'A year at an Italian table'

Written by Helen Fowler

A friend has given me a copy of the beautiful book 'A year at an Italian table'. Written by Mary Contini, the book pays homage to well-loved Edinburgh delicatessen and cafe Valvona & Crolla.

The shop is Scotland's oldest delicatessen and Italian wine merchant. From humble origins in 1934, when it served mostly Edinburgh's fledgling Italian community, the shop has acquired national fame.

Recommended by food writer

Valvona & Crolla began life as a market stall. But by the 1950s it had grown so successful it featured as a recommended supplier of extra-virgin olive oil in Elizabeth David's cook books.

It now has a reputation as one of the capital's leading eateries. It even appears in Alexander McCall Smith's 44 Scotland Street series. As of course any good Edinburgh institution should.

It is not just locals who adore Valvona & Crolla. The caffe bar at the back of the Elm Row shop has featured ten years running in the Which? Good Food Guide.

Own-baked bread

If you visit the shop, you will find own-baked bread, cakes and biscuits, alongside a range of cheese, champagne, cookery books, coffee, tea, kitchenware, pasta, rice, salami, sausages, oil, vinegar, port, dessert wine, whisky and wine.

Edinburgh is fortunate in its many Italian restaurants, founded by hard-working immigrant families. This book gives a better sense of the owner's struggles to build their businesses, often amid great difficulties.

Cooking for family and friends

There is an appealing warmth to the writing. I identified with author Mary Contini when she wrote: 'I am at my happiest when I am cooking for family and friends; a pot of my favourite sugo (a tomato sauce for pasta) simmering on the stove, the table set for supper and a bottle of wine ready to pour'; My idea of heaven too.

Mouth-watering recipes

Reading 'A year at an Italian table' offers a fascinating slice of Edinburgh culinary life pre- and post-world war two. The anecdotes are interspersed with mouth-watering recipes handed down through generations.

Contini can even recall a time when local haddock fishermen who caught squid and monkfish by mistake threw them back into the sea as worthless.

Tastes change

Tastes and times may have changed, but this book is a pleasant way of reconnecting with Edinburgh's culinary past.

Valvona & Crolla Delicatessen and Cafe:

19 Elm Row (at the top of Leith Walk), tel : 0131 556 6066

Open 8.30am-5.30pm Monday to Thursday,

8am-6pm Friday and Saturday,

10.30am-3.30pm Sunday

Lunch and daily specials served 12-3pm

During the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in August, Valvona & Crolla is open in the evenings too for pre- and post-dinner reservations.