Two Kitchens

Rachel's first book, FIVE QUARTERS: RECIPES AND NOTES FROM A KITCHEN IN ROME, won the Andre Simon Food Book Award and the Guild of Food Writers' First Book Award and she writes a weekly column in Guardian Cook.



'Rachel Roddy describing how to boil potatoes would inspire me. I want to live under her kitchen table. There are very, very few who possess such a supremely uncluttered culinary voice as hers, just now.'

Simon Hopkinson

'This is a recipe book that reflects the way I cook and eat: uncomplicated, direct and adaptable Italian family food that reflects the season. The two kitchens of the title are my kitchens in Rome and Sicily. In a sense, though, we could have called the book "many kitchens" as I invite you to make these recipes your own.'

For the last twelve years Rachel Roddy has immersed herself in the culture of Roman cooking, but it was the flavours of the south that she and her Sicilian partner, Vincenzo, often craved. Eventually the chance arose to spend more time at his old family house in south-east Sicily, where Rachel embraced the country's traditional recipes and the stories behind them. Here she shares over 120 of these simple, everyday dishes from her two distant but connected kitchens. From tomato and salted ricotta salad, caponata and baked Sicilian pasta to lemon crumble, honeyed peaches and almond and chocolate cake, they are the recipes that you will want to cook again and again until you've made them your own.

List of chapters:

Vegetables and Herbs - Tomatoes; Aubergines; Peas; Broad Beans; Cauliflower; Potatoes; Onions; Herbs

Fruit and Nuts - Lemons; Peaches; Oranges; Grapes and Figs; Almonds

Meat, Fish and Dairy - Beef and pork; Chicken; White fish; Fresh anchovies and sardines; Eggs; Ricotta

Store cupboard - Chickpeas; Lentils; Preserved anchovies; Flour; Bread