Good morning friends. Today I am going off script a bit because I’ve been keeping something from you and I finally feel like I’m ready to talk about it. It’s been an eventful spring here in Dinner: A Love Story Land, trips to Ireland and Italy, book parties and author conversations and work conferences, New York restaurant adventuring, and so much good home cooking if I do say so myself — so you’d be forgiven if this next part sounds like it’s coming out of nowhere.

Two weeks ago, we hailed a cab at 5:00 in the morning and drove across Central Park to Lenox Hill Hospital where I had brain surgery to remove an acoustic neuroma from my right vestibular nerve. It’s been an unsettling few months, my recovery will be somewhat unpredictable, it’s too early to have any kind of real perspective on what happened and is happening, but I’m going to be ok. It’s a weird feeling to be experiencing the most physically challenging thing of my life while also being aware of how lucky I am that this is what I’ve been handed. “If you’re going to have a brain tumor, this is the one to get,” my doctor told me on April 20, at 11:15am, pointing at a smudgy mass on the MRI as my whole body floated up to the ceiling. But even in that terrifying moment the gratitude was acute. And every day since, I have only felt more lucky, more loved.

I started noticing strange things last fall. At some point, going for a run became more than just a way to stay in shape, more than a way to ensure good sleep and energy, more than a way to get outside to feel invigorated in the winter, or flushed, leave-it-all-on-the-field in the summer. It became a metric for something mysterious that was going on with my body that scared me and that I was afraid to face.

I’d lace up my Hokas, head to Riverside Park for my standard three-miler along the Hudson, and as soon as I pressed START on my Strava tracker, I’d start to wobble from side to side, get lightheaded and dizzy. Just power through the first seven minutes, I’d tell myself the way I always have. Those are always the hardest. And I would. I’d finish the run, unclear if I felt better by the end or just used to the unsteadiness. In the immediate aftermath of a run I’d convince myself everything was fine. I was running much more slowly, yes, but I’m older, and this is completely normal. At home, I’d google “Is dizziness a symptom of menopause?” And of course it is, because what isn’t? The little AI star would turn and tell me what I needed to hear when I needed to hear it: “30% of all peri-menopausal women experience light-headedness.”

Then, over the next few months, if I really let myself pay attention to what was going on, I realized this unsteadiness was creeping into other parts of my day. As recently as two years ago, I’d sprint down the left side of the stairs from the second level of Fairway, eggs tucked under one arm, a six-pack of IPAs under the other and sail to the first-floor registers for check-out. But at some point, those stairs started to trigger physical fear — I was unsteady, I thought I might fall. I became aware of how much I was carrying, and held the railing all the way down, if not completely skipping the stairs for the elevator. I felt like I was living on a boat. In my living room, I’d stand up after watching TV and pinball between the coffee table and sofa. While walking the dog with my friend Jeni or heading to the coffee shop with Andy on busy West 72nd Street, I’d sway towards them before righting myself and checking to see if they noticed. At the end of March, I drove north on a fast-moving West Side Highway to meet my friend Jodi and had to pull off an early exit because I thought I was going to pass out.

If there was a moment when I decided to finally address what was going on, that was it — I was a danger to other people, not just myself — and yet still it felt too bright to look at directly. I just sort of gently placed the topic on the table by emailing my doctor on the same day I told my niece, Alison, a first-year medical student that I was feeling just a little off kilter and that menopause sucks and isn’t it so crazy how many things estrogen affects and my friend Jennie almost just fell off a treadmill because of it, can you believe that, and I was waiting for a call from my gynecologist to talk about HRTs because what won’t they fix, and isn’t it weird how many people have vertigo and balance and general vestibular issues, specifically women in their 50s? Alison, ever the women’s-health advocate, texted her fellow students sharing outrage over how under-researched these things are! Then she proceeded to give me a full cranial nerve exam in my sister’s kitchen (her test on it had just been that day) and, adorably, administer a newly-learned Epley maneuver on me in her childhood bedroom.

Of course, when I heard back from my gynecologist, the one who delivered both of my daughters and has been practicing medicine for forty years, she wasn’t so convinced by my self-diagnosis. She couched it in niceties (“wouldn’t rule it out” “probably labyrinthitis”) but she was direct: See an ENT, rule out inner ear. Rule out something neurological. It would be nineteen days from that point until my official diagnosis, and I hate how dramatic I sound here, but those were nineteen days that felt like they belonged to someone else. Nineteen days of writing this newsletter about a character named Jenny who lived in New York and just discovered this neat recipe for pressing tofu. Nineteen days of negotiating with the universe. Of OCD on overdrive — If I see a book in the bookstore window that I’ve read before, everything is going to be ok. If I find my favorite olive oil on the same shelf in Trader Joe’s, everything is going to be ok. If I don’t pick up that errant can next to the recycling bin, things will not be ok.

Should we roll it back? I’m going to be ok. Better than ok. Not that I needed the reminder, but my friends, my family, my daughters, my sister, my brother, my mother, my brothers- and sisters-in-laws, my college friends, my friends of friends and sisters of friends, and friends of sisters, and uncles of friends and cousins of friends, new and old colleagues…everyone in my community has been stunning in their generosity and support. Not to mention I feel as though I need to discover an entirely new language, like one that doesn’t involve words, but maybe sparrow songs and celestial dust, to remotely capture how I feel about my husband right now. The love coming at me is intense and technicolor — unless this is the steroids talking — and you can very much expect an upcoming newsletter with the title “Eight thousand ways you can make someone sick feel really fucking good.”

