Risotto With Nettles

Risotto With Nettles

A Memoir with Food

Summary

A wonderful, evocative memoir by the woman who first brought Italian cooking to Britain and fuelled a culinary revolution.

'Anyone who cooks should have Anna's books, it is the simple truth' Nigella Lawson


Born in Milan, Anna del Conte grew up in Italy in a gentler time. When war came to Italy everything changed: her family had to abandon their apartment and the city for the countryside, where 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. Her story is informed and enlivened by the food and memories of her native land - from lemon granita to wartime risotto with nettles, from vitello tonnato to horsemeat roll, from pastas to porcini.

Anna arrived in England in 1949 to a culinary wasteland. She married an Englishman and stayed on, and while bringing up her children, she wrote books which inspired a new generation of cooks. This is a memoir of a life seen through food - each chapter rounded off with mouthwatering recipes.

Reviews

  • Anyone who cooks should have Anna's books, it is the simple truth, along with the fact that she is, I'm telling you the best writer on Italian food there is...Anna Del Conte is unutterably chic and to be relished
    Nigella, Observer Food Monthly

About the author

Anna Del Conte

Anna Del Conte is the doyenne of Italian cookery. Her books include the acclaimed Portrait of Pasta, Gastronomy of Italy and Amaretto, Apple Cake and Artichokes. She won the Duchessa Maria Luigia di Parma award for Gastronomy of Italy, and has won awards from the Guild of Food Writers and the Academia Italiana della Cucina. In 2010 Anna received from the president of the Italian Republic the honour of Ufficiale Ordine al Merito della Repubblica italiana in recognition of the work she does for Italy and Italian food in this country. In 2011 Nigella Lawson presented her with the Lifetime Achievement Award of the Guild of Food Writers. She lives in Dorset.
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