(orion, $36.99)Very early on in former Weekly Editor Nicky Pellegrino’s second novel, The Gypsy Tearoom, I developed terrible hunger pangs. And, for once, my hankering was not for uncooked chocolate brownie mixture but for Nicky’s Italian dad Dino’s melanzane alla parmigiana.
I’ve been lucky enough to taste this scrumptious cheesy eggplant dish on a handful of occasions when Dino has been visiting New Zealand and it is truly the most delicious thing, although the secret is apparently not to watch him make it, as the very sight can harden your arteries and kill you.
Well, Nicky has definitely inherited her father’s cooking gene and puts her skills to mouth-watering use in this story of Raffaella Moretti, the most beautiful girl in the fictional Italian village of Triento. As a bride, the villagers looked fondly on Raffaella, but when she is widowed after only a year, they change their tune.
Scared she’ll steal their sons or husbands and upset the delicate balance in their timeless little town, they pack her off to the charming Villa Rosa to help keep house for a mystery guest. Will Raffaella find the happiness she deserves as she stuffs pasta shells with melting ricotta cheese and fried courgettes, as she sizzles cherry tomatoes with garlic and chilli, as she simmers the luscious fruit of the villa’s pomegranate trees? or will the feud that is giving the rest of the town a major case of indigestion swallow Raffaella too?
If you can’t quite stretch to a real Italian holiday this year, try slipping away to Triento for a loaf of rosemary focaccia from the bakery in the piazza or a simply divine pizza smothered in anchovies and capers and crisped to perfection at The Gypsy Tearoom.