Here, in fact I’m tempted to close out this story with a list of everything I feel lucky for right now, today, July 10, 2026. But I’m going to pace myself and focus on one thing: I can still write this newsletter as I recover. As long as I am mindful about how my day unfolds (where are my “Spoon Theory” people at?) I can sit at my laptop and I can write. I can cook (ish!). I have an appetite. I can read. I have a next-level appreciation for how much pleasure and comfort comes from being fed and preparing food and simply eating delicious things. I can’t wait to tell you about the herby chicken burger that Andy grilled for me last Friday night that nearly brought me to tears; about the novels that have been keeping me company during “Analog Hour;” about my Everything Bagel Chip Epiphany; about a new meditation technique I invented called “The Avenue” that I plan to patent and sell for a million dollars; about how I wake up every day and say to myself I can’t believe I timed my recovery with the World Cup AND apricot season. There is so much more to say…

…and, as always, I’m so glad I have this space to say it.

See you next week, thanks for reading.

Jenny

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Note: Ever since launching Dinner: A Love Story in 2010, I’ve had to navigate the strange, internet-y question of how much of my private life I want to share — and it might surprise you to hear that the answer is usually: not a lot. I’ve become perhaps too adept at sharing a lot without sharing everything, and though I’ve never once felt like I’ve “owed” anyone any part of my life, this one feels different. To continue writing this newsletter right now, pretending that everything was fine, would’ve been to write a kind of fiction. And perhaps most important, I don’t want to miss any opportunity to connect with readers who are struggling, and who might feel the tiniest bit less alone confronting their own challenges. If that is you, please know I am with you.

Are you an esteemed member of the Acoustic Neuroma community? Please feel free to DM me on Chat or get in touch at jenny@dinneralovestory.com.

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Cocktails on the roof, food tours in Italy, a parade of pastas that have earned coveted positions on the Lifetime Dinner Roster! It’s been a busy few months in the Land of DALS and so herewith: Twenty things you might’ve missed while you were…wait, what else could you have been doing that was so important!?! We’ll start with number one above: Back in April, Andy discovered his new go-to drink, the Mortoni…

Not to be outdone on the refreshing cocktail front, I decided that the Hugo Spritz would be my official drink of summer.

A dozen intrepid Dinner: A Love Story readers joined me in Parma for a food tour, hosted by .

James Beard-Award-winning chef Dan Kluger shared his stunning recipe for Rigatoni with Mushroom Bolognese.

My daughters and nieces weighed in with a banger: “Cheap, Loud, Fun: Where to Eat in New York,” i.e. restaurant recs from my favorite twenty-somethings.

I wrote about the 12 best things we did (and ate and drank!) in Rome.

I took a family trip to Ireland!

Caroline Chambers joined me on Substack Live to get us all hyped about the first long weekend of grill season. It worked! Especially that part about the Herby Grilled Steak with Greek Feta Bruschetta.

The next week, I convinced my husband and Dinner: A Love Story intern Andy Ward to talk about his side hustle as the Publisher of Random House. No offense to all my other interviewees, but this Substack Live might’ve been an all-time favorite.

There was, in fact, a lot of book talk this spring. A reader named Abby asked “Would you ever consider writing about your reading schedule…I’d love to hear the nitty gritty of how you get through so many books” and the answer — How to Prioritize Reading the Way You Prioritize Working Out — was one of my most popular posts of the year. I also wrote about Lena Dunham’s Famesick, New York’s newest cookbook store, and asked Emma Straub to discuss what she is reading and loving right now. And remember when beloved novelist Maria Semple taught all of us How to Be a Dinner Fairy?

I developed a comforting, throwback-y recipe called One Pot Ditalini with Sausage, “the kind of strategic meal I used to have in the rotation when the kids’ schedules were scrambling my brain…and all I wanted was a dinner that could sit on the stovetop and be anything to anyone at anytime.”

I asked a dozen of my favorite Substack women writers to weigh in on the gifts they wanted for Mother’s Day…or really any day. (Writer Ann Hood’s dream gift was epic.)

I invited some friends over for a Vegetable Broth Taste Test and was completely surprised by the winner.

I made Cornmeal-Crusted Fish Tacos with Avocado Salad and Mango-Salsa and was reminded that classics are classics for a reason.

Inspired by all my Great British Bake-Off bingeing, I made a small-scale Angel Food Cake with Strawberry Sauce. Not sure it would’ve earned me Star Baker honors, but it was damned delicious.

There was that 10-minute Hot-Smoked Salmon Bowl with Green Beans and Herby Green Sauce that my daughter told me was the best recipe I’ve run on Dinner: A Love Story in a decade. 🤷‍♀️

There were two winners in the Department of Noodles: Spaghetti all’Assassina, aka the Pasta I’ll Be Making for the Rest of My Life, and the simple, elegant Tagliatelle with Scallions and Anchovy Breadcrumbs.

In between the reading and eating, I wrote about the way Rituals Can Be a Mindset and the way rituals ground us. I ranted about ChatGPT. I talked about Happiness Maps. And lastly, I wrote about advice from a reader that I’ve come to think of as The First Rule of Entertaining. I think you will too.

Have a great holiday,
Jenny

If you like what you read, please take a sec to hit the ❤️ button at the top left or bottom left of this newsletter? It helps spread the word about Dinner: A Love Story and also really makes my day.

