The Food of Love (39 page)

Re:re:re: that recipe for bruschetta

Aha! No, you’re not. And that’s my whole point.

To: Laura

from: Bruno

Re:re:re:re:that recipe for bruschetta

I mean, I don’t understand. How can you not be able to cook

bruschetta, when you can do all those other things? And what do you mean about needing somebody to show you?

‘… it is a pattern of cooking that can accommodate improvisation and fresh intuitions each time it is taken in hand, as long

as it continues to be a pattern we can recognise; as long as its evolving forms comfort us with that essential attribute of the

civilised life, familiarity.’

Marc ella Hazan, The Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking

Ś

To: Bruno

From: Laura

Re:re:re:re:re:that recipe for bruschetta

Well, it’s like this…

I was talking to my cooking teacher the other day. She says she

knows of at least a dozen Italian restaurants over here where

someone who’s cooked at Templi could get a job …

What do you think?

To: Laura

From: Bruno

Re:re:re:re:re:re: that recipe for bruschetta

I think I’m on my way.

Want to send me a shopping list?

www. thefoodoflove. com

I’d like to thank Nick Harris at A.P. Watt for putting the pot on the stove; Caradoc King and Linda Shaughnessy for giving it a stir; Bobby Thomson for tasting it; Peter Begg for showing me how a

real chef would do it; Alessandra Lusardi for adding some Italian flavours; Ursula Mackenzie and Clare Ferraro for ordering it; Tara Lawrence and Carole DeSanti for sending it back to the kitchen;

and of course my family, for a much-needed pinch of salt.

This book is dedicated to the memory of Nunc Willcox, a good

man and a good friend.

The End.

Look out for Anthony Capella’s second novel

coming soon from Time Warner Books

THE WEDDING OFFICER

Anthony Capella

A sumptuous tale of food to heal the deepest wounds, of the

hungers of war and the bittersweet nature oflove.

Naive but already war-weary, twenty-four-year-old James

Gould arrives in Naples in 1944 as part of the Allied

administration. What he doesn’t anticipate is that this

involves eating a limited menu of fried Spam fritters and

dissuading beautiful Italian girls from marrying British

soldiers. James’s chance at true heroism arrives when a

German tank is sighted and he is caught in its path. However,

the tank is being driven by a fiery Italian girl, Livia Pertini, who is trying to get her home-made mozzarella to market.

The disaffected girls of Naples, sensing their chance, secretiy

arrange for Livia to become James’s cook, believing that a

man who has eaten well must surely be more amenable to the

idea of matrimony. Gradually, James falls in love - not only

with Livia, but with the language, tastes and zest for life of

Italy itself. But then the eruption of Vesuvius triggers a chain of explosive events that will force the two to flee behind

enemy lines and will alter their lives immeasurably.