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From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it’s investigating the financials of Elon Musk’s pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, ‘The A Word’, which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.<\/p>\n
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Your support makes all the difference.<\/strong><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\nRead more<\/span><\/svg><\/span><\/button><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/aside>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\u201cI\u2019ve been scheming this book ever since I moved to Italy,\u201d says food writer Letitia Clark, sounding really quite dastardly about it. Anchovies, spaghetti and lemons are, to her, the heart of Italian cooking, and she\u2019d happily write single-subject books on all three.<\/p>\n
But lemons had to come first, hence her new cookbook, For the Love of Lemons<\/em>. As a former pastry chef, the citrus fruit was intrinsic to making all the sweet things in her \u201cpastry canon\u201d, and they\u2019re also a bit of a family obsession.<\/p>\n\u201cMy grandma and my mum \u2013 my main cooking influences \u2013 were very passionate about lemons. My grandma used to put the classic plastic Jif lemon on my pancakes when I was little and my mum has been trying to grow her own lemon tree since I was a child,\u201d says Devon-born Clark. \u201cI remember her having this very sad sapling sitting in the corner that never fruited. She sent me a photo one time of her first-ever lemon, which was about the size of a hazelnut!\u201d<\/p>\n
Her summer holidays were usually spent in cheap and cheerful destinations like Cornwall, but when Clark\u2019s family did go somewhere sunny, \u201cI remember my mum making my dad screech the car to a halt and jumping out to pick up lemons that had fallen on the ground.\u201d<\/p>\n
Clark has lived in Sardinia for the past seven years and sees lemon trees every day, and yet, \u201cwhenever I see a lemon tree I\u2019m like, \u2018Oooh,\u2019 every single time!\u201d she says with a laugh.<\/p>\n
She calls the mouth-puckering fruits \u201cChristmas baubles\u201d, an apt description when they are in season during winter. \u201c[At that time of year] the rest of the landscape is looking less colourful and then you have these pops of colour, and the shape, how can you not love that perfect egg shape with two little teats on the end? They\u2019re just incredibly pleasing,\u201d she says. \u201cThe trees are so laden, they might have no leaves on but they have 4 billion lemons just dangling there, and they look so heavy on these delicate branches. It just feels like a feat of nature that they can even grow like that. There\u2019s just something infinitely cheering about them.\u201d<\/p>\n
However, Clark\u2019s own lemon tree is looking a little bit worse for wear at the moment. \u201cIt\u2019s actually really sad. I\u2019m in a bit of a depression because I think it\u2019s got a disease,\u201d she says mournfully. \u201cI like to think things are symbolic and [husband] Lorenzo gave it to me as our wedding present, so the fact it\u2019s sad makes me worry about my marriage!\u201d<\/p>\n
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open image in gallery<\/span><\/button><\/p>\n<\/div>Where the lemons grow, and the dinner parties are citrus-scented. Sardinia has become Clark\u2019s edible muse (Charlotte Bland)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\nIt has a few little shoots poking through though, so she\u2019s hopeful they might have some lemons next year\u2026<\/p>\n
Clark reckons a whopping four or five trees worth of lemons were used in the making of her cookbook; crates and crates of them. \u201cMy [toddler] son was just about walking and was going round knocking all the lemons off and rolling them around the floor having a lovely time,\u201d she says, remembering the day they shot the recipe photos. In fact, his first toy was a lemon.<\/p>\n
Interestingly, she doesn\u2019t think Italians appreciate lemons as much as visitors do. \u201cItalians are so proud and passionate about their own cuisine, if you said to one, \u2018Italian lemons are amazing,\u2019 they\u2019d be like, \u2018Of course! They\u2019re the best in the world\u2019,\u201d she explains, but they use lemons in cooking a lot less, and mostly in dolce<\/em> (puddings).<\/p>\n\u201cA lot of my recipes are not that traditionally Italian because I add lemon, so a classic pesto would never have lemon in it, but I like it way more with a lot of lemon zest,\u201d notes Clark. \u201cThey almost never serve lemon with fish because they think it ruins the flavour.\u201d Put it down to the fact \u201cItalian flavours are very pure,\u201d so the aromatics of the zest is beloved (hence why in Amalfi they add it to coffee), but the acidity of the juice is considered overwhelming.<\/p>\n
