Tortellini at Midnight: and other heirloom family recipes from Taranto to Turin to Tuscany

Description

Sometime in the 1950s, Emiko Davies' nonno-in-law began the tradition of ringing in the new year with tortellini al sugo. He served it along with spumante and a round of tombola, and sparked a trend; up until the 1970s, you could find tortellini at midnight on New Year's Eve in the bars around the Tuscan town of Fucecchio. This is just one of the heirloom dishes in this collection, for which Emiko Davies has gathered some of her favourite family recipes. They trace generations that span the length of Italy, from the Mediterranean port city of Taranto in the southern heel of Puglia to elegant Turin, the city of aperitif and Italian cafe culture in the far north and, finally, back to Tuscany, which Emiko calls home. Tortellini at Midnightis a book rich with nostalgia, with fresh, comforting food and stunning photography. It is a book that is good for the soul.

Born in Australia to a Japanese mother and a diplomat Australian father, Emiko Davies has spent most of her life living abroad - her adolescence was spent in China, she attended university in the United States and now, for more than a decade, she has called Italy home. She first fell in love with Florence as a twenty-year-old art student. When she couldn't get the city out of her head, a few years later she returned to study art restoration and photography and soak in the Florentine lifestyle (learning Italian along the way). It was then that she met Marco and the pair got married. Marco became a sommelier and Emiko started writing a food blog dedicated to telling the stories behind regional and historical Italian dishes, as well as their travels and family life in Italy. Tortellini at Midnight is her third cookbook after Florentine and Acquacotta, which both focus on the traditional, regional dishes of two beloved Tuscan places: Florence and the Maremma, respectively. Emiko continues to write about food and travel within Italy on her blog, as well as for popular New York-based website Food52, and for publications such as Gourmet Traveller and Conde Nast Traveller. She lives in Florence with her husband, Marco, and their two young daughters.