In this week’s email: Our featured guest is Sophie Minchilli, whose first book is all about the Italian art of “doing nothing.” We’ve got a great chat with Sophie and featured recipes.
Later this week, we’ve got a collection of featured recipes to celebrate fall. Plus, this week’s new-release cookbooks. Read on!
Do you love Salt + Spine? We’d love if you shared this email with a friend who might want to #TalkCookbooks with us, too:
Episode #141: Sophie Minchilli
This week, Sophie Minchilli joins us to #TalkCookbooks.
Sophie leads food tours around Italy with her mother, cookbook author and previous Salt + Spine guest Elizabeth Minchilli. The two lead food lovers through Rome, Umbria, Puglia, and other destinations.
Growing up in Italy with a cookbook author as a mother, Sophie’s life has always revolved around food. She left briefly for university in London, before moving back home to Rome to devote her career to food.
Now, Sophie’s out with her first book—The Sweetness of Doing Noting: Live Life the Italian Way with Dolce Far Niente. It’s part cookbook, with a few recipes, but mostly it’s a guide to the southern Italian philosophy of “dolce far niente” and finding pleasure in the everyday.
As Sophie writes, “How often do you focus on being in the moment, doing nothing? Whether it’s sitting outside at a cafe watching the world go by, whiling away the hours with your loved ones sipping a glass of wine or being immersed in nature at the beach taking in the sun, these seemingly ordinary moments are the ones that bring happiness in the long run and highlight the joy in living.”
In today’s show, we’re talking with Sophie about growing up in Rome and Umbria, her career in food tourism and writing, and putting her to the test in our culinary game.
I hope you enjoy my chat with Sophie.
Bonus Content + Recipes This Week
This week, paid subscribers will receive three featured recipes from Sophie’s The Sweetness of Doing Nothing: her Carbonara and Amatriciana as well as Insalata Di Finocchi E Arance, which marries fennel, orange, and black olive.
Get all our exclusive content by becoming a paid subscriber:
This Week’s New Cookbook Releases
Here are a few of the new cookbooks on shelves this week:
BUDMO!: Recipes from a Ukrainian Kitchen by Anna Voloshyna
Enebla: Recipes from an Ethiopian Kitchen by Luladey Moges
Savory Baking: Recipes for Breakfast, Dinner, and Everything in Between by Erin Jeanne McDowell
Via Carota: A Celebration of Seasonal Cooking from the Beloved Greenwich Village Restaurant by Jody Williams and Rita Sodi
Sundays with Sophie: Flay Family Recipes for Any Day of the Week by Bobby Flay and Sophie Flay
Rice Is Life: Recipes and Stories Celebrating the World's Most Essential Grain by Caryl Levine & Ken Lee
The King Arthur Baking School: Lessons and Recipes for Every Baker from the King Arthur Baking Company
Salamati: Hamed's Persian Kitchen: Recipes and Stories from Iran to the Other Side of the World by Hamed Allahyari
Orchard: Over 70 Sweet and Savoury Recipes from the English Countryside by James Rich
Rambutan: Recipes from Sri Lanka by Cynthia Shanmugalingam
Seinfeld: The Official Cookbook by Julie Tremaine and Brendan Kirby
Expressions: Art in Pastry: Recipes and Ideas for Extraordinary Pies and Tarts by Julie Jones
The National Parks Cookbook: The Best Recipes from (and Inspired By) America's National Parks by Linda Ly
Savor: A Chef's Hunger for More by Fatima Ali with Tarajia Morrell
The Wine Bible, 3rd Edition by Karen MacNeil
How Italians find joy in doing nothing, with author Sophie Minchilli