Despite her idyllic, sun-drenched Instagram photos, Clark does have her trials and tribulations in the kitchen, and one major adversary: her oven. \u201cI have this horrible oven and every day we discuss whether we should get rid of it,\u201d she says jovially. \u201cI kind of work with it, but it doesn\u2019t really work with me.\u201d<\/p>\n
She has to roughly guess what the temperature is, and \u201cif I need something to be really precise, I\u2019ll go to my mother-in-law\u2019s!<\/p>\n
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open image in gallery<\/span><\/button><\/p>\n<\/div>Not just fruit \u2013 but the building blocks of an entire cookbook, a childhood obsession, and a toddler\u2019s first toy (Charlotte Bland)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\u201cIt\u2019s a difficult relationship, what can I say? I don\u2019t love him,\u201d she says. \u201cI spend a lot of time browsing ovens online!\u201d<\/p>\n
Then there\u2019s the moments of \u201cold-school behaviour\u201d she saw when working in professional kitchens. \u201cThere\u2019s so much sexism in restaurants and it\u2019s so old-fashioned in so many ways,\u201d she says. Fortunately, she ended up working in some \u201cvery civilised restaurants\u201d. The best she ever cheffed in was Skye Gyngell\u2019s celebrated Spring restaurant in London. \u201cShe treated people with respect,\u201d remembers Clark.\u201cBut that is definitely not the experience of many kitchens, and that wasn\u2019t my experience in my early days.\u201d<\/p>\n
She pauses and adds with a laugh, \u201cThat\u2019s all stuff for the memoir!\u201d Which she\u2019s currently writing. Clark also has grand plans to open an agriturismo \u2013 a farm with rooms \u2013 but in the meantime, has a summer of Sardinian food tours and talking about lemons ahead.<\/p>\n
She hopes that after flicking through the book, readers will \u201clook at the lemon a little differently and appreciate it\u201d, especially the leaves, which are lemony, but a bit like a bay leaf and slightly herbal. \u201cFood is something everybody has every day and it can be such a source of joy, pleasure and satisfaction,\u201d she says. \u201cThere are not many things in life that have that power, so the lemon can do that for you.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2018For the Love of Lemons\u2019 by Letitia Clark (Quadrille, \u00a328).<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Your support helps us to tell the story From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it’s investigating the financials of Elon Musk’s pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, ‘The A Word’, which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging. At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story. The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it. Your support makes all the difference. Read more \u201cI\u2019ve been scheming this book ever since I moved to Italy,\u201d says food writer Letitia Clark, sounding really quite dastardly about it. Anchovies, spaghetti and lemons are, to her, the heart of Italian cooking, and she\u2019d happily write single-subject books on all three. But lemons had to come first, hence her new cookbook, For the Love of Lemons. As a former pastry chef, the citrus fruit was intrinsic to making all the sweet things in her \u201cpastry canon\u201d, and they\u2019re also a bit of a family obsession. \u201cMy grandma and my mum \u2013 my main cooking influences \u2013 were very passionate about lemons. My grandma used to put the classic plastic Jif lemon on my pancakes when I was little and my mum has been trying to grow her own lemon tree since I was a child,\u201d says Devon-born Clark. \u201cI remember her having this very sad sapling sitting in the corner that never fruited. She sent me a photo one time of her first-ever lemon, which was about the size of a hazelnut!\u201d Her summer holidays were usually spent in cheap and cheerful destinations …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1497,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2],"tags":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.seekyourlove.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1496"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.seekyourlove.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.seekyourlove.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.seekyourlove.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.seekyourlove.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1496"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.seekyourlove.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1496\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.seekyourlove.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1497"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.seekyourlove.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1496"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.seekyourlove.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1496"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.seekyourlove.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1496"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}