In Apulia you can still breathe the air of autumn. The fireplaces with their smoking chimneys, the olive harvest and the smell of the olive mills and then the fragrances of mushroom, chestnut, persimmon, strawberry, fennel and pumpkins, to name some of the products we offer this season. A period in which the dominant colors are orange, yellow, red and brown, when the days get shorter and the afternoon nap becomes more a need than a whim: you can feel the effect of the lethargy people!
If I say Spain, what do you think of?
I think of colors, I think about lunches eaten at 4pm and midnight dinners, I think tapas and rivers of beer too!
My only Iberian experience before today was limited to the polyhedral Catalan capital Barcelona and the crystalline island of Palma de Mallorca. While Barca on many occasions has seen me wandering (and getting lost) in its colorful alleys, traveling its infinite sea front, and wishing I had Mary Poppins’ suitcase every time I delved into the variety of colors, products, and smells that I found in the Boqueria market, Mallorca is a distant memory, a legacy from childhood. (more…)
Anyone who knows me, even just a little, knows this: I CAN’T STAND PINK. I don’t know why this aversion to what is considered the color that best symbolizes femininity. I only know that it’s been this way as long as I can remember.
I will dress my daughter in green 
without a doubt!
And yet: never say never. What better reason to try to overcome your own “fixations” than for a good excellent cause?
And so, to take part and give my little contribution to the nastro rosa (pink ribbon) campaign, I decided to make an exception and let pink enter my kitchen. I pushed myself to buy pink plates (rigorously used and thrown away 
), ingredients and various decorations to attach to my culinary delicacies.
“Your gift is coming through the door.” “What gift… And what door?” “Evidently the door to the place where you are now!” These few seconds of surreal conversation between my mother and me happened during my lunch break at a small cafeteria where Antonello (my boyfriend) and I have been labeled by the girls that wait on us as the “beautiful couple”
At that moment I had my back to the door and was looking at Kelly, seated in front of me, with a certain perplexity due to the comical nature of my telephone conversation. When I turned around I saw Antonello enter with none other than… A BRAND NEW PASTA BOARD JUST FOR ME! Plotting with my parents, he literally became the bearer of their gift for the completion of my third decade (more…)
