Risotto with Nettles

Anna Del Conte brought Italian cooking to Britain at a time when the nearest most of us came to pasta was a tinned spaghetti hoop. Sharply observant, evocative, full of tastes and talk of food, hers is a delicious, poignant memoir of an unusual life and the food she loves to cook, which launched a culinary revolution. Born in Milan, she grew up in pre-war Italy in a privileged gentler time. These are memories of a life seen through food, starting with a childhood in training (though she didn't know it), to be a food writer. When war came to Italy everything changed violently. Her family had to abandon their apartment and the city for the countryside, where in war-torn Italy the peasants still ate well, but life was dangerous...As a teenager, Anna became used to throwing herself into a ditch as the strafing planes flew over, and was imprisoned, twice. But England made her too: she arrived here in 1949 when much of Britain was a culinary wasteland, married an Englishman and stayed on...Her memories of the time are vividly, hilarious preserved - from the joys of un-rationed horse meat to tomato soup at Lyons Corner House. While bringing up her children, she wrote books which inspired a new generation of cooks. Her story is informed and enlivened by the food and memories of her native Italy - from lemon granita in childhood winters to wartime risotto with nettles, from vitello tonnato to horsemeat roll, from pastas to porcini - each chapter rounded off with mouthwatering recipes.

ISBN 0701180986   Pages 336 ISBN13 9780701180980 (What's this?)   Weight (grammes) 432 Publisher Vintage   Published in London Imprint Chatto & Windus   Height (mm) 202 Format Hardback   Width (mm) 140 Publication date 30 Jul 2009   Spine width (mm) 28 DEWEY 641.5092   Academic level General DEWEY edition DC22

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