Soffritto

A love story, a war adventure, a family saga, a travel memoir - Soffritto is also a guide to an undiscovered part of Italy.

Every Italian cook has a soffritto - the 'starter kit' of olive oil, herbs, garlic and other core ingredients from which a great dish is built. Lucio Galletto was in search of the soffritto of his life.

In 1938, 16-year-old Anna Galletto ran away with Gino Guelfi, the charming gelato maker she'd met at a local dance. In 1943, Anna's brother Mauro escaped from a German prison camp and hunted fascists in the marble mountains of Carrara. In 1951, Mauro and Gino built a shack on a beach next to the ruins of a 2000-year-old Roman city. They started selling fish soup to the artists and writers who were holidaying in the area and became legendary for the way they used the local specialties: parmesan, pecorino, olive oil, pasta, pesto, balsamic vinegar, truffles and prosciutto. In 1975, Mauro's son Lucio arrived for work at the restaurant, fell in love with a beautiful girl sitting in the bar, and ran away with her to Australia.