Greetings friends. I’ve returned from Ireland and though I’m always happy to come home, I am now acutely aware of how few sheep-dotted pastures there are in my everyday life, and how decidedly not-green New York can feel even during the first week of summer. (Happy that, by the way.) Some of this can be remedied by a stroll in the park, but for the immediate future, I’ll have to be content extending my Ireland dreaming through the Edna O’Brien novels I packed for the trip and never managed to crack. (Though I did finally wrap up Paul Murray’s epic 2010 novel Skippy Dies which, as promised, delivered on all counts.) Before we officially begin, I wanted to put three meals on your radar for the week…

…this Craggy Chicken Patty Caesar Salad (above) a really fun twist on the classic; Rie McClenny’s Chicken-Tofu Toskune, tender Japanese meatballs that are great with rice and sweet soy sauce; and ’s Miso Corn Rice with Chili Cod, even though it’s not quite corn season yet. I’m not breaking any news with this observation but Justine is so good — she’s always up to something innovative, in this case, blending corn kernels with aromatics to create a flavorful plant-based broth. Sold!

Herewith, your Three Things…

1. Our Ireland Itinerary (in Shorthand)

Last year for the holidays I told my kids I wanted only one gift: A week in June earmarked for family vacation. I know that doesn’t sound like a very hard ask, but anyone with adult children probably understands how complicated it can be to nail down timing when your kids are no longer under your control roof. Gone are the days — at least for me! — when mom takes a look at the family calendar, cross-references various camp or school schedules, then picks the dates and books the tickets and airbnbs and done and done and done. This is the world working the way it’s supposed to, is what I tell myself.

But miraculously, my holiday wish was granted, and last week we had the kids to ourselves in Ireland for seven days of hiking and Guinness-ing and cliff-walking, and swimming, and fish-and-chipping, and World Cup-in-the-pub-ing! It was the best and I was so grateful for the trip that I didn’t even have FOMO about missing Knicks euphoria wash all over New York in my absence. (Well, ok maybe I had a little.)

All this to say, I tried to be as present as possible — no obsessing over getting the right photo or scribbling post-dinner food notes in my journal — which means instead of writing up the usual comprehensive Vacation Highlight Reel, I’m instead giving you the broad strokes of our itinerary: We flew from JFK to Shannon, drove our rental car to Dingle in the southwestern part of the island, stayed at the Pax House for three nights; then headed to Kenmare for two nights and stayed in an Airbnb which was an ideal launching point for driving the Ring of Beara; for the final two nights, we drove about two hours east (with a minor lunch detour in wonderful, technicolor Kinsale) to stay at Ballymaloe, a 15th-century castle-turned-hotel, home to the Chez-Panisse-y, everything-from-the-farm restaurant and world-renowned Cookery School. In between we hiked and explored, and discovered charming cafés and restaurants — we even had enough sunshine to power us through four bonafide swims.

I miss you, Ireland! As always, subscribers are welcome to DM me on Substack Chat for the day-by-day list of places we ate, hiked, swam, and explored.

P.S. I think I had a version of these oats almost every morning (#wheninIreland), whether I was eating at a hippie cafe in Kenmare or at Ballymaloe’s bountiful breakfast buffet. I know, cue the T-shirt: Jenny went to Ireland and all she brought back for us was this lousy porridge! Yes, I do plan on adding stewed apricots to my morning oatmeal for as long as the fruit is in season, thanks for asking.

2. Avo Toast of the Week

In the day or two leading up to vacation, I like to challenge myself to use up as much produce and as many perishables as possible. Some set-ups are better than others, which was the case before we headed to Ireland. For lunch on the day I left, I had a perfect avocado (rare in my world, though I know people swear by this guy) a few straggly cherry tomatoes, and an almost empty jar of pickled onions. There is always a loaf of Bread Alone peasant bread in the freezer and some Everything Bagel Seasoning in the spice drawer. The result? Would you have ever known that the above sandwich was a throw-together situation? I would’ve paid fifteen bucks for it in a cafe and been thrilled.

3. Re-Entry Rituals

Tamar Adler’s latest Kitchen Shrink dispatch came through while I was sitting in the Shannon airport waiting for news on exactly how many hours our flight back to JFK was going to be delayed. (Four. But in that time, I did meet three travelers I wouldn’t have otherwise.*) Tamar’s newsletter is an advice column, and this week she was answering two queries about beans, which is sort of like James Joyce answering questions about Dublin. It’s impossible for her not to sound poetic on the topic — there is a chapter in An Everlasting Meal devoted to beans called “How to Live Well” — even when she’s giving a strict culinary how-to. Or maybe I was just projecting, sitting there in the airport envisioning the comfort of being home and plunking a pot of beans in water on the stovetop, then babysitting them all day as they’d soak and simmer and, finally, get folded into dinner.

When I woke up in New York sixteen hours later, prepping my beans was indeed the first thing I did. The second thing? Hard-boil a few eggs. Next, a trip to Fairway to stock up on fruit, yogurt, avocados, plus tofu and cabbage for lunch, and all the ingredients I’d need to turn my beans into dinner. When I closed the full fridge, everything in its place, I was reminded of how much comfort I derive not only from eating certain familiar foods, but also from the almost meditative ritual of hunting and gathering and stocking those foods — especially when I return home after time away. This has been the case for as long as I can remember, even when I had little kids and the idea of anything “meditative” might’ve felt like a laughable luxury. It also reminded me of something my friend Lygeia said over breakfast last month, how she’s teaching herself to look at everyday tasks from a different angle. “There are a lot of things on my to-do list that could be reframed as rituals,” she said. Not always easy, but I’d argue it’s definitely worth a shot.

