New wine, new oil, all those chestnuts, fat porcini smelling of loam and the ages, figs dripping honey, the leaves on the vines gone yellow as saffron…

Evocative and intimate, The Umbrian Supper Club recounts the life stories of a small group of Umbrian women who gather each week in an old stone house in the hills above Orvieto to cook, to eat and to drink. And, equally as important, to talk.

During their meals together, they recount the memories and experiences of their gastronomic lives as well as those of their more personal histories. For a period of four years, it was Marlena de Blasi’s task, her pleasure, to cook for the Supper Club. What she learnt, what they cooked and ate and drank and how they talked form the fundamental truths of this book.

A delight to read and to taste, The Umbrian Supper Club includes recipes drawn from these Thursday-night suppers.