Two Kitchens

Book excerpt: 'YOU'LL WANT TO COOK IT ALL' - Evening Standard 'Rachel Roddy's writing is as absorbing as any novel. Her prose is so elegant and her story-telling so compelling that I almost forgot I was reading a cookbook.' - Russell Norman, Polpo ------------------ From the award-winning weekly Guardian Cook columnist and winner of the André Simon and Guild of Food Writers' Awards comes an Italian food book of sumptuous recipes, flavours and stories from Sicily and Rome. For the last twelve years, food-writer, cook and photographer Rachel Roddy has immersed herself in the culture of Roman cooking, but it was the flavours of the south that she and her Sicilian partner, Vincenzo, often craved. Eventually the chance arose to spend more time at his old family house in south-east Sicily, where Rachel embraced the country's traditional recipes and the stories behind them. In Two Kitchens Rachel celebrates the food and flavours of Rome and Sicily and shares over 120 of these simple, everyday dishes from her two distant but connected kitchens. From tomato and salted ricotta salad, caponata and baked Sicilian pasta to lemon crumble, honeyed peaches and almond and chocolate cake, they are the authentic Italian recipes that you will want to cook again and again until you've made them your own. 'This is a recipe book that reflects the way I cook and eat: uncomplicated, direct and adaptable Italian family food that reflects the season. The two kitchens of the title are my kitchens in Rome and Sicily. In a sense, though, we could have called the book "many kitchens" as I invite you to make these recipes your own.' Rachel Roddy Two Kitchens chapters: Vegetables and Herbs - Tomatoes; Aubergines; Peas; Broad Beans; Cauliflower; Potatoes; Onions; Herbs Fruit and Nuts - Lemons; Peaches; Oranges; Grapes and Figs; Almonds Meat, Fish and Dairy - Beef and pork; Chicken; White fish; Fresh anchovies and sardines; Eggs; Ricotta Storecupboard - Chickpeas; Lentils; Preserved anchovies; Flour; Bread Rachel's first book, Five Quarters: Recipes and Notes from a Kitchen in Rome, won the André Simon Food Book Award and the Guild of Food Writers' First Book Award in 2015.