Have a good week,
Jenny

*please be impressed by the distinct way I’m not complaining

P.S. I Have Some Questions for You

Do you value human-generated prose? Related: Are you enraged by the fact that I even have to ask the question? Are any of my recipes requested by your family members on a regular basis? Do you read and/or use Dinner: A Love Story regularly?

If the answer to any of those questions is YES, 1) I appreciate you so much! And 2) please consider becoming a paid subscriber. This whole thing would literally not be possible if it weren’t for the readers who step up and support the operation. (Thank you current supporters! 🙏 ) Whether you can swing a full year subscription or even just a month or two, I am grateful for all of it.

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If you like what you read, please take a sec to hit the ❤️ button at the top left or bottom left of this newsletter? It helps spread the word about Dinner: A Love Story and also really makes my day.

A slam dunk again! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ “Jenny doesn’t know me, but her words and recipes have shaped my family’s life and eating. And now, she has done it again, with this incredible cookbook. I have made more than 20 recipes from the book (”our favorite kale salad” truly is a favorite for us now!) and it has made me think about eating and cooking in a whole new way.” Amazon reviewer “cookingandtravel” on my New York Times bestselling book The Weekday Vegetarians, shown here with its sequel The Weekday Vegetarians: Get Simple.

Greetings from Ireland, friends! I simply cannot believe how beautiful it is here — so far we’ve hiked over rolling hills and rugged cliffs, gone swimming in Dingle Harbour, eaten fried hake and chips while watching the World Cup on one side of the pub and Irish musicians on the other. I also tried (and failed) to “split the G” when drinking my first-ever Guinness, but I believe this challenge qualifies as a Noble Vacation Pursuit, so I hope to report back with progress on that front next week. In the meantime, you know I’d never leave you hanging, so I am passing the mic to a few guest Substack writers this week: Carla Lalli, the ultimate cook’s cook, who writes the highly useful, highly tasty Food Processing and the author of the upcoming Food is a Feeling; Yolanda Edwards, the wizard behind and travel lifestyle empire Yolo Journal (I never go anywhere without checking her Black Books first); and Jenna Helwig of the Cookbookery Collective, a must-read weekly dispatch for both cookbook enthusiasts and industry insiders. In other word, you are in excellent hands, so without further ado, here are Three Things my Special Guest Triumverate would like you to know about this week…

…but wait, ICYMI! I convinced my husband Andy to join me on Substack Live last week to discuss his day-to-day life as the Publisher of Random House. What books is he excited about right now? What’s trending? What are his picks for Father’s Day? What book reviewer made him cry…in a good way? Join me in my kitchen and Andy at his standing desk to hear all the tea! And btw, for those of you who have never watched a Substack Live before, it’s not complicated — you just click here and press play. But you do have to be a subscriber. You can take care of that right here. ⬇️⬇️⬇️

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1. Grilled Pork Steaks with Snap Peas, by Carla Lalli

I was reporting a story with chef and restaurateur Rachel Yang the first time I had grilled pork shoulder, which I thought of as a strict braising cut. I was pretty dubious as she cut the shoulder into fat slabs, then marinated them with gochujang before putting a crisp char on them, but they were spicy and juicy and pleasantly chewy. Life changing! And it reminded me of how lucky I am to work in an industry where people are constantly teaching me new tricks. — Carla Lalli,

Grilled Pork Steaks With Snap Pea And Scallion Salsa 2026

921KB ∙ PDF file

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How good would that be with Carla’s Grilled Veg Grain salad?

2. Three Travel Heroes, by Yolanda Edwards

I’ve been on the road since April 4 and haven’t slept in one bed for more than four consecutive nights. Sure, I travel a lot all year — but given how zig-zaggy this period has been, I’ve really learned how to minimize my packing, and zero in on the real heroes in the suitcase: First, the Friulane Slippers (above) from the Venetian company Pied-a-Terre have some extra padding in the sole, so I can actually wear them all day without them killing my back as so many flat no-support shoes will do. They also have a rubber sole with stitching, so they grip on smooth stone staircases. For summer they are perfect in canvas, and in navy blue, they work with shorts as well as dresses—so they get MVP status for being the most, if not only, worn shoe in the bag. Second: I’ve been a fan of La Roche Posay straight-up sunscreen for a long time, but my daughter recently turned me onto this moisturizer with SPF50 that is super moisturizing but not too heavy. It also has a faint honey smell that I love. Lastly, I wear this linen chore coat all summer long. It has big pockets that I can throw my phone or glasses case into for easy access when I’m traveling, but also functions as a shirt, especially since the collar has enough structure to stand up on its own. — Yolanda Edwards,

3. How to Start a Cookbook Club, by Jenna Helwig

If a book club and a potluck had a baby, they would be the proud parents of a cookbook club—one of my favorite ways to socialize. Like a book club, a cookbook club chooses a book, but instead of a novel or memoir, you pick, well, a cookbook. When the group gathers, everyone brings a dish that they prepared from the book.

The chosen title could be brand new, a classic, or somewhere in between—anything the gang is interested in trying. I belong to two cookbook clubs, and here’s a short list of some of the books we’ve cooked in the past year-ish: Hot Date! by Rawaan Alkhatib (get the recipe for Rawaan’s Chocolate Olive Oil Date Toasts), Mastering the Art of French Cooking by Julia Child, Nights and Weekends by Alexis deBoschnek, A Year at Catbird Cottage by Melina Hammer, and What Can I Bring? by Casey Elsass. (You can find Casey’s Caesar Salad with Bouillon Croutons recipe on The Dinner Plan Substack.) The Weekday Vegetarians would be an excellent cookbook club pick, of course!*

*thanks Jenna 🥹 ❤️

The two clubs are run a little differently, proving that there are no hard and fast rules here. (Well, there are two, which I’ll get to in a minute.) In one club, all the decisions are made on WhatsApp. We meet monthly and vote on the date and the book in our group chat. Hosting duties are loosey-goosey. Someone will volunteer, and it’s understood that some people will never host, and that’s totally okay!

