My name is Adua Marinari, and I was born on 3/2/1938.
I was brought up on Elba and lived in the countryside where my parents were farmers until the age of 12. Then we moved to Rio Marina on via Roma, where I was married in the 1957, and where my 2 children were born, a boy and a girl. But my marriage was never verry happy, and perhaps it is for this reason that, when I heard there was an innkeeper’s license for sale, I decided to talk to my husband about it. In the beginning, he just didn’t want to know.But slowly,slowly, I managed to convince him, and that is how I acquired the license and the trattoria “Da Hubert” was born: it was August of 1963. “Da Hubert” was the first trattoria at Rio Marina, and it was also just at this time that the first tourists began to arrive, who, when they came to my place, had only compliments for my genuine homecooking. I must say that I had always had a passion for cooking, and it was then that I really applied myself, using and elaborating on old recipes from my mother and grandmother. Unfortunately, for family reasons and because of damage done due to a flood in 1983, I found myself having to stop all this activity, which had given me so much satisfaction. In 1986 I moved to Portoferraio, where I still live with my nostalgic memories. So I decided to write this book of recipes with the hope of passing on to whoever reads it, my passion for good, old-fashioned cooking, created with simplicity by an Elban woman. Then why publish, ignoring all the negative signs coming from the book market (there are too many cookbooks aready in circulation, they even give them away with magazines…..) ? Why be swept away, risking hard work and money, to bring out a new cookbook? The reason is simple: because this book is unique. Adua is an old friend, who talks to you as a friend does, in all simplicity, and who makes it possible for you to share in her traditional cooking wisdom, reminiscent of wood stoves, smoky chimneys, and of the pleasure of sitting around together sharing gossip and good company. Certainly in her time, life was more difficult and less comfortable, with the usual problem of trying to make lunch go together with dinner. And that is why one had to invent flavours in the kitchen: because to put together good dishes with an abundance of perfect ingredients is not so difficult; it becomes much more so when you have to do it with the same four things every day. Rio Marina, land of sailors and miners, has long been the homeland of what has come to be called “poor man’s cooking”, and which is now so fashionable; so much so that if you find it in restaurants you pay an arm and leg for it. And so. Adua was born and brought up in Rio Marina, and even her most refined recipes, I mean those she has perfected during her life as an innkeeper, never betray their simple and economical origins. We’ve tried these recipes and we like them, and we would like to share them with you, knowing that this is not just a project of gastronomy, but also of the true culture of the people.