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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

jump to Recipe 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... 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

jump to Recipe 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,... 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

jump to Recipe 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... 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

jump to Recipe 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... Read more →

date energy bites / bocconcini ai datteri

jump to Recipe simple ingredients rolled into energy bites (bar board and coaster by BHV Woodworks, napkin by La FABBRICA del LINO) After reading Laurie King's Garment of Shadows, 12th of the Mary Russell novels, I decided to read the first: The Beekper's Apprentice, originally published in 1994. A 20th anniversary edition was issued in 2014 with a new introduction by the author and that is the volume I read. The novel is narrated in first person by Mary Russell a young woman who meets semi-retired Sherlock Holmes while roaming the English countryside—in Sussex, where he is living with Mrs. Hudson—and... Read more →

Announcing Novel Food #39

Spring is steadily moving towards summer in the Northern Hemisphere, which means it is time to launch a new edition of the culinary/literary event Novel Food, the 39th to be precise. Novel Food is a voyage of literary discovery and a delightful party featuring literary-inspired dishes contributed by event's participants. I hope you will join. I am looking forward to learning about a published literary work (a novel, novella, short story, memoir, bio, poem, etc.) that provided you with culinary inspiration. Here are the simple rules for participating in Novel Food: Prepare a dish of your choosing that has a connection... Read more →

carrot, radish and turnip salad with microgreens / insalata di carote, ravanelli, rape e micro verdure

jump to Recipe pretty salad for one Hippie Food by Jonathan Kauffman1, our current Cook the Books Club selection, offers a wide historical view of nutrition in recent decades, with a particular focus on foods that moved from being consumed by a relatively small number of people to becoming mainstream. Each chapter introduces a varied cast of characters each of whom has contributed one or more threads to the complex tapestry Kauffman weaves as he describe the evolution of eating habits from the 1960's to the present. As with a previous Cook the Books selection, The Food Explorer by Daniel Stone,... Read more →