Anna Del Conte
Making risotto and (possibly) my favourite recipe book ...
Anna Del Conte says she was spurred on to write her memoir by her agent who insisted ….
I have never heard of another cookery writer who was machine-gunned and who went to prison twice ….
Born in 1925 Anna is, I believe, now still living in Dorset. Her book describes a comfortable childhood in a cultured family in Milan where she recalled the thrill of being patted on the head and given a marron glacé by Toscanini. Aged 8 she loved opera and was a fan of the maestro who had defied Mussolini and his fascists, refusing to play their anthem. Each chapter ends with a recipe or two. The first offering is a cream and marrons glacés bombe with tips, of course, about preparing it in advance.
The bitter war that raged across Italy saw the family retreat to the countryside, her brother hiding in the hills. Twice she was imprisoned and questioned, suspected of aiding the partisans. At one stage, fighter planes were attacking a local target and she had to throw herself to the ground to avoid being machine gunned. The ground was covered in old nettles. The pain was a powerful memory she recalled whenever gathering young nettle tops for one of her favourite spring dishes, risotto with nettles. In the recipe that follows that chapter she does describe how to substitute with very young spinach.
It was in April 1945 that they spotted a military car with black soldiers and were able to celebrate the arrival of the American army. The four soldiers offered coffee, bananas and cigarettes and were treated in return to a feast of fresh tagliatelle dressed with prosciutto, butter, Parmigiano and peas followed by roast chickens with copious quantities of wine. Time, of course, did not allow for the production of the ragù, as would have been traditional in Emilia, as that would have taken four hours
Their return to Milan found the family home bombed and looted, their fortune depleted by inflation. Anna returned to studies at the university, working and socialising with other left wing students including Dario Fo, then early in his writing career. In 1949 she moved to London as an au pair to an upper class family. If London was gloomy and cramped by post war austerity and rationing at least she was kindly treated by a family who introduced her to well cooked English food. She ends that section of the book with details of Aberdeen Sausage and Crispy Apple Amber.
Her fate to stay in England was sealed after a whirlwind romance with Oliver, just finishing his studies at Balliol College Oxford. They were married within 9 months and his parents bought them a small house off the Fulham Road as a wedding present. Family life with three children and various subsequent house moves still allowed her to work part time, teaching and translating. Good Italian meals could be provided for the family with regular trips to Soho to visit grocers, restaurants and Bar Italia ( of course! ). Oliver’s parents shared larger houses with them and she writes about the social life they shared with eminent visitors. Arthur Waley, whose translations of Chinese poetry I once owned ( note to self : never part with a book ! ) was Oliver’s uncle and a regular at their table. The chapter with memories of parenting is ended with her famous Spaghetti with Marmite recipe.
Anna was 48 years old, her boys 19 and 21, their little sister aged 10 when she gave up teaching for a new career as a food writer. She had been asked by John Marqusee of the Paddington Press to work on a book that was then published in 1976 as A Portrait of Pasta. Anna had been teaching Italian to his daughter so he doubtless had firm confidence in her knowledge and ability. She went on to adapt the classic Italian cookbooks of Marcella Hazan, converting American to British measurements. By this point she had found an agent and her writing career went from strength to strength with best selling books and many literary prizes. Her magisterial volume The Gastronomy of Italy was first published in 1984. The Classic Food of Northern Italy is crammed with great dishes and Amaretto, Apple Cake and Artichokes claims to pick the best of her recipes. She worked with Sainsbury’s Magazine when it was owned by Delia Smith and several slim books about pasta also bear her name.
Leaving Anna’s biographical details then, allow me to introduce ( probably ) my favourite cook book.
Yes, it is a battered old paperback and, no, it has no photographs or illustrations, only a simple line drawing at the front of each section.
This is a book to turn to when friends are coming and you want to enjoy a relaxing meal and their company. A Vegetarian Dinner for 6 in Winter perhaps? A Vegan Lunch for 4 or a Summer Buffet for 24? A Tuscan Lunch for 12 reminds me that the Del Conte family once owned a farmhouse in the Chianti and the Venetian recipes were probably collected when they later had an apartment there.
Anna describes a dinner party at the house of Yan-Kit So …
.. whose books put Chinese cooking on the culinary map of Britain …. Yan-Kit was an excellent cook and an attentive hostess. We sat around her table while she set to work in the kitchen, just a few feet away, cooking while contributing to the conversation. How did she do it? I admired her. I am hopeless at doing the two at once; when I cook I cook and when I talk I talk.
I cook and entertain alone so must agree wholeheartedly with that!
Entertaining All’Italiana is out of print now. I have managed to find a second hand copy in hardback but that is too precious ( and expensive ) to take to the kitchen. I recently acquired a used copy of the American iteration in hardback - A Casa - which will be my kitchen copy when the old paperback finally collapses. It is the only cook book in my collection where I own 3 copies and might well be the one I would take to my Desert Island. Why? You may well ask and I shall explain.
An Italian meal for friends or family when there is time to chat and digest slowly should have a number of courses. These should be planned to make the best of seasonal produce, each balancing the others with suitable side dishes. The planning should also allow the cook or cooks to enjoy the meal, confident that all is under control in the kitchen. This is a book written by a home cook for home cooks. Each dish has details of how far in advance it can be prepared, whether frozen or refrigerated. Often the advice is to prepare in the morning or some period of hours in advance with reheating arrangements detailed.
I greatly admire the books of Marcella Hazan who gives tips for suitable contorni, vegetable side dishes or courses to precede or follow. In this book Anna goes further and has worked out for us the logistics of getting all the component parts of the meal together in a way that is practical and manageable. She holds my hand in the kitchen and her reassuring voice comes through clearly in her writing.
Perhaps the best illustration of this can be found in her advice about risotto. It is a dish I often cook for myself but not usually for guests. I can put the radio on, pour myself some wine, sip and stir continuously ( and mindfully ) as so many books insist before the grand finale with butter, parmesan and then ‘serve immediately’ as usually and ominously required. Most writers insist sternly that even in restaurants it must be ordered to allow for at least 20 minutes to allow the kitchen to concentrate on starting the dish from scratch.
A couple of weeks ago I made her saffron risotto for friends to accompany a rose veal osso bucco and her advice proved a resounding success for a relaxed cook who could sit and chat to her guests …
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