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Food in books: the pistachio cream puffs in Elena Ferrante’s My Brilliant Friend

Since her husband was the baker at the Solara pastry shop, things were done on a grand scale: there was an abundance of cream puffs, pastries filled with cassata filling, sfogliatelle, almond pastries, liqueurs, soft drinks, and dance records, from the most ordinary to the latest fashion.

My Brilliant Friend, Elena Ferrante

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Mere weeks after my last Ferrante post, I am returning, once again, to my favourite novel of 2015. There are many other books on my reading list, and an endless array of recipes to create from them, but I just couldnt get these Italian cream puffs out of my mind.

In August, I raced through My Brilliant Friend and found myself recommending it enthusiastically to countless friends, acquaintances and passers-by. I picked up the second book in Ferrantes Neapolitan series within minutes of finishing the first. Im now savouring the final two; I dont want it to end. It is such a rich series C a detailed, beautifully drawn world, inhabited by perfectly formed characters. They are people I felt I knew at once, though they have continued to surprise as the story develops. The book is an extraordinary commentary on the complexity of friendship, the love and jealously, admiration and bitterness. All set against a backdrop of post-war Naples.

I travelled to Italy earlier this year, and spent a blissful morning perusing the local pastry shops, ordering sfogliatelle, cream puffs and cannoli by weight. They were all beautiful, delicious little morsels, ideal for eating out of a paper bag while wandering through the bustling markets. These tiny shops have an air of having been in place for decades, offering the same familiar treats each day. The biscuits and sweets lining the counters looked lovely and delicate but I was drawn, again (and again), to the crisp pastries with thick custard; the silky texture of the filling contrasting beautifully with the initial crunch. And so it was the Solara pastry chop cream puffs I was inspired to recreate here C a pistachio green custard escaping its Black Leather Prada Milano Purse choux pastry shell.