Nice articles from everyone, thanks.
I visit Italy every year, for a few weeks, staying at my friends villa in the countryside of Umbria, and have grown to love the simplicity of Italian food. When we're there, we generally eat at home now, picking ingredients out of the garden, going to local shops that only sell local products, cooking on the wood fired grill (inside the kitchen, not outside!), and we have some of the most wonderful, simple meals. There's some local restaurants, out in the country, in the middle of nowhere, where we've had some extraordinary meals. And of course, the wine is from either the villa's production, or from local producers, and is really nice.
We try our best to replicate this in London, where, if you look hard for it, there is a superb selection of products/produce available (but still not as good as the local stuff there). The doyen of Italian countryside cooking, Marcella Hazan, constantly talks about using the best ingredients you can find and afford. There's many a time where I wish I knew where places like the River Cafe and Locatelli's get their ingredients.
Anyway, I'm a huge fan of simple Italian cooking, and of course, of the River Cafe. Think it's time to crack open a good bottle of Prosecco in memory.....RIP Rose.
