How did it get to my turn so quick?
Without thinking too much I will just pick something. I seem to remember a cooking category, one that I thought I would be certain to have to trade away.
However, a friend just returned a book to me. I will use that, I think it fits.
It is written by a chef, it has recipes, it describes food and meals very well. Umm, it just also happens to have more to it than just food, but when we are talking about Tuscany and Tuscans; doesn't all start or revolve around the kitchen and food/wine?
So with no more ado, I select Marlena De Blasi's
1000 Days In Tuscany.
I read this book just after returning from a trip to Tuscany and Umbria. On that trip I tried to taste the prominent foods of each region even town or village. During planning for the trip, I listed specific foods or dishes that I would search out and sample, things that the area were famous for.
That certainly was fun, but also led to some awful meals too. We camped near the Piano Grande in Umbria, and had purchased a special cheese and boar sausage in a small town. The campground was far from any store or restaurant, and sadly we found the dish we created with this food pretty much inedible.
Anyway this book really brings home the Tuscan cooking, flavored with wonderful stories from the locals the author meets. Seems to be a story for every food, dish and wine. I warned the person to whom I loaned the book, "Do not read on empty stomach!"
One short passage described an old woman simply roasting a potato with no more than salt and oil, and an open flame. I nearly drooled reading it.
The whole tone of the book, with the author up rooting herself to move to an old farmhouse in Tuscany, resonates with me. It is something I long to do. I would hope in that future time that I too, will manage to befriend the locals as she did. She fills the book with descriptions of shared meals. The preparation, thought and history that goes into the meals and occasions for those meals; provide the reader with a rich and rewarding experience.
More than just salivation and recipes, I recieved from reading this book a measure of the warmth the author felt in that small town. The stories of terrible deprivation during the war years that some share with her, really contrast with the wonderful meals they share with her now. Perhaps that is the reason Tuscans celebrate the shared meal so much, in remembrance of harder times.
I need to go roast a potato...and buy the good olive oil!