Risotto With Nettles: A Memoir with Food

by Anna Del Conte (Author)

• Used

  Paperback
  2010

  $3.25

  *As featured in a BBC documentary* 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.

• Used

  Hardcover
  2009

  $5.75

  Anna Del Conte brought Italian cooking to Britain at a time when the nearest most of us came to pasta was a tinned spaghetti hoop. Sharply observant, evocative, full of tastes and talk of food, hers is a delicious, poignant memoir of an unusual life and the food she loves to cook, which launched a culinary revolution. Born in Milan, she grew up in pre-war Italy in a privileged gentler time. These are memories of a life seen through food, starting with a childhood in training (though she didn't know it), to be a food writer. When war came to Italy everything changed violently. Her family had to abandon their apartment and the city for the countryside, where in war-torn Italy 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. But England made her too: she arrived here in 1949 when much of Britain was a culinary wasteland, married an Englishman and stayed on...Her memories of the time are vividly, hilarious preserved - from the joys of un-rationed horse meat to tomato soup at Lyons Corner House. While bringing up her children, she wrote books which inspired a new generation of cooks. Her story is informed and enlivened by the food and memories of her native Italy - from lemon granita in childhood winters to wartime risotto with nettles, from vitello tonnato to horsemeat roll, from pastas to porcini - each chapter rounded off with mouthwatering recipes.

• New

  Paperback
  2010

  $12.47

  *As featured in a BBC documentary* 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.