The second club is always organized by the same two co-hosts and held quarterly in a culinary studio. (What can I say? I hang out with a lot of food people.) The hosts decide on the book and the date, taking into account the group’s preferences, of course.

Those two hard and fast rules I mentioned? First, there must be a shared Google Sheet where people mark down what dish they’re planning to bring. No gathering needs three trays of coq au vin from Mastering the Art of French Cooking. Second, you can’t expect that every member will make every get-together, especially if you have more than six people in the club. Get consensus on a date, and then let the RSVPs fall where they may.

A few other tips:

• I find 8-12 people to be ideal. Not everyone will come to every gathering, but you’ll likely have at least six dishes to try.

• If possible, decide on the books well in advance so people have time to request them at the library or download them on Libby if they’re not ready to commit to a purchase.

• Before you dig into the spread, ask everyone to explain the dish they brought and how the cooking process went.

After that, let the conversation flow! Delve into the cookbook or just devour the food and enjoy each other’s company. I adore exploring cookbooks with pals, but at this point, the gathering is what matters. The cookbook is simply the conduit.
— Jenna Helwig, .

Thanks Carla, Yolanda, and Jenna! I’ll see everyone next week.

P.S. One more from the road. Can you believe? 💚 💚

If you like what you read, please take a sec to hit the ❤️ button at the top left or bottom left of this newsletter? It helps spread the word about Dinner: A Love Story and also really makes my day.

“Exactly What I’ve Been Looking For! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ These are exactly the kind of recipes I’ve been scouring the Internet for the last year. If you search ‘vegetarian dinners’ in Pinterest or Google, you mostly get recipes…that make vegetarianism seem like living in constant FOMO for real food. These recipes actually celebrate all the delicious vegetables we have available and seem just as indulgent and delicious as any other dinner. Plus timetables that I can handle on a weeknight. I see what a labor of love this book was, and I’m so grateful for it.” — Reviewer “M Kim” on my New York Times bestselling book The Weekday Vegetarians, shown here with its sequel The Weekday Vegetarians: Get Simple.

Greetings friends and food lovers! I’m thrilled to invite you to join me for my next culinary adventure in Sicily, which will take place next year, May 9-15, 2027. Like the previous tours I’ve hosted in Italy — Puglia, Parma, and Ortigia — the tour will be run by on-the-ground local guides, and curated by Via Rosa, the boutique tour company run by Italian food expert, Elizabeth Minchilli and her two daughters. You can read more details about the tour here, but for six nights and five days, we’ll be based in the vibrant city of Palermo, and exploring the rich food culture of western Sicily.

Learn More About the Tour

That means pastry-making with renowned Sicilian bakers, exploring medieval towns and a 15th-century private palace, learning about olive oil production and ricotta-making, eating all the foods the region is famous for, and…

…getting to know the craftsmen and women who have kept traditions alive — culinary or otherwise — for centuries. I’ve been to Sicily a few times, most recently to Ortigia on the eastern coast, but I’ve never spent real time in this part of the island so I’m excited to explore and eat, and (the best!) connect with Dinner: A Love Story readers while doing so. Again, you can head over to Via Rosa for more info.

Learn More About the Tour

Every tour group is different but we’ve had mother-daughter duos, best friends, cousins, couples, and for all three of my previous trips there have been at least two or three solo travelers. The energy is excellent! If you want to go deeper on the vibe, head over to my highlight reels from Puglia, Parma, and Ortigia (above, ca. 2023).

And btw, you can always count on great hotels when you book a Via Rosa tour.

The last time I was in Palermo was with my family in 2018 — we only had one night there, but I still remember this dinner. We went off!

Learn More About the Tour

Please let me know if you have questions. Hope to see you in Italy!
Jenny 💚 ❤️

Andy Ward is the Publisher of Random House. He is also a martini lover, an ESPN FC addict, a Merlin app junkie, a standing-desk believer, a Bob Dylan devotee, and the family Enthusiast in Chief. His superpowers include: Mincing herbs, grilling meat to perfect doneness, remembering every friend’s cocktail preference, queueing up exactly the right song for the vibe, skipping stones, storytelling with sound effects. Wet-vac-ing. Depending on how recently you’ve joined this community, you may know that he is also my husband of 29 years, that we co-wrote a column together at Bon Appétit, and that he’s been Dinner: A Love Story’s honorary intern since I launched the whole operation sixteen years ago. So yesterday, I asked him to join me on Substack Live to talk about his life as a book editor. We discussed what it’s like to work with writers as wide-ranging as Elizabeth Strout, George Saunders, Ben Rhodes, Yuval Harari, Imbolo Mbue, Lena Dunham and what he brings to the table when he’s editing cookbooks by chefs like Samin Nosrat and Eric Ripert. We talked about the book whose success surprised him, the book review that made him cry (in a good way), books that would be excellent for Father’s Day gifts, and why his colleagues like to say “Andy loves the weirdos and the weirdos love Andy.” Who knew? Not me!

It was fun and I wanted to be sure to pass on the recording in case you missed it live. Just click the link below to watch.

