Ali Rosen's Food and Fiction

LUCY BURDETTE: I love novels based on food and cooking and chefs, so I was thrilled to come across Ali Rosen’s first novel about a recipe writer attending the wedding of a close friend in Italy. Aside from fiction, Ali writes cookbooks and she’s brought a recipe from Italy’s Amalfi coast. We’ll be giving away a copy of her first novel, RECIPE FOR SECOND CHANCES, in the Reds and Readers Facebook group today. Welcome Ali!!

ALI ROSEN: It’s such a joy to get to share with this beautiful community, and today I want to start a conversation about the intersection of food and novels.

Reading and food are certainly among life’s great pleasures - so it’s not an accident I’ve tried to make a career where I get to do both! But as a novelist and a cookbook author, I often get asked if the writing is different. Of course in many ways it is, but I like to say that they’re more similar than you’d imagine, because both are telling a story. It’s just in a different format.

I do believe that food helps us see the world more clearly. Just like in novels or memoirs, we can tangibly experience someone else’s worldview through their food. So why not add food into our books? Why not make the food a character? I love a food-focused novel because it gives me the best of both worlds. And it’s for the same reason that I love a cookbook that also shares a perspective and a story. All any of us want is to experience more of humanity, and our food stories allow us to do that.

I cheated a little bit in my debut novel, Recipe for Second Chances, because the protagonist, Stella, is a recipe writer like me. So I was able to weave in my love of food through her. But I think it’s the perfect way to view the world—bright, alive, delicious, ever-changing, filled with possibilities. Recipe for Second Chances is a love story set at an Indian-Italian wedding in the Umbrian Countryside. But it’s also a story of growing up, friendship and trusting ourselves. It’s a little slice of womanhood and romance set in a dreamy location. And the food is the glorious sea it all floats across.

My most recent cookbook is called 15 Minute Meals— and if it has a story it’s the one of an overworked busy mom who just wants to get dinner on the table. That’s as relatable as relatable can be right? So for you guys I wanted to not only chat about books, but also share a recipe. And since one of my favorite recipes from 15 Minute Meals is as Italian-inspired as Recipe for Second Chances, I figured this Amalfi Lemon Pasta would be the perfect one to share. I hope you can pick up my novel (or look for my next one Alternate Endings, which swaps Italy for gorgeous Ireland!) and maybe make a recipe too. And hopefully through food we can all learn a bit more about each other.

I’d love to know: what are some of your favorite food-focused novels?

Without further ado, here’s a recipe! Thanks so much for letting me join in on your discussions.

Amalfi Lemon Pasta

Italy’s Amalfi coast is known for its abundance of lemons. They’re a different variety to the ones we find commonly here, but this lemon pesto is based on that vivid fantasy of sunshine, seaside and lemony goodness. Try to get organic lemons if you can because they tend to have more vibrant rinds.



Ingredients

2 large lemons

2 tablespoons parsley

1 pound angel hair pasta

1 teaspoon Kosher salt, plus additional

Ground black pepper

1/4 cup grated Parmesan

⅓ cup extra-virgin olive oil, plus more to serve

1 cup sliced almonds

Bring a pot of salted water to boil (try to add only as much as is needed to cover the pasta). While waiting, zest the lemons - get as much of the yellow rind without getting any of the white pith. Chop the parsley and set aside.

Add the pasta to the boiling water and cook for the allotted time (typically around 3 to 4 minutes). Make the pesto: juice both lemons into a blender and add half the zest. Add the salt and freshly ground black pepper. Add the parmesan, olive oil, half the almonds and blend.

When the pasta is done cooking, drain it (although retain a bit of the pasta water in case you want to loosen the sauce later). Add the pesto, remaining zest and the almonds into the pasta and combine — add in a dash of pasta water as needed. Top with the parsley, an additional dash of fresh pepper and serve hot.

About Ali Rosen:

Ali Rosen is a bestselling writer of both cookbooks and novels, and is the Emmy and James Beard Award-nominated host of Potluck with Ali Rosen on NYC Life. Her first novel is the #1 Amazon romance Recipe for Second Chances and her second, Alternate Endings, is coming May 7th. She is also the author of the cookbooks 15 Minute Meals, Modern Freezer Meals and Bring It!. She's been featured everywhere from The Today Show to The New York Times and has written for publications including Bon Appetit, Wine Enthusiast and New York Magazine. She is originally from Charleston, SC but now lives in New York City with her husband and three kids and can usually be found cooking in her kitchen or curled up in a chair reading a romance novel.

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About Recipe for Second Chances:

Stella Park is elated to celebrate her best friend’s wedding in the Italian countryside—and maybe she also needs this escape from her personal and her professional life. Writing recipes for a living isn’t all it’s cooked up to be.

But the revelry is short lived when she runs into the ex she hasn’t seen since she broke his heart ten years ago, Samuel Gordon. As her past gets propelled to the forefront, Stella tries not to question the choices she made a decade ago.

When Stella and Samuel keep getting pushed together during a weekend filled with delectable food, Indian and Italian wedding traditions, and unplanned detours in gorgeous locales, she attempts to ignore that maybe he really was the one that got away.

Playing it safe has always been Stella’s dependable rule book. But maybe Samuel is worth the risk—and perhaps some love stories just need more time to marinate.

About Alternate Endings:

Beatrice Leal’s personal life is complicated between her divorce and her precocious six-year-old. But the job she loves is the one thing she counts on to be straightforward—that is, until her boss’s own divorce prompts a move from NYC back to Ireland.

Now Bea’s in Ireland twice a month for work. It’s wreaking havoc on the custody agreement she and her moody ex are sorting out while he lives downstairs in the brownstone they co-own. And to top it off, her company’s new CTO turns out to be the boy who once broke her heart: Jack Sander.

It’s been twenty years since Bea and Jack saw each other. Their lives are both messy. So when they hook up one night in Ireland, they plan to just keep it a work fling that stays there. But the more time they spend together, the more Bea wonders if happiness might not always mean needing to have your life in order.