For ten years Rachel Roddy immersed herself in the culture of Roman cooking, but it was the flavours of the south that she and her Sicilian partner Vincenzo often craved - sun-ripened tomatoes, lemons, capers, anchovies, oregano, almonds, oranges - the quintessential ingredients of Sicilian cooking.

Eventually the chance arose to spend more time at Vincenzo´s old family house in a flat-roofed industrial town in south-east Sicily, and with it the opportunity to embrace the recipes, culture and food stories of the family´s past.

Making the best of fresh, seasonal ingredients, these are the simple, everyday family recipes that emerge from these two distant but connected kitchens in Sicily and Rome. From tomato and salted ricotta salad, caponata and baked Sicilian pasta to lemon crumble, honeyed peaches and almond and chocolate cake, they are the recipes that you will want to cook again and again until you´ve made them your own.