There’s no better time to cook Italian food than in summer, when you can get the right ingredients at their very best. We were given both these cookbooks – one by the grand dame of Italian cooking, the other by a relative newcomer, an Englishman to boot – about two weeks ago and haven’t stopped cooking from them since.
Anna Del Conte is one of the best known and best writers on Italian food in the world, and has written twelve books on the subject. This one, Italian Kitchen, brings together the recipes from four of her classic books (and dishes from all over Italy) into one beautifully photographed (by the brilliant Jason Lowe) bible of a book. Here you’ll find her famous risottto with lemon recipe, and our favourite summer risotto dish, risotto with tomatoes, alongside classics like pesto and bolognese, bruschetta, and chocolate and pear cake. There are also more unusual recipes, like the one we cooked last night and loved, farfalle and courgettes with a pistachio and basil sauce. A fabulous, all-round book that you’ll use over and over again.
Russell Norman has become well known in London for his Ventian bàcari, Polpo, Polpetto, Spuntino, which serve delicious Venetian food (not so easy to find in Venice itself) in settings that manage to be informal, relaxed and glamorous. We love going to Polpo in particular, but because none of Norman’s restaurants take dinner reservations, it can sometimes make for a long evening of drinking at the bar while you wait for a table, then eating too many of the tempting dishes – no bad thing but not something we can do too often these days. So we’re thrilled that we can now make Polpo’s food at home. This book, Polpo, A Venetian Cookbook (Of Sorts) is one of the most beautiful cookbooks we’ve ever seen, bound like a series of Venetian papers, with wonderful photographs. Best of all: the recipes actually work and are pretty straightforward to execute. We made the pork belly, radicchio and hazelnuts, one of the restaurant’s signature dishes, the other night and it was quick and easy to do and fabulous to eat. The grilled zucchini salad (with rocket, chill and breadcrumbs) has also become a firm favourite as have the pork & beef polpette. But there are so many tempting things to cook and eat in this book, all inspired by the food the Venetians eat in Venice, rather than the appalling fare served up to tourists. Even if you’re not a cook, it’s worth getting this book if you are thinking of visiting Venice because the final chapter is an indispensable guide to Norman’s favourite restaurants, bàcari and wine bars in Venice, all of them tucked away in back streets and otherwise hard to find.
