Hello 2022! For my first cookbook(s) of the year, I'm going with two of Letitia Cark's books, Bitter Honey and La Vita é Dolce. Her first book, Bitter Honey, tells her story of moving from London to Sardinia and learning to enjoy cooking again after the stress of working in high-pressure kitchens. I had never even heard of Sardinia before – it's an island off of Italy – but after seeing all of the dreamy photography in this book, Sardinia has made its way onto my bucket list. Her second book, La Vita é Dolce, is a dessert book inspired by Italy.
I'll admit, I took one look at these covers and purchased them without even so much as a flip inside. (Yes, I judge books by their covers. Sue me!!) But I'll be honest. These books have a touch of pretentious “I’ve been to Spain” energy. Lots of pictures of her holding a basket of radishes and smiling. Lots of recipes that call for “bottarga.” Lots of trendy typography... I’m curious to see if the recipes live up to the hype!
January: Bitter Honey: Recipes and Stories from Sardinia and La Vita é Dolce: Italian-Inspire Desserts by Letitia Clark
Welcome to the third year of the pandemic! To celebrate, let’s take it back to when it all began and we were whisking instant coffee with sugar. This whipped coffee and ricotta mousse (pg. 144, La Vita é Dolce) is the chic version of what we were all doing in 2020. This recipe serves more like a dessert than a morning coffee substitute, but man, it was tasty! Not very sweet with a light coffee flavor. My favorite part was eating the soggy biscotti. (Free band name!)
Another early-pandemic throwback: making bread! The sweet cherry focaccia (pg. 170, La Vita é Dolce) was a sweet reminder of those early days when we thought this was all going to be over in a month. This focaccia recipe was one of the first bread recipes I tried. It was so good that I’ve made it several times since! It’s delicious, can easily be customized and it’s simple. Seriously, it’s impossible to mess up. I made this peach focaccia with thyme back in 2020, so I felt confident in this cherry version. However, I felt like the Bon Appetit recipe tasted a lot better than Letitia’s.
You’ll never catch me complaining about pasta with a lemon cream sauce. The linguine with lemon, basil, pecorino and mascarpone (pg. 130, Bitter Honey) was the perfect comfort food on a cold day in January. Nothing much else to add! It’s pasta and sauce. It’s good.
Thanks for reading, sweeties! 🍎
They really are pretty covers... but I'm really anxious for February's recipes. I feel like they are gonna be my kind of comfort food.