The Tapestry Of Love - Recipes

Some of you will remember that I reviewed 'The Tapestry of Love' by Rosy Thornton on Bookersatz back in August. You can read my review here.

The paperback is out today, and Rosy has had a brilliant idea to celebrate the release.

The cuisine of the Cévennes plays a large part in the atmosphere of ‘The Tapestry Of Love', so she’s produced an electronic recipe leaflet containing some of the dishes which the characters cook and eat in the novel.

To give you an idea of what the leaflet contains here is one of my favourite recipes; and favourite moments from the book.

Pain Grillé aux Cèpes (Mushrooms on Toast)
Serves 2

Patrick prepares this for Catherine the first time she crosses the valley to his house for dinner. It is a version of mushrooms on toast – though, as Catherine notes, the English phrase scarcely does justice to the dish.

The key thing is to use good bread, and good olive oil. Patrick will have used the pain de campagne from Monsieur Folcher’s boulangerie in St Julien, made with rough, undyed white flour. Ciabatta may be the closest equivalent available in an English supermarket – or you might try a coarse white soda bread from a good baker.

4-6 chunky slices of good bread
8 oz of fresh cèpe (porcini) mushrooms
a good, fat clove of garlic
extra virgin olive oil, for drizzling
salt and freshly ground black pepper

Cut the bread into slices and lay on a baking tray. Turn the oven to 200°C, and place the baking tray in the oven immediately, as the oven heats. This will dry the bread out. Once the oven is almost to heat, remove the baking tray. Peel the clove of garlic and cut it in half. Rub the garlic all over the slices of bread, which should be dry and semi-toasted. Wash and dry the cèpes, then slice them and lay them on the slices of bread. Season with salt and pepper, drizzle liberally with olive oil, return to the hot oven and cook for ten minutes.

Best eaten with the fingers!

If you would like a copy of the booklet, all you have to do is leave a comment on this post and email me at bookersatz(at)live.co.uk

I’ll then email your electronic recipe leaflet back to you. (I’ll try to respond to people as quickly as possible but will probably do it in batches, so please bear with me!)

If you’ve already read the novel then you’ll love the recipes, and if you haven’t read the novel I’m sure that the recipes will make you want to.

You can buy the paperback of The Tapestry Of Love here.