasonal side dish with a lot of flavor (placemat by La FABBRICA del LINO, cheeseboard by BHVwoodworks1) The memoir Blood, Bones & Butter by Gabrielle Hamilton2 had been on my to-read list for a while. I had read good reviews and was intrigued by the title. Hamilton's writing and storytelling style makes for an easy reading and the events she narrates with more details are well chosen. The three parts of the title corresponds to the three parts of the book and three periods of her life: childhood-early adulthood, chef/owner of a restaurant, marriage and motherhood. My favorite part... Read more →

artichokes, fava beans and sausage / carciofi, fave e salsiccia

satisfying spring flavors (sapori di primavera) (placemat by La FABBRICA del LINO, cheeseboard by BHVwoodworks) Reading Buttermilk Graffiti1 by Edward Lee, the current selection of the Cook the Books club, was a pleasure from the first to the last page. Lee is a great storyteller: he brings the readers with him in his travels, inside every eating establishment he visits, next to every person he talks to. Together with the more factual details of his 16 stories, each centered around a place with specific food traditions, he shares doses of personal opinions, memories, experiences. Each chapter of the book ends with... Read more →

artichoke spread / paté di carciofi

creamy distillation of artichokes A recent visit to the local bookstore resulted in the purchase of the novel The Goldfinch by the American author Donna Tartt.1 Published in 2013, The Goldfinch won the 2014 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, among other honors. Distinctly Dickensian in breadth, The Goldfinch grabbed my attention from the mysterious opening pages, and soon I found myself deeply interested in the adventures of the protagonist, Theo Decker, who reminded me a lot of Pip, the protagonist of Great Expectations by Charles Dickens. The first person point of view works well in the story. The title refers to a... Read more →

popiah: fresh spring rolls with jicama / involtini primavera con patata messicana

composite flavor and texture I read Crazy Rich Asians1 by Kevin Kwan, the current selection of the Cook the Books club, in just a few days. It is a modern version of a Victorian novel set mostly in Asia, particularly the island state of Singapore. When Rachel and Nick, the protagonists, arrive in Singapore, they are greeted by Nick's bet friend, Colin, and his fiancée, Araminta. Together, they go to eat at one of Singapore's hawker centers. I have never been to Singapore, but I learned about hawker centers and the characteristics of Singaporean food thanks to the paper Lucey Bowen... Read more →