SLOWLY, SLOWLY, FULL
PIANO, PIANO, PIENE. An Italian expression I was reminded of recently when I stumbled across a box of books I hadn’t opened in years – the pile I’ve always meant to read but haven’t yet got around to, among them this award-winning cookbook by Susan McKenna Grant. Translated as “Slowly, slowly, full”, the title expresses what she learnt after leaving her life as a businesswoman in Canada to become an organic farmer and agriturismo owner in Tuscany: choose your ingredients well (from the market, the garden or the shop), take the time to prepare your meal, eat slowly, and you will feel complete. I’d rediscovered her book at exactly the right time; a time when I am – as many of us are – emerging from isolation, cooking once more for friends,…