We spent a memorable afternoon with Maria Azevedo Coutinho Vasconcelos e Souza, an aristocratic octogenarian who was a close friend of the great poet Sophia de Mello Breyner Andersen.
Sophia liked to eat well and was a great cook. One day, she gave Maria a handwritten cookbook with her favorite recipes. This little book shows Sophia’s attention to detail and joie de vivre.
In the first page, Sophia lays out some general advice:
1 – smell everything before cooking;
2 – use small amounts of salt and pepper; they mask the natural taste of the ingredients;
3 – salt the fish just before cooking;
4 – be faithful to the nature and the truth of every flavor.
“This book is a proof of her friendship,” Maria told us, “and friendships like ours are becoming rare because they require something that is increasingly scarce: time.”
Reblogged this on The Portugal Years and commented:
Here is one of the tenets of good cooking no matter what cuisine you are planning to cook.
Que lindo! Bons amigos e boa comida; tantas boas recordações!
Great cooking advice! What a lovely gift…
Yes, a cookbook written by a poet.
Interesting post! It’s fun to see her attention to detail 🙂
It was very exciting to us to see the cooking notes of one of our favorite poets.