Today like yesterday, a good plate of pasta unites Italy from north to south and goes beyond national borders, earning it the title of Italians’ favorite dish.
Affairs of the Heart by Nora Ephron
Rachel Samstat, brilliant cookbook author and wife of a career journalist, sees her perfect life collapse when she discovers that her husband is cheating on her with an unsuspecting friend. But instead of letting herself be overwhelmed, Rachel turns disappointment into irony, looks back on her marriage with new eyes and finds the strength to start over. With lightness and humor, this novel tells of love, betrayal and rebirth, demonstrating that even the most painful wounds can become a comedy.
Affairs of the Heart by Nora Ephron. Feltrinelli. Price 7.60 euros.
Andrea Camilleri’s Montalbano arancini
Twenty stories follow one another with inspiration and irony, intertwining small dramas and surprising inventions in the unmistakable setting of Vigàta. Between eccentric characters and situations bordering on the absurd, a logic that is only apparently ramshackle dominates, where behind the lightness a veil of melancholy always emerges. Everything is seasoned with delicacies from Adelina, Montalbano’s historic maid, absolute queen of encased pasta.
Andrea Camilleri’s Montalbano arancini. Sellerio. Price 15.00 euros.
The Leopard by Tomasi di Lampedusa
«The burnished gold of the crust, the aroma of sugar and cinnamon». Tomasi di Lampedusa sensually describes Gattopardo’s macaroni timbale, where livers, eggs, ham, chicken and truffles mix in a warm mass of chamois-coloured pasta. A dish so seductive that it was defined by the English Telegraph as “the sexiest in the history of literature”.
The Leopard by Tomasi di Lampedusa. Feltrinelli. Price 23.75 euros.
Kitchen by Banana Yoshimoto
Mikage, left alone after her grandmother’s death, finds comfort in dreams and fantasies related to kitchens, a symbol of the family warmth she has always desired. When her friend Yūichi invites her to lunch, she imagines that that house could become, at least for a while, her family.
Kitchen by Banana Yoshimoto. Feltrinelli. 5.60 euros.
Elena Ferrante’s brilliant friend
In the quadrilogy that has won readers all over the world and inspired a highly successful TV series, food becomes much more than simple nourishment: it is a symbol of desires, memories and tensions. From Lila’s tiring work in the sausage factory, which consumes all her energy, to the forbidden fruit of the rowan, which for Lenù takes on the bitter taste of betrayal, each flavor tells of complex emotions and relationships, intertwining tastes and feelings in a novel that celebrates life in all its nuances.
Elena Ferrante’s brilliant friend. AND/OR. 21.00 euros.
Matelda walks lightly on the water by Daniela Cicchetta
Imagine Matelda, eighty-four years old, a former swimming champion, who decides to organize her birthday dinner. It will be an opportunity to reunite the family and relive the memories of an intense life, full of twists and emotions. Its story unfolds between past and present, between generations that are reconciled and new lives that are about to be born. Between dishes and conversations, food becomes the invisible thread that unites memory, affections and desires. A story capable of moving, making you think and, at the same time, warming your heart.
Matelda walks lightly on the water by Daniela Cicchetta. Mirages. 14.00 euros.
La Ciociara by Alberto Moravia
When we talk about pasta in Alberto Moravia’s Ciociaria, we don’t mean a precise recipe, but the pasta and bean dish prepared by Cesira, the peasant protagonist of the novel La Ciociara. A simple dish, linked to the rural tradition of those places, which authentically recounts the poor cuisine of the time and the daily life of a life made up of fatigue and winds of war.
Alberto Moravia’s Ciociara. Bompiani. 13.00 euros.
Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert
After three years marked by the pain of a bitter divorce and a love affair that ended badly, Elizabeth feels it’s time to move on. He leaves New York and all its certainties to embark on a journey of self-discovery between Rome, India and Bali. Between pasta dishes, pizza, meditation and new friendships, Liz rediscovers the joy of living, the strength to start over and the possibility of loving again. In this diary-confession, Elizabeth Gilbert recounts her path of personal and feminine growth, an invitation to follow your heart and seek your own happiness, step by step.
Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert. Rizzoli. 13.50 euros.
Spaghetti all’assassina by Gabriella Genisi
In Bari, in the famous restaurant where spaghetti all’Assassina was born, chef Colino Stramaglia was found murdered. Behind the crime are hidden passions, rivalries and secrets from the world of haute cuisine, between an Algerian chef, a Brazilian stripper and a sinister-looking headwaiter. Inspector Lolita Lobosco investigates, and between love and delicious dishes she will have to navigate a Mediterranean noir full of mystery and twists.
Spaghetti all’assassina by Gabriella Genisi. Marsilio. 10.00 euros.
Immoral recipes by Manuel Vàsquez Montalban
In the words of the author, in this book spaghetti alla checca is: «a dish full of freshness and aggression, like exciting bites on the palate. Delicious summer dish to eat with little clothing on. One of those delicacies that humans can eat in a swimsuit without even a tank top.”
Immoral recipes by Manuel Vàsquez Montalban. Feltrinelli. 8.55 euros.
