This book is dedicated to Vincenzo and Luca with love—there is no one I would rather share a meal with.
Thank you
to my family; Mum, Dad, Ben, Rosie, Paul, Kate, Beattie, Freya and Stanley. Grazie a Carmela and Bartolomeo.
to Joanna
to Giampiero
to all the readers and supporters of my blog Racheleats. Without you all, this book would never have happened.
to my publishing family; publisher Elizabeth Hallett and Kate Miles at Saltyard Books, editor Laura Gladwin, designer Myfanwy Vernon-Hunt, photographer Nick Seaton, Rosie Gailer and everyone at Hodder & Stoughton and John Murray Press. Also to Honey & Co for being across the road from the Saltyard office and for feeding us delicious food.
to my agent Jon Elek; also to Mina Holland and Felicity Cloake for your support.
to my friend and wine mentor Hande Kutlar Leimar—you have changed the way I think about wine and made my drinking life so much better.
to my friend and baking mentor Daniel Etherington.
to the hardworking shopkeepers and market traders of Testaccio who make shopping a local pleasure, especially the Pucci family, Artenio Fanella, Sergio Esposito, Laura, Fabio, and Arianna at Emporio delle Spezie, Mauro Pierluigi, the Sartor family, Azienda Agricola Fanelli, and Azienda Agricola Centrone Pietro.
Thank you too, to those who advised me, cooked with me and for me, and shared stories, recipes, and tables—particularly the Fioravanti family, the Ferraro family, Alice Kiandra-Adams and Leonardo Carosi, Irene Ranaldi, Carla Tomasi, Jo Wennerholm, Kitty Lindy-Travers, Maureen Bransfield and Marco Gargiulo, Stefania Barzini, Carla Tomasi, Kat von Tan, Molly Hays, Mona Talbott, Fabrizia Lanza, Chris Behr, Katie Parla, Elizabeth Janus, Gina Tringali, Enrico Guerra and Elizabetta la Pera, Carla Costanzi, Stefano Cecchi, Roberto Liberati, Leonardo Vignoli, Augusto D’Alfonsi, the Caristia and D’Aleo families, and Paola Lurilli.