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Februar y/March 202 2 X MAGAZINE Ingredients for 4 people: Fillet of sea bass fillet 4 pieces of about 200gr, salt & pepper to taste, extra virgin olive oil for cooking, the finely chopped peel of 1 mandarin, 4/5 leaves of fresh basil, 400 g asparagus tips blanched al dente, 500 g purple potatoes, 1 bay leaf and 1 sprig of rosemary, 60 g butter, 80 g fresh pecorino cheese, 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil flavoured with mandarin. Procedure: Peel and dice the purple potatoes and boil them in plenty of salted water with bay leaves and rosemary. In the meantime, salt and pepper the sea bass and cook it in a pan with olive oil, first on the skin side and then on the white side (meat). Towards the end of cooking, sprinkle with mandarin peel, finely chopped. Drain the purple potatoes and remove the bay leaf and rosemary; with the help of an immersion whisk, mix the potatoes to a cream, add the butter and pecorino cheese, and season with salt and pepper. Stir-fry the previously blanched asparagus tips in olive oil (3/4 min), season with salt and pepper and add the basil leaves. To serve the dish, form a cushion with the purple potato cream, place the asparagus in a line on it and, finally on the top, the sea bass fillet. Glaze everything with a nice spoonful of mandarin extra virgin olive oil. Serve hot with lots of love. __________________________________ AT PAGE 34-36 YOU KNOW WHAT’S NEW? Bookshops with kitchens: food for our times THEY ATTRACT AN EDUCATED AND OF- TEN HIGH-SPENDING CROWD. BECAUSE THE PANDEMIC (AND BOOKSTRAGRAM- MERS) HAVE REMINDED US THAT READ- ING IS AS COOL AS DRINKING AND EATING WELL. THAT’S WHY COMBINING THE TWO CAN BE A WINNING CHOICE. by Anna Muzio Food and books: a winning combination? It is a powerful link, uniting two great passions of today’s men and (especially) women. If the growing interest in food in recent decades is an established fact, some might be surprised that reading - thanks to the Covid-19 virus which forced us indoors, of course, but also the need to make sense of these complex times of ours, or to escape from them - has once again become “in”. Bain & Company , which analysed changes in time management following the pandemic, tells us that 36% of Europeans read more in 2021 . While the Ali-Confcommercio observatory reveals that last year the majority of independent Italian bookshops improved their economic performance and, in some cases, even increased their staff. But the fact that reading is back in vogue is also confirmed by social media, the litmus test of our times: Bookstagrammers are all the rage on Instagram, posting photos and reviews of new titles, often paired with food and drink. While younger people are looking for reading advice from Booktokers on TikTok. DOUBLE OFFER (SERIOUSLY) Bookshops offering a cafeteria and food are not new. But they are growing and, above all, have improved their offer, both in terms of food and drink. Coffee is becoming more sophisticated, single- origin and even speciality, bread is being made with a long-leavening process, “natural” wines are preferred and cocktails are venturing beyond the Spritz, also because they are in themselves a mine of very literary stories (“ Shaken Not Stirred” and so on) . The two offers, therefore, assume the same dignity and attention, and the result is often greater than the sum of the parts, i.e. one attracts the other and enriches it. With one undeniable advantage: that of attracting a cultured and (generally) high-spending clientele. But also loyal and inclined to build a community. These are all things that hospitality is in incredible need of these days. From Sicily to China, the formats for inspiration Novel Kitchen, Brooklyn New York USED BOOKS AND COMFORT FOOD This new Brooklyn address is the result of a fortuitous encounter between the owners of a restaurant, a coffee shop, a bookstore and a record shop, who joined forces to create a single enterprise. The result is a multifaceted offering and an unusually rich menu that includes “comfort” recipes with the occasional literary reference. Indeed, it’s the food that unites the entire offer, which includes events, readings, poetry slams and exhibitions by local artists. Our