Piazza Bologna: An Extract from 'Ida At My Table'

Simonetta Wenkert's new book is a beautiful reflection on food and its emotional gravity, charting a life through ingredients and recipes.

I watched as Ida tipped the contents of the bag onto the kitchen table, patting and sweeping the mound of lentils outwards with the blade of her palm towards the edges of the patterned oilcloth.

‘That’s how you see if there are any stones in them,’ Ida explained, and I blushed, wondering whether she was judging me for not knowing.

Seven months pregnant, I…