Cortona is hopping with people right now and they are wise–this is the month most likely to woo you with soft, golden light, balmy days, and big sunsets. I can’t stay inside. I’m walking into town in the mornings, gardening in the afternoon and leaving open every door and window in the house.  The roses have agreed to give us an encore, the figs challenge me to come up with new ways to use them, olives are plumping up, and wild heather blooms on the roadside.  Our orto gives forth the last tomatoes and zucchini and slender eggplants that dangle like earrings from the plant.  There’s nothing to do with a primo tomato but slice and eat.

We’re turning out hearty pastas from the kitchen now: Pasta al Forno with Four Cheeses and Sausage (page  122 in Every Day in Tuscany) keeps getting better every time we reheat it.  Last night I made roasted red peppers baked with a filling of ricotta and herbs, an old friend from Under the Tuscan Sun. Every day we are retesting recipes from my books and trying out new ones from friends and chefs.  What a pleasure this cookbook project is.  Our neighbors have invited us tonight to try their guanciale, beef cheeks that are meltingly tender.  We’re happily taking over an eggplant parmigiana, since it lets use five eggplants.  (Six to go!)  We’re also taking a simple savory tart that my neighbor often makes and passed on to me. Line a pie dish with unsweetened pastry.  Sauté a thinly sliced onion in a couple of tablespoons of olive oil for three or four minutes, add two or three zucchini, also sliced, and sauté another minute or so.  Place the onions and zucchini in the pie pan.  Beat three eggs with 1/2 cup of parmigiano and salt and pepper.  Pour this over the vegetables.  Thinly slice a red pepper and arrange in a spoke pattern.  Press them into the eggs a little.  Bake at 35o degrees for thirty minutes.  How can something so simple be so good?

This mellow season also is great for reading, contemplating, walking the Roman roads. I just read and liked The Quickening Maze by Adam Foulds, Tinkers by Paul Harding, and now am into Penelope Lively’s Family Album.  Two more weeks here to savor the tastes, landscapes, friendships, and surprises, such as the yellow crocuses that volunteered for service among the lavender under a stone wall.

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