A roasted eggplant salad from the summer cooking classes
A roasted eggplant salad from the summer cooking classes
Plus the dates for our Fall Cook Alongs and Live Events
If you stroll through my Italian provincial town these days, you’ll spot a sign that keeps repeating on every café, restaurant door, or shop window: chiuso per ferie, closed for the holidays.
The second half of August is when most of the Italians take their holidays, fleeting from the heat when possible, leaving their cities and hometowns to hoards of tourists. It might be quite difficult for those holidaying now—try booking a restaurant, for example, or forget your favorite sourdough bread for while—but I’ve always felt it liberating, stripped to the bare essentials, enjoying the suddenly empty town.
This year, though, I’ll behave like a cliché Italian, opting for a week of staycation—and during this week we will also celebrate Livia’s fourth birthday—and a week of holidays in Salento.
I need to fill my cup again after a draining summer, to be back for good before the new season of cooking classes begins.
I need to stop and recharge my batteries with inspiring books—I just began The Artist’s Way, by Julia Cameron—, a couple of good meals in new restaurants, and some family time in Salento. Can you believe that the last time we were in Salento in the summer was in 2022? Livia wasn’t even two years old, and I want her to experience also the summer side of our home away from home. Plus, I need to restock my pantry with all the goodies I always buy at the Porto Cesareo market.
We’ll be back on Wednesday, September 11th with a new story about our Salento trip, and with an updated thick list of our favorite addresses. A recipe for my dairy free choux pastries with oat milk pastry cream will follow. Before we go, though, I’m leaving you with some precious information.
Scroll the whole email for a walk down memory lane—which is, I’ll show you how to browse the archive of this newsletter for juicy, delicious, seasonal recipes—, an anticipation of the dates of our Fall Cook Alongs and Live Events till December, and a favorite recipe from the summer cooking classes, a roasted eggplant salad (paywalled).
See you in September! In the meantime, enjoy good food, take care, and have fun!
From the archive. Do you know there’s an archive to browse?
I know most of you receive this newsletter via email, but do you know that here on Substack there’s a whole archive of more than 3 years of recipes and stories to browse online? That’s one of the main reasons why we moved to Substack in January 2021, to keep all the past newsletters accessible and searchable.
For example, during the next weeks, you could read all about our visit to a Parmigiano Reggiano dairy farm, bake a green tomato tart or a caprese cake, an accidentally gluten-free almond chocolate cake, or prepare Stanley Tucci's cod recipe that moved Robert Downey Jr. to tears.
Another hot (pun intended) theme now is how over-tourism affects Italian cities like Florence and Venice, or beautiful locations such as Cinque Terre. Last year I shared my thoughts on one of the most controversial newsletters, Why I’m asking you to skip Florence on your next trip to Tuscany.
We’re also getting ready to celebrate Livia’s birthday at the end of August. This is what I shared last year when she turned three: What Livia ate. Prepare your tissues, it was one of the most intimate and emotional newsletters I have written.
We are also updating an index of recipes, where it is even easier to browse for past newsletters based on meal courses.
Fall Cook Alongs and Live Events
I can’t wait to meet you again during our Sunday online gatherings, reserved to our subscribers. I love cooking with you, and I missed those moments when we can meet online, chat, cook together a couple of recipes, and share stories and experiences.
We’re back, so mark your calendar for the next events!
Sunday, September 29th, at 9.00 pm CEST - 3.00 pm EDT - 12.00 pm PDT
Sunday, October 27th, at 8.00 pm CET - 3.00 pm EDT - 12.00 pm PDT
Sunday, November 24th, at 9.00 pm CET - 3.00 pm EST - 12.00 pm PST
Sunday, December 15th, at 9.00 pm CET - 3.00 pm EST - 12.00 pm PST
After every cook along, a recording of the class will be available for all paid subscribers after the event, as we did here for the cavatelli and orecchiette cook along. This will create an online archive of video recipes you can browse whenever you want.
Let me know in the comments if there’s something you would love to cook together in the next months, someone you would love me to cook with, or themes you would love us to address, as we did in the recent How to summer in Tuscany, Liguria, and Apulia.
Remember, for all of August, you can still join our newsletter with a 35% discount on the annual subscription!
RECIPE - A roasted eggplant salad from the summer cooking classes
I’ve been making this roasted eggplant salad on repeat during our summer cooking classes. It would defy and convert even the eggplant skeptics, those scared by the texture or flavor of eggplants, which might turn too greasy, bitter, tough, you name it.