This evening we had a big party at my travel-companions' house in Venice (California): it was MaryClaire's birthday, and Mick and I threw a really nice backyard bash. Fifty people, band, kids and dogs.
Anyway, I have become a complete slave at the feet of Nigella Lawson, the cooking vamp on the other-wise awful Style! network. (And she is in the New York Times every other Wednesday.) Her new book and new show is called Forever Summer, and she has a recipe for home-cooked porchetta that does not involve an entire roast pig. Huge hit at the party. I don't have the book with me, but if anyone is interested, I'll borrow it and post the recipe. It wasn't from a stall in an Italian market, but it was damned good.
The same book also has a recipe for watermelon-feta-olive-onion-mint-lime juice salad that knocked a few socks off.
Yrs, Robert

That is a most incredible sounding salad, Robert.
Please share that recipe, also.
Charity