The memoir 'Keeping the feast: one couple's story of love, food, and healing in Italy' combines a few of my favorite things: a great story, beguiling settings, and Italian food. During the 1980's Paula Butturini worked as a correspondent for the Chicago Tribune and covered the fall of Communism in Eastern Europe with her husband, who was a journalist for the New York Times. They'd met in Rome, and hadn't been married long before he was shot by a sniper in Romania while on assignment. Butturini's husband eventually recovered from the physical consequences of his injuries only to fall victim to a debilitating depression. This all sounds pretty heavy, but Butturini's lyrical writing style highlights the possibilities for beauty in the darkest moments.
The preparation and consummation of food is a big part of Butturini's story. Her paternal and maternal grandparents came to the United States from Italy, although from different regions, and thus her parents brought different culinary traditions to their marriage. Butturini's description of her parent's joint effort in making lamb stew (her mom's contribution) over warm polenta (her dad's) is enough to make you want to drop the book and get cooking.
In lovely prose, Butturini describes how the act of venturing out each day to her local Roman market and preparing good, simple meals for herself and her husband seemed to anchor her against the rough tides of his depression. Near the end of the book she wonders if there will come a time, when she's upper middle-aged or elderly, when she no longer puts as much thought or care into preparing her own meals.
This observation gave me pause: had I, a woman in her early 30's, ever put a lot of thought or interest into preparing meals? I've always loved making desserts, and took pleasure in the results, but what about the meal itself? I've been to Italy once, briefly, and had just enough time to sample the big three: pizza, gelato, and pasta. Butturini's descriptions of the Italian food from her childhood through her adult years in Italy illustrate a varied and appealing cuisine, and so I checked out a few Italian cookbooks from my local library library and gave them a try. These days I not only think more about what I'm making, I also actually enjoy the making of it.
