When Nigella Lawson was recently in Chicago, we chatted on the phone, and in 10 minutes, I had a huge girl crush.
The Taste
Here’s a woman who loves food, is star struck by Anthony Bourdain, whom she calls “Tony,” and freely admits that she’s not a chef, merely a home cook. But that home cook has written and published eight best-selling books and she’s had shows on Food Network, E! and most recently as a mentor on ABC’s “The Taste” with Anthony Bourdain, Ludo Lefebvre and Brian Malarkey.
“I’m very inspired by the participants,” says Lawson, talking about the home cooks who are the contestants. “We taste the food blind, so we’re talking about the food and not a person.” She says that was one of the reasons she agreed to a reality-based contest, that and because Tony Bourdain was involved.
Italian Food in “Nigellissima”
“The Taste” dovetails with one of her passions—home cooking—and her new cookbook explores the other: Italian food. “I got it in my head I was meant to be Italian,” she says. She spent the year between school and University in Italy working as a chambermaid, learning to speak Italian and what it meant to be Italian.
“I lived on a tight budget,” she says. “So I learned how to cook and shop. That year taught me how to cook food I loved. How to make something delicious from simple ingredients.”
In her previous cookbooks, Lawson reinvented British cuisine and added a few Indian, Greek and even Vietnamese dishes, but “Nigellissima” is her first cookbook dedicated to another country’s cuisine. “Not since the Roman Empire has Italy so effectively colonized the world,” she says talking about her beloved Italian cuisine.
Tasty Meatzza
And yet, she has gotten some criticism—mostly from the British press—for her audacity in daring to write about Italian food. “It’s authentic to me,” she says. “Italian food springs from an ancient culture, yet it’s so suited to contemporary life.” She likes that the recipes “aren’t long on ingredients,” and the techniques are straightforward, yet very tasty.
She is sharing her “Meatzza” recipe with our readers. It’s a gluten-free reinterpretation of pizza—not for vegetarians, but guaranteed to be loved by meat-eating teens.
