Photo by Matt Russell
I can chant the words “I don’t need another Italian cook book! I don’t need another Italian cook book!” to myself as much as I like, but here we are. The minute I’d flicked through a few pages of Joe Trivelli’s first book, I knew I had to have it. It was initially the pasta recipes that lured me in: and, post-its to hand, I began excitedly flagging the pages of recipes for a kind of minestrone pasta bake, spaghetti with clams cooked risotto-style, rigatoni with yellow peppers and pumpkin gnocchi with chicken livers. But I didn’t stop there. Soon, I had the whole book a-flutter with post-it notes, and what’s more, I haven’t let the book leave my kitchen since. Of course, it has made choosing a recipe for you difficult, but after much to-ing and fro-ing and hemming and hawing, I returned to the pasta section and to the warm, comforting and sunnily uplifting Rigatoni with Yellow Peppers (for which, incidentally, I’d use my stick blender rather than processor for blitzing the sweet bell pepper).