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That was the best — thanks to everyone who tuned in and submitted such great questions. I’m sorry we didn’t get to all of them, but please feel free to ask anything the comments and Andy will do his best to answer them.

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Jenny & Andy

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Greetings friends, and please join me as I attempt to stay focused on this stracciatella sandwich and the absolutely electric blue-and-orange-spiked energy coursing through the city right now, instead of thinking too catastrophically about the Knicks’ loss last night. (How’m I doing?) A few housekeeping notes before we officially begin: For those of you in the New York area, tonight, Tuesday June 9 at 7pm, I’ll be at Greenpoint’s Threes Brewing talking with Amateur Gourmet’s Adam Roberts about his now-out-in-paperback novel Food Person; and this Thursday, June 11, 2:00 ET, I’ll be in conversation on Substack Live with my book-editor-husband Andy Ward asking all the hard-hitting questions such as: What’s it like to edit writers as diverse as Yuval Harari, Lena Dunham, Imbolo Mbue, and Elizabeth Strout? What’s the go-to gift book for Father’s Day? What do you think happened in your childhood that makes you so obsessive about clean kitchen countertops?

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Last week, a subscriber named Abby commented on my newsletter “Would you ever consider writing about your reading schedule? You’re one of my favorite sources for book recommendations…and I’d love to hear the nitty gritty of how you get through so many books :)?” I thought that was such a good idea — flattery will get you everywhere! — and exactly right for the Dinner: A Love Story community that seems to have expanded their definition of The Good Life to include not just excellent dinners, but excellent novels and memoirs, audiobooks, and stories that make you feel things and see the world in a new way. This has been an incredibly satisfying development, especially since there are only so many pasta recipes I can develop before I want to lay down on the couch, eat a dozen jelly donuts, and watch Naked and Afraid for the rest of my life.

Not to mention, I welcome the opportunity to give the same treatment to books that our optimizing-obsessed media gives so many other topics that affect our well-being. Think about the absolute avalanche of content you are hit with on a daily basis teaching you how to work hydration into your day, cardio into your workout, meditation into your morning, meaningful connection into your social life, vegetables into your kids’ all-white diets, omega-3s into your dinners, protein into your salad, smoothie, pasta, Starbucks’ cold foam, wine, water, omg enough with the protein! How are we not equally obsessed with optimizing our book-reading lives? Especially when we know how good it can be for our psychological health. To remind you, reading books flexes our empathy muscles, makes us feel less alone, makes us — duh — smarter, and, most important, acts as our first line of defense in the battle to retain whatever brain cells we have left that are responsible for focusing and deep-thinking.

Just that! So how do I make sure reading is a regular part of my life? I find there are two main ways to answer this. For me, it comes down to rituals and routine, of course. But it’s also about keeping the TBR (To Be Read) stack piled high with the good stuff.

Let’s start with the most important thing…

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Greetings friends! Hope it was a good weekend. We were at my sister’s house on Long Island and even though it felt more like March than May, we took an invigorating walk to the water and my brother-in-law grilled up a fish taco feast* for nine, complete with mango salsa and foil-wrapped sweet potato halves charred right in the coals. (Nicely done, Nick!) Meanwhile back at the ranch, we are in the process of replacing our kitchen cabinet doors, and every time I look at my denuded shelves, I can only see the unused space above the pantry, which seems to be yelling at me What is wrong with you? How are you not optimizing those two precious square feet? Lastly, there are still some spots open in the Via Rosa food tour I am hosting in Western Sicily next year, and I’m pretty sure they belong to you and your best friend…or you and your mom…or just you, don’t you think? Please take a look at some of the previous trips and let me know if you have questions. And now, Three Things I’m thinking …

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How was the holiday weekend, friends? We didn’t do a whole lot because here in New York it felt more like early, rainy spring than it did the first official weekend of summer. Plus, I was a little under the weather, which, by the way, is one of the dozens of expressions with nautical roots that I learned from The Wager*. (In the 1700s, when sailors were seasick or facing stormy conditions, they’d protect themselves below deck, literally “under the weather,” in the most stable part of the ship.) So other than one early-bird restaurant reservation, timed so we could be home for the Knicks, it was a very indoorsy weekend — we read, we re-binged Breaking Bad, we inhaled Hetty McKinnon’s Dan Dan Noodles while watching Jalen Brunson absolutely cook anyone who dared get in his way. All things considered, I can’t complain. Herewith, your weekly Three Things…

*As you likely know by now, the 2023 seafaring adventure is a perennially excellent Father’s Day gift that Andy recommends to anyone who …

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…And meanwhile, here’s the Herby Grilled Steak with Greek Feta Bruschetta that came up a few times. …

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Greetings friends! Hope you all enjoyed your weekends. It was so beautiful here in New York, which means I spent mine hopping from park to park, blanket to bench, hanging with family, friends, and Big Swiss, a book both my daughters have been pleading with me to read since it came out a few years ago. (Says Phoebe: “If you liked All Fours you’ll like Big Swiss.”) The next few days look promising: There are all the Knicks playoff games, of course — here’s what I plan to eat in front of tonight’s game; my pal and I are taking a little field trip to Wild Sorrel, the new cookbook store in the East Village; an invitation to this Suleika Jaouad-Priya Parker journaling workshop just landed in my inbox, so I’m trying to rearrange my Wednesday to attend. (Maybe I’ll see a few of you there?) And perhaps most exciting, this Thursday, May 21 (2:00 ET, 11:00 PT), What to Cook’s Caroline Chambers will be joining me for a Substack Live to talk all things Memorial Day and summer grilling and whateve…

