Risotto With Nettles

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, Anna grew up in pre-war Italy in a privileged, gentler time. These are memories of a life seen through food. When war came to Italy her family had to abandon their apartment for the countryside, where the peasants still ate well, but life was dangerous.

But England made her too: Anna arrived in 1949, married an Englishman and stayed on. 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.