Posted by on Jul 8, 2025 | 16 comments

Well, mama doesn’t usually publish long pieces, but this one is fun, and I was still being catnapped to Italy from my new secure status in my little village home, but I thought you might enjoy the rerun with its recipes for summer dishes,

Tonnato Time – Summer in the City

Everyone is worried about me because I’m lethargic. And why not? Don’t lions sleep all day in Africa and hunt at night? Not that I hunt, but it’s hotter here than a chili pepper, whatever that is, and I’ve found a great place under the couch where I am in the dark and cool and can sleep the day away. Mama went online and found that if I’m eating properly and poo-pooing properly, all is well, but 30-degree heat does not go well with lots of action.

In the kitchen where I am asked to get up on a ledge to eat my dry food (exercise, mama says, because I have no Annapurna here), I see mama making something really cool and appetizing and delicious because it has tuna in it and anchovies and I love both. First she puts a jar of tuna in the top of that machine that whizzes around, and then she puts some basil and capers  and a couple of anchovies and then a couple of spoons of mayonnaise and fresh pepper and turns on the machine until everything is mixed; then she puts in a little chicken broth (you can bet I know what that is–she left some out last night in a little cup and was it there this morning? No way, rosé!)  and a squeeze of lemon juice and voilá—tonnato sauce.

Then she gets just the right consistency, sort of like crêpe batter, thick and nice but not too thick, and then she gets the sauce nice and cold and then for dinner for her and papa (and for ME, I hope, I hope), she spreads it over thin-sliced, poached turkey or chicken breasts or even over big slices of ripe tomato, and that’s it. Easy, no?

She lets me push the ‘On’ button with my patty-paw but it scares the bejesus out of me and I run like a crazed weasel out of the kitchen and back under the couch.

That was a close one, but boy, do I love mama’s easy recipes during Rome’s hot summers.

But mama also makes a mean gazpacho, or as she calls it, salmorejo, which is the version from Cordoba in Spain, she says.

She uses that same whizzer and puts in 2 cucumbers, peeled, 4 really ripe tomatoes, 1 small sweet onion, a tiny sliver of fresh garlic, a handful of toasted almonds, 1 crisp toast (the kind you buy already made in packages) or a slice of stale bread (no crusts), a few sprigs of cilantro and mint and a good splash of olive oil, the same kind she dribbles over my food. Taste it for salt and pepper or add a pinch of cayenne if you like a little spiceyness. I can’t have those things because kitties react to strong spices so I stick with my tuna treat.

Back to the couch for me. Cooking is exhausting…