BRUTTO's Russell Norman on Florentine Cooking

'BRUTTO is actually bellissimo. A perfect cookbook for lovers of true Tuscan food. Simply brilliant.' Stanley Tucci

Ten years on since Russell Norman published his multi-award-winning and bestselling book on Venetian food, POLPO, he brings us the much-anticipated successor to that iconic book, BRUTTO – A (Simple) Florentine Cookbook.

'When I decided to call my restaurant BRUTTO it raised some eyebrows. Brutto is the Italian word for ‘ugly’, after all, and who in their right mind would want to call a restaurant UGLY? I had my reasons.'

BRUTTO combines delicious simple recipes of Florence with the style and bohemian spirit of a unique area of the city, Santo Spirito, through Russell’s captivating stories and insider advice, resulting in a stylish and joyous tribute to Italy’s greatest rustic cuisine.

This is the food of Florence - rigorously simple, very few ingredients, exceptionally tasty. Recipes in the book will include: Anchovy with cold butter and sourdough; Penne with tomato and vodka; Sausages with braised lentils and mustard and Country-style bread and tomato salad, this is true unfussy cooking with flavour at its heart.

Russell said: 'I opened BRUTTO, a Tuscan trattoria in London, during the pandemic. I wanted to get back to the basics of authenticity, honesty and simplicity. We all needed comfort cooking served in the true spirit of hospitality. My book allows the home cook to achieve this in the setting of a domestic kitchen which, after all, was my inspiration from the start.'

Russell Norman is an an award-winning restaurateur, writer and broadcaster, and the founder of the POLPO restaurant group. Norman's book POLPO – A Venetian Cookbook (of Sorts) was published by Bloomsbury and was named the first ever Waterstones Book of the Year in 2012. In 2014 he presented The Restaurant Man, a six-part prime-time documentary for BBC2, and his second book SPUNTINO - Comfort Food (New York Style) won the 2016 Guild of Food Writers Award for best food and travel book. He is a contributing editor for Esquire magazine and writes a monthly column as 'The Accidental Cook'. He opened his fully booked Trattoria BRUTTO in 2021 to universal acclaim and a long waiting list.