Il Pino

My First Restaurant

Appears in
Fiori Di Zucca: Recipes and Memories from My Family's Kitchen Table
Fiori Di Zucca

By Valentina Harris

Published 2013

  • About
When I was a little girl, standing on a chair in the kitchen of my childhood home in Tuscany, I learned to make the most perfect risotto in the world. That memory is one of pure, intense happiness and, most importantly, it is the single moment that established my future occupation. In an instant, I became immersed in the ritual, rhythm, emotion and tradition of cooking, and I have remained caught up in it ever since.

The magical house that wove the spell, La Tambura, is named after the drum-shaped mountain that stands at some distance behind it. Outings to these mountains were a part of my parents’ epic picnics, which they loved to create for us when we were children. There was always a routine to be observed: first, a fire had to be built to cook on; then we would ignite the wood that we had all gathered together. When the fire was ready, we would cook steaks and any fish we might have caught, or toast bread, rubbed with garlic and drizzled with olive oil, over the glowing embers. On our way home from our picnic, we would sometimes stop at a little village café to buy a snack: my favourite was panzanella, fragrant basil leaves wrapped in fluffy pizza dough and deep fried in piping-hot olive oil until perfectly crisp.