Dining with the stars!
ELETTRA Wiedemann was practically born with the philosophy that beautiful meals can come together in under 20 minutes.
“Impatience runs very deep in my family,” says the 33-year-old daughter of actress Isabella Rossellini and granddaughter of Ingrid Bergman and director Roberto Rossellini. “Cooking is more enjoyable for everyone when it’s a meal that can come together quickly and be cleaned up easily.”
In her new cookbook “Impatient Foodie” (Scribner, out now), Wiedemann (left) shares easy family recipes and tips.
“We’ve always cooked together,” says Wiedemann, who grew up in Los Angeles and New York, living with her brother and mother, who divorced Elettra’s dad when she was young. While the family favored suppers that were fairly quick to prepare, the meal itself would stretch on and on.
“There would . . . be those times where we would just be spending time around the table, and the dinner would last hours and hours,” says Wiedemann, a former model who now works as a food writer and lives in Fort Greene.
Even on school nights, her mom insisted on spending at least 30 minutes together over dinner to talk about their days.
“To a 13-year-old, it felt like a total drag, but looking back now I really am glad that she did that,” she says. “When I have my own family, I [will] make them do the same.”
Her mom lives on Long Island and operates a farm with a large garden from which the two enjoy picking herbs for dishes such as Rossellini Spaghetti. Featured in the book, the recipe was passed down from Wiedemann’s grandfather, Roberto, who created it to make use of the herbs in the summer garden in Rome where he grew up. He also liked the fact that it could be prepared and served in a single bowl.
“He hated to do dishes,” Wiedmann says. “I think everyone’s been in that situation where they have piles of unused herbs in their fridge and have no idea what to do with them . . . this recipe makes use of these and it’s superfast.”