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| Peaches poached with rosé and honey Two Kitchens - Family recipes from Sicily and Rome by Rachel Roddy |
First things first; I know the author of Two Kitchens - Family Recipes from Sicily and Rome. I also tested some of the recipes in the book before publication. This review is, naturally, informed by both. I hesitated to write it but how could I not when Simon Hopkinson, no less, says "Rachel Roddy describing how to boil potatoes would inspire me. I want to live under Rachel's kitchen table. There are very few who possess such a supremely uncluttered culinary voice as hers, just now". I agree completely, so, here is my review.
Born and raised in England, Rachel Roddy took flight to Sicily 12 years ago with a vague idea of finding a Caravaggio, a volcano and a degree of equilibrium. Needing to learn the language, she went to Rome. Here she found her balance in an area of the city called Testaccio - in the day to day life of its people; in learning more than just the language but the habits and traditions; in finding love with Vincenzo, a Sicilian no less; and in becoming a mother to Luca.
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| Panelle di Fabrizia made to the recipe in Two Kitchens - Family recipes from Sicily and Rome by Rachel Roddy |
Rachel Roddy's second book, Two Kitchens - Family Recipes from Sicily and Rome is a closely linked follow-up to her award winning Five Quarters - Recipes and notes from a kitchen in Rome and, again, you get so much more than just recipes. This time we join her in both Rome and Gela, the little town which guide books advise you to drive straight past. To Rachel it is "... full of disrepair and despair but quietly beautiful and intriguing if you give it time ...". It is Gela that blew away any romantic ideas about Sicily for the author - the utopian Mediterranean holiday island is a far cry from real life in the south east corner of the island. Poverty, dilapidation and bad agricultural practices are a fact of life that are not glossed over in the book. Yet the way of life in Gela has captivated her.
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| Pesce alla Ghiotta made to the recipe in Two Kitchens - Family recipes from Sicily and Rome by Rachel Roddy |
"Ask someone to show you how to cook something and there's a good chance you will get more than just a recipe. Recipes live in stories .....". It's this approach to everyday life that enables Rachel Roddy to bring her Italian and English food worlds together. In Five Quarters it was the lives of her friends and neighbours in Rome that inspired her writing as she got to grips with cooking Roman food. Here, in Two Kitchens, she immerses the reader once again in her Roman life interweaved with the kitchen in Gela which for so many years was the domain of Sara, Vincenzo's Nonna. Each year now the family returns for sojourns in Sicily to unlock the house, pull up the blinds, and stand at the faded, slightly sunken marks in the kitchen, testimony to Sara's long hours at the stove preserving the harvests of Sicily. In this tiny space she made bread, preserved the tomatoes, reduced wine dregs to must, and salted ricotta into a hard grating cheese that would keep.
Much of the book is devoted to life on Gela, even though the town's central market is long gone. These days the produce borne out of hard work on the land is sold on street corners and pavements, at front doors and from garages. It is available for what seems like a pittance to a non-Sicilian. Here, the food they eat is the food they grow - intensely flavoured tomatoes, dense and creamy aubergines, cucuzze squash greens, onions "the size of frisbees", honeyed figs, peaches that go from perfectly ripe to mush in hours, and grapes "that burst in your mouth and taste almost drunken".
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| La torta salata di Carla made to the recipe in Two Kitchens - Family recipes from Sicily and Rome by Rachel Roddy |
So, what of the recipes? This is straightforward, family cooking that follows the seasons and the author is generous in crediting sources and influences. They are rich in vegetables, pulses and fruits, are adaptable and need little in the way of equipment to prepare. This is reflective of the way the author lives and cooks in a small flat in Rome and a little ramshackle house with a tiny kitchen in Gela. Whilst respecting the traditional ways of both, the recipes are her own interpretations of what she has learned - "anarchic, resourceful and personal".
The book is structured as: Vegetables & Herbs; Fruit & Nuts; Meat, Fish & Dairy; and Storecupboard. Within these chapters lies the essence of the food of Rome and Gela. A Sicilian dish of Pasta chi vrocculi arriminati (Pasta with cauliflower, anchovies, saffron, pine nuts and raisins) is high on my list of 'must cook'. Peaches poached with rosé and honey is the dish I prepared just before sitting down to write this review. With skins removed, in the Sicilian way, they were as soft and pink as a baby's bottom, luscious and lightly perfumed with bay leaf. It's a recipe I know I'll reach for every time those first irresistible, though not quite ripe, peaches of the season arrive. I'm already hooked on Pesce alla Ghiotta (Fish in spicy tomato sauce with capers and olives), a dish from Messina which was traditionally made with swordfish but which is adaptable and, in my experience, particularly good made with salt cod. Oh, a and I badly want to make Salsiccia alluvia e cipolla (Sausages with grapes and red onions) straight out of Middle-Eastern influenced Sicilian cuisine.
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| Pesce al forno con le patate made to the recipe in Two Kitchens - Family recipes from Sicily and Rome by Rachel Roddy |
In the Meat, Fish & Dairy chapter you'll find Pesce al forno con le patate (Baked fish with potatoes) with a method straight out of the kitchen of the wonderful Carla Tomasi; and a recipe for Brutta ma buoni (Ugly-but-good) biscuits which are great for using up leftover egg whites and feed my love of hazelnuts. From the Storecupboard chapter I would bring to your attention Zuppa di lenticchie e castagne (Lentil and chestnut soup) - sweet, nutty earthiness in a bowl which I will be eating through the coming winter; and Pasta, alici e cipolle (Pasta with anchovies and onions) because it's an irresistible combination.
I urge you to start cooking from this book with the first recipe I tried: Panelle di Fabrizia (Fabrizia's chickpea fritters) - "Ideally the first one should be so hot that it sizzles in your mouth". Just the best thing to get you into the rhythm of this book. The very last recipe comes as a surprise as it's the very English Queen of Puddings. It's there not just as a gratuitous link to the author's Englishness but an example of how she sees the connections that are constantly bringing her Italian and English Food worlds together. In this case, a Sicilian ricotta, lemon and breadcrumb cake brought this classic English pudding to mind and provides a sweet ending to the book.
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| Brutta ma buoni made to the recipe in Two Kitchens - Family recipes from Sicily and Rome by Rachel Roddy |
The introductions to each chapter, and to each of the sections within, are evocative and full of warmth, wit and understanding. Every chapter makes you feel you are there; chatting with Filippo at his stall on Testaccio market and sampling the peas he has grown on his farm near Scauri; reassuring Rosa that whatever her husband Giuseppe is growing and hauling back to her garage shop is exactly what you want to buy; glimpsing private lives through the ubiquitous 'curtain doors' in Gela; or teaching English to enthusiastic five year old Romans using the language of food. If I use this book half as much as I use Rachel's first, Five Quarters, it will have earned its place in my little kitchen.
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| Peaches poached with rosé and honey made to the recipe in Two Kitchens - Family recipes from Sicily and Rome by Rachel Roddy |
Read Two Kitchens and you too will "want to live under Rachel's kitchen table". As I said, I have a little partiality about this book but can such respected food voices as Simon Hopkinson, Anna del Conte and Jill Norman be wrong?
