Book of the day - how to live well

    Last night's supper here was peperonata (pictured below) - red and yellow peppers cooked slowly in olive oil with garlic and thyme - alongside grilled chicken and Hugh's magic bread.

    Inadvertently, I've made something which wouldn't be much out of place in the Italian mountain village of Campodimele, about which Tracey Lawson writes in A Year in the Village of Eternity. Having read scientific studies showing that the residents of this place enjoyed better health and greater longevity than normal, and unusual levels of activity well into old age (they sound like a real-life version of the Bertolli advert), Tracey went to live there to find out what their secret is:

    "The village does not disappoint: even the most elderly of the residents radiate vitality. There goes Gerardo, zipping down the mountain on the Vespa he has ridden for so many of his seventy-nine years; and here's Maria, chasing her hens up the hill on her eighty-three-year-old legs ... In this mountain community, the passing of the years has always been marked by the seasonal traditions of harvesting, bottling, preserving and cooking whatever is fresh in the fields that day. The kitchens and larders of Campodimele offer an insight into what gives the villagers their remarkable appetite for life."

    So here is an account of a year in the village and a collection of more than a hundred recipes together with Tracey Lawson's observations on how to live longer and - even more importantly - how to live well.

Comments

[LizF]

I loved this book and its recipes when I found it in the library - almost all the recipes made my mouth water (although I'm not too sure about the snails..) and I will definitely be buying my own copy when it comes out in paperback.