Italian Food Library

I discovered the huge and luxurious cookery book section at the library! Joy! Aren’t libraries brilliant. But you have to be careful not to get food on them so I am mostly just reading them and writing down ideas. So far I have borrowed:

Two Kitchens: Family Recipes from Sicily and Rome by Rachel Roddy

An evocatively writtten cookbook with simple, delicious recipes, mostly Sicilian. It is arranged by ingredients which is brilliant. All the aubergine recipes are together, all the tomato, all the lemon etc.

Made at Home by Giorgio Locatelli

Good for ideas but some obscure ingredients! This one is a bit more cheffy. 

Tomorrow I am doing an Italian food selection to enjoy with beer. Recipes from Polpo by Russell Norman, a Venetian cookbook.

To include: carta de musica semolina flatbreads. Tinned artichokes wrapped in speck or parma ham. Chickpea and anchovy paste on bruschetta and goat cheese, grapes, walnuts and honey also on bruschetta.

Leftover ingredients to reappear on pizza, for my lunches or in mezze later in the week.

I recommend spending a long time cooking one particular cuisine, to really get a feel for it. Year of Italian is a good choice as the food is simple, delicious and healthy.