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Greetings friends! Since we last spoke, I’ve discovered my new favorite way to consume rhubarb: Infused in a cocktail with Dorothy Parker Gin, Cocchi Americano, Lillet, and coconut milk, and if you want to know exactly how to make it you’ll have to ask the geniuses at ABCv who served it to me on Friday night. I don’t think my enthusiasm for that restaurant — which pre-dates my 2018 vegetarian pivot — will ever wane, and I was not in the least bit surprised to see that it’s included once again in the New York Times’s 100 Best Restaurants in NYC. As always with these kinds of round-ups, it’s almost as much fun to read the reactions to the list — no Bar Bête? No Cosme? No Chinatown spot with the bad lighting but the world’s best peanut-sauce drenched hot-and-spicy wontons? — as it is to read the list itself. It made me realize yet again that a) every single New Yorker lives their own New York experience and b) I need to spend wayyyy more time exploring Queens. (I was, however, very pleas…

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Happy Mother’s Day! If you’re scrambling for a last-minute gift, you don’t need me to tell you that of course Mom would love to receive flowers or chocolates or a batch of homemade granola or some fresh eggs from your Sunday morning farmer’s market. But guess what? None of those will last the week.

You know what will last all year long and then some? A subscription to this newsletter, Dinner: A Love Story.

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If you are reading this now, then you already know: When you are a paying subscriber, you get all the benefits of membership including unlimited access to my Recipe Index; Bonus recipes, like last week’s Spaghetti all’Assassina that everyone is going crazy over, the Chocolate Chip Cookies that Blew My Mind; meal plans with shopping lists; Book recs including 100+ Ideas for Your Next Read; travel and vacation inspiration for cities all over the world including Rome, London, Lis…

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There have been a few times in my adult life when I can remember trying a certain recipe or ingredient, then stopping mid-bite and thinking, in the best possible way: Well, I’ve never tasted anything like that before. It happened when I first had Maida Heatter’s Mexican Chocolate Cookies and found myself delightfully shocked by a spike of black pepper and cayenne. It happened in the late 90s, when I decided to make Diane Kochilas’s Pasta with Sheep’s Milk Yogurt — the way the tang of the yogurt contrasted with sweet caramelized onions was so novel, so right, I instantly knew I’d be making it for the rest of my life. (Still going strong there!) And it happened last October, in the Adriatic port city of Bari, Italy, when I was served a beautifully restrained tangle of Spaghetti all’Assassina. The dish has become a kind of signature recipe of Bari — invented, in fact, by the restaurant chef who had prepared it for me — and translates to “murdered pasta” because it starts by frying uncooked spaghetti in olive oil over high heat, essentially burning it before proceeding with the stirring and the saucing.

I had been told that this pasta — shown above — was famous in Bari, but still, in retrospect I don’t think I was quite prepared for what I was about to eat. The restaurant, Al Sorso Preferito, was one stop on a food tour of Puglia that had been packed with destination-worthy dishes — sea-salt-crusted king red prawns, a fresh, creamy burrata made on a dairy farm before our eyes, custard-filled pasticiotto, to name just a few — and I was way more focused on the octopus we were about to be served, having witnessed a fisherman pulling one out of his net only an hour earlier. But I knew something was up with this spaghetti after one bite. The char of the pasta created not only a deep, smoky flavor but also a subtle crunch, and the tomatoes didn’t sauce the spaghetti so much as infuse the noodles with a sweet concentrated richness. It was so good and so unusual, that I almost went into panic mode. This is the only city where I can eat this dish? How was I going to remember it? Would it be possible in any way to replicate the recipe in my own New York kitchen? Later that night, armed with a little bit of info from the restaurant (they are legendarily stingy with specifics) I jotted a few notes in my journal with my best guess for how I might try Spaghetti all’Assassina at home…

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Greetings, everyone, and Happy Elizabeth Strout Day to all who celebrate! I read an early copy of The Things We Never Say back in March on my red-eye to Italy, and even though the plan was to read a chapter or two before drifting off to sleep, well, you can guess how that one ended up. I don’t think anyone is better at drawing you into characters’ inner worlds than Strout, even though at this novel’s core, she’s asking: Are we all ultimately unknowable, even to the people who love us the most? It wrecked me a little bit, I’m not going to lie, but that doesn’t mean I’m not giving the book to everyone I know.* One more thing before we get to your Tuesday dispatch: The good weather has put me in a good mood, so I was inspired to add a little bonus item to the bottom of today’s newsletter for paying subscribers. Sound the trumpets!! Here are your Three (ish) Things…

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Thanks for the support, as always…

*Speaking of which: Hope you didn’t miss Friday’s Mother’s Day Gift Guide

1. This Week in Asparagus

Over the weekend, a fat asparagus bouquet in hand, I opened up my Recipe Index to search for that glorious green-gold Chilled Asparagus Soup at the top of this email, and was shocked to find that I hadn’t written about it before — or, well, not on Substack at least — the recipe did have its star turn in The Weekday Vegetarians. So here I am remedying my oversight. (You’re welcome!) Think of the soup as a sort of asparagus gazpacho, and therefore the most delicious when (a) asparagus is in season, (b) it’s a warm night, and (c) you pile on the garnishes, like homemade sourdough croutons and crispy fresh sprouts. It’s best after being chilled in the refrigerator for at least an hour, but I’ve had it at room temperature, too, and wouldn’t send it back. If you don’t think it’s enough for dinner — I get it — you can serve with a quinoa-edamame-red-onion salad tossed with my all-purpose vinaigrette.

