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A Table in the Town

One family recipe every Thursday, with the story that goes with it.

  • Wooden board dusted with flour with pasta shapes being rolled
    Pasta

    Busiate With Pesto Trapanese, Rolled by Hand

    On Sunday I rolled busiate for six people at the kitchen table, and for the first time in a year I got them all the same length. My mother never measured. She cut a rope of dough with the side of her hand and said that was the right size, and she was always right. The dough is only flour and water. The flour is the fine durum, semola rimacinata, and you knead it harder than you think, for a full eight minutes. When it is ready it springs back a little when you press it. Rest it under a cloth for half an hour and it will roll without fighting you. The shaping is the part people fear, and it is easier than it looks. You wind a short rope around a knitting needle, press, roll it back and forth and slide it off. The first six are bad. After that your hand knows. The sauce is not cooked. Tomatoes, almonds, a little garlic and basil, crushed together and loosened with oil. It is what we eat in Trapani when the tomatoes are good, and it takes ten minutes while the water boils. Next Thursday I will write about the lemon tree in the courtyard, which is heavy again this year.

    Nov 5, 2026 · 9 min read

  • Small Sicilian kitchen with a pot on the stove and sun through shutters
    Kitchen

    What My Kitchen Smells Like at Nine in the Morning

    A pot on the stove, the shutters half open and the day’s sauce.

    Oct 29, 2026 · 6 min read

  • Lemon tree heavy with fruit in a stone courtyard
    Garden

    The Lemon Tree in the Courtyard

    What we do with forty lemons, from granita to preserved peel.

    Oct 22, 2026 · 7 min read

  • Recipe notebook with blurred handwriting beside a lemon and coffee
    Notebook

    My Mother’s Recipe Notebook

    A stained notebook, a lemon beside it and four pages I still use.

    Oct 15, 2026 · 8 min read

  • Empty narrow street in the afternoon heat with shuttered windows
    Town

    Nothing Moves Between Two and Five

    A street in the afternoon heat and a lunch worth waiting for.

    Oct 8, 2026 · 5 min read

  • Balcony with washing, a plant in a tin and a view over rooftops at dusk
    Kitchen

    Washing on the Balcony, Sauce on the Stove

    How a small flat feeds six on a Sunday.

    Oct 1, 2026 · 6 min read

  • Fishing boats in a small harbour at dawn with pastel light
    Town

    Fish From the Harbour at Dawn

    What the boats bring in and the three ways I cook it.

    Sep 24, 2026 · 7 min read

  • Wooden board dusted with flour with pasta shapes being rolled
    Pasta

    Why the Pasta Board Is Never Washed

    Flour, a wooden board and a habit of sixty years.

    Sep 17, 2026 · 5 min read

  • Small Sicilian kitchen with a pot on the stove and sun through shutters
    Kitchen

    Tomato Sauce for the Whole Winter

    A day of jars, and the one rule about salt.

    Sep 10, 2026 · 9 min read

  • Lemon tree heavy with fruit in a stone courtyard
    Garden

    Lemon Peel, Sugar and a Spare Afternoon

    Candied peel from the courtyard tree, step by step.

    Sep 3, 2026 · 6 min read

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A Table in the Town

One family recipe and the story behind it, every Thursday.

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