With Love From Italy

Rustic summer recipe reminiscent of family holidays by the seaside

ITALIANS capture summer by the sea in one word – salsedine. It defines the fragrance of the salty air, the ripples of the ocean beating new life into worn out city dwellers. My own memories of Italian beach life is the sense of freedom and the priceless contentment it affords.

As a child, my Italian summers were spent with my grandparents, Maria and Armando. Their village is a 20-minute bus ride to the spiaggia libera – the public beach. Armed with our umbrella, straw mats and 1000 lira, my cousins and I would board the bus.

We waited eagerly mid morning for the coco boys selling sliced coconut from water filled buckets, and munched on anise crackers whilst waiting for the bus home. Of course, being in Italy, the timetable was merely a suggestion of the departure time!

I vividly remember that we had to be back at Nonna’s for lunch at 1pm. The house would be filled with the smell of cooking tomatoes. We used glasses recycled from Nutella jars, and there weren’t enough matching plates or chairs to cope with the brood of grandchildren.

Three generations would break bread at that table together. Lunches were an exhausting two-hour affair and my Nonna wouldn’t have had it any other way. She had waited a whole year for her family to be reunited and was sure to make the most of the time together.

Goodbyes never got easier and became even harder as an adult as I comprehended my grandparents’ mortality. I hugged them tight one last time. Their table had been the centre of my universe all summer.

Their recipes define our Eusebi restaurant’s summer menu 40 years later. Our dishes, like this tuna puttanesca, are inspired by that simplicity of another time, which we hope to share with the next generation.

It is no coincidence that the sign above the Eusebi’s door today reads “Food, Family, Life, Passion” – a tribute that ties us to their unpretentious world and the old table that brought people together.