The Subtle Art of Surviving the Holiday Food 🥴

SB196

August 20, 2024

Welcome to Secret Breakfast / An exclusive newsletter, your weekly dose of people cooking nonna style, picky eaters and oyster haters

Alain Delon, classy

Hi there!

Last week I skipped a beat, I’m sure you had a great time anyway. Now we have to deal with the elephant in the room.

***

Summer is like a challenge.

I don’t know if you experienced what we could call The Subtle Art of Surviving the Holiday Food. I wrote surviving, but I intended - yes - surviving, saving your own life!

The game’s easy, you have to get through at least four kinds of menaces:

  1. Too much food

  2. Too much food when it’s too hot

  3. Food poisoning

  4. Eggs in summertime

You're going to lose, no doubt about it. The best you can do is choose scenario 1 or 2 to lose in the best way possible.

***

Scenario #1. Too much food

In Italy, you can have this for lunch: cured meats, young cheese, maybe some olives, or giardiniera (★recipe), stone-baked bread… Just for starters! Then come two kilograms of gnocchi (★recipe) for three people, followed by some Roast, or Chicken and bell peppers (★recipe), then potatoes again; maybe a Zuppa inglese (★recipe) before the Espresso?

Scenario #2. Too much food when it’s too hot

The typical situation here is Eggplant Parmigiana (★recipe), on the beach when it’s 108 F° at 1 PM. Or take my August 15th: 100 F° in the morning, three Focaccia barese (★recipe) in the oven, and some guy stewing onions on the stove for 40 minutes. I sweat 3 T-shirts before sitting for lunch.

Scenario #3. Food poisoning

This can happen in any other season, but in summer people bring food over, breaking the cold chain even when the food is made of sensitive stuff like mayo or custard. Sometimes people bake a quiche the night before and then leave it there in the warm weather for like 12 hours because they don’t have enough space in the summer house fridge.

Or sometimes you just have raw mussels like me (PS: they were good, I was fine, but it was a risk).

Scenario #4. Eggs

Take my advice: if you don’t cook or don’t like to cook, and you want to bring something over, skip deviled eggs and don’t make that fucking tiramisù. About 95% of people make it by skipping the - apparently useful - passage of pasteurizing the eggs (one technique).

Fun fact: the word pasteurize comes from the name of the French chemist who invented this process, Louis Pasteur. Funnier fact: the word Pasteur means “If you don’t do it you’re gonna kill us all in a hell of self-pity and diarrhea, you moron”.

Piero

Image: Alain Delon (1935 - 2024) in Purple Noon.

COOK IT LIKE NONNA

Minimal and lethal

Ok, I spent a few days in Puglia, which is probably among the 3 best regions where you can eat in Italy (I’d say Emilia Romagna, Sicily and Puglia, but it’s just my taste).

You deserve a few recipes from there, now.

Macco di fave. Fava beans purée and vegetables are one of the best-kept secrets of the Southern tradition. You’ll be amazed.

Stuffed mussels: a Pugliese delight.

Tiella Pugliese (Mussel, Potato and Rice Dish). This classic dish from southern Italy features a layered composition of potatoes, rice, and fresh mussels, culminating in a distinctive casserole that is particularly appealing to enthusiasts of seafood.

Panzerotti. Imagine biting into a mouthwatering Apulian delight that showcases the magic of simple ingredients These treats are not to be mistaken for Calzoni!

The authentic Lecce-style pasticciotto (see pic). Biting into the fragrant shortcrust pastry to reach the rich, creamy custard is an unforgettable, heavenly experience.

Image via Martinucci, Polignano a Mare

The UK’s answer to Alison Roman is a man

★★★★☆

London chef Michael Davies turns hosting stress into a thing of the past with this cookbook, packed with delicious seasonal recipes and practical tips to make entertaining a breeze and your guests feel like Royalty. Or, as the marketing guys of his British publisher wrote: “Michael Davies is the UK’s answer to Alison Roman and Gen Zs answer to James Martin”.

Cooking for People by Mike Davies
→ Shortplot: 🥦 🐟 🍑 🐷

This is where Secret Breakfast picks juicy content from food creators

This is the space where I share some food (un)related stuff of my week, extremely quick today, because you have tons of links already

🫧Why “pop-up” restaurants are everywhere now 🌻Flowered Butter (★recipe) 🥐Tom Daley’s Knitted Croissant Bag 🎧Why I Finally Quit Spotify 🍉Carpaccio pastèque & feta à la truffe (★recipe) 🍹Use Coconut Oil to Elevate Your Cocktail Style (★recipe)

Realizing how much richer life is if people like and accept you for being you, rather than for being someone who likes oysters.

The Ellyn Satter Method, or Division of Responsibility in Feeding, states that parents decide what, when, and where to serve food, while children decide if and how much to eat. Is it something you agree with?

➤ Last week's most clicked link was nothing, we all were off. And that's good!