Bitter Honey: Recipes and Stories from the Island of Sardinia

In Bitter Honey, seasoned chef Letitia Clark invites us into her new home on one of the most beautiful islands in the Mediterranean Sea – Sardinia. Cooking here reflects life: it is a slow and relaxed affair.

Meat is almost always slow roasted over an open fire, often on a rustic spit. Cheese is made and matured slowly, using age-old methods and tools. Beans and legumes, and most vegetables too are cooked long and slow, extracting all their sweetness. There is no sense of urgency about anything. The recipes in this book don’t take long to make, but you can taste the ethos behind every one of them – one which invites you to slow down, to enjoy yourself, to nourish yourself with food, friends, and family.

Try your hand at roasted eggplants with honey, mint, garlic & burrata, or a fresh, zesty salad of celery, orange, anchovy and hazelnut, followed by malloreddus (the shell-shaped pasta from the region) with crab, saffron and tomato, or a roast chicken stuffed with ricotta and chard. If you’re craving something sweet, follow up with an almond panna cotta with poached apricots, or a bowl of mascarpone and sour cherry ice cream. Each of these recipes, and the stories behind them, will transport you to the glittering, turquoise waters and laid-back lifestyle of this Italian paradise. With beautiful design, photography, full color illustrations and joyful anecdotes throughout, Bitter Honey is a vacation, a cookbook, and a window onto a covetable lifestyle in the sun – all rolled into one.

It is Mediterranean cooking at its purest, making liberal use of olive oil, fish, and fresh vegetables. But it’s also distinguished by indigenous ingredients that are becoming hot trends in America: pecorino, flatbread, fava beans, fregola, and bottarga. 

The book– together with a Sardinian Olive Oil– makes a wonderful gift.

Hardcover, 256 pages
Published: 2020
ISBN 978-1784882778
Dimensions: 7.85 x 1.25 x 10.05 inches