Chilled Asparagus Soup with Croutons & Chives

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Dals Asparagus Soup

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I’ve tweaked the recipe slightly since it was published in The Weekday Vegetarians: These days I reserve a stalk or two of asparagus before the rest goes into the blender. Then I chop up the stalk and add it as a garnish along with the croutons, chives, and other toppings.

2. A Good Char

It’s an age-old dilemma of vegetarian cooking: How does one achieve deep flavor when cooking without animal fat? I devoted a lot of words to the topic in both volumes of The Weekday Vegetarians, and I mostly concluded that it would behoove the aspiring vegetarian to get acquainted with umami-lending pantry staples like nutritional yeast, soy sauce, tomato paste, miso, and mushroom powder. But lately, I’ve noticed that I don’t need any of those ingredients if I’m charring my vegetables, a technique that lends a smoky, dare I say meaty, depth to whatever you’re working with. By charring, I do not mean burning: I mean a controlled blistering that creates a bitterness, sweetness, and deep umami all at once; I mean blasting something under a broiler or in a hot pan or over grill grates until it’s deep dark brown, taking it just to the very edges of blackened and burned. Exhibit A: The green beans you are looking at above were pan-seared in a cast iron skillet over medium-high heat with the tiniest bit of oil — I didn’t touch them for the first five minutes, which is how they get that beautiful sear. (I finished by tossing them with pesto and Parm.) Exhibit B: The Carrot Soup I can’t shut up about calls for charring the carrots in a Dutch oven set over medium-high heat before they get pureed into silky, smoky puree. Heaven.

3. Heaven-Sent Cloud Cookies

Over the weekend, after a stretch when I just could not motivate to cook — always disorienting for me when this happens — I made up for lost time and went kind of crazy in the kitchen. I prepared veggie burger patties and a fleet of grab-and-go mushroom-spinach-poblano breakfast burritos for the freezer. (Working on that recipe for you.) I developed and tested a sickkk pasta recipe inspired by a meal I had in Bari last fall. (Recipe coming this Friday!) I made vinaigrettes and rhubarb compotes and Herby Green Sauce from a bunch of cilantro that was seemingly minutes away from liquefying. And perhaps best of all, I baked a batch of King Arthur’s famous Almond Cloud Cookies. Have you ever made them? I never had, instead opting to pick up a dozen at our local BTW Bakery whenever someone gluten-free comes for dinner. You definitely do not have to be GF to adore them, though! The name is just right — they are chewy but airy and look ethereal with that dusting of powdered sugar. And I can personally, presently testify to their sublime-ness when paired with iced coffee on a sunny spring morning. I guarantee there’s a mother or mother figure in your life who would love to receive a beribboned box of them this weekend.

4. A Taste Test! What’s the Best Store Bought Vegetable Broth?

Earlier in the month, I did what I’ve been meaning to do ever since starting down my Weekday Vegetarian path: I invited my vegetarian friend and cookbook publisher Lia, her husband David, and their six-year-old daughter, Eliana, to join Andy and me for a vegetable broth taste test. With spreadsheets and number two pencils and everything! I wanted to know: Which broths have actual flavor and which ones taste more like, er, low tide? Are there any that go beyond merely tolerable and actually bring something tasty to the party? The goal was to see if the go-to brand I’ve relied on for years (for my soups, braised vegetables, curries, rice dishes and sauces) is indeed the best. Welp, I was completely surprised by the winner…

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I’m so excited to present this gift guide, which is technically arriving in time for Mother’s Day, but is really just an excuse for me to reach out to my favorite food people, novelists, writers, and podcast hosts to ask them what they are coveting, giving, and loving at the moment. In a shocking turn of events, they all came through for me! Herewith, more than two dozen gift recs for cookbooks, memoirs, novels, and indulgences small and large, organized by guest writer — including , Jodi Kantor, Meera Sodha, and — plus a special offer from Yours Truly. Enjoy!

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Greetings, friends! Hope you enjoyed your weekend. The parks are just absolutely stunning right now, so I spent as much of the weekend as possible weaving my way around paths shrouded by crab apple and redbud trees, and sitting with Bean on sunny benches reading Yesteryear. Have you read it? The premise is irresistible: A trad wife influencer who has millions of followers on Instagram gets beamed back to a mid-1800s homestead to live the life she’s preaching — but without the Sub-Zero refrigerator and staff of nannies and farmhands. The novel feels like 2026’s first real entry in the Beach Read category and reads like a screenplay…a horror movie screenplay. (Think The Compound meets Gone Girl.) It also holds this immortal observation: “The goal of an influencer is not to be lovable, and it is not to be unbearable. The goal is to be both at once. In other words: addicting.” Up next on the ole nightstand stack: Colm Tóibín’s story collection, The News from Dublin. Finally, it’s my birth…

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Greetings friends, and apologies in advance if it seems like this newsletter is turning into Italy: A Love Story. (If only Grandmas Catrino and Turano were still here to appreciate this!) In case you missed it, last week’s bonus newsletter was a recap of my fall 2025 trip to Rome, and today I feel the need to tell you right at the top that I’m obsessing a little over Giulia Scarpaleggia’s new book Vegetables, The Italian Way. It’s a stunningly photographed 260-page love letter to resourcefulness and the tradition of cucina povera, or, the practice of transforming seasonal, affordable ingredients into the most comfortingly gorgeous vegetable-forward meals. I can’t imagine any mother or human not being completely thrilled to unwrap this on Mother’s Day. Here are Three (more) Things I’m excited to tell you about this week…

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