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Dear Friends

I have been overwhelmed by the amount of get well messages I received recently and I would like to thank each and every one of you for you kind words of support.

I am fully recovered and very well and am looking forward to working on some new projects.

I wish you Season Greetings and a Happy New Year.

Carluccio and the Leopard

Saturday 13 December, 9pm, BBC4

Antonio Carluccio travels to Sicily in search of the author of one of the most successful novels ever written in the Italian language, 'The Leopard' by Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa. Whilst tracing the locations that inspired the book, Antonio cooks the food that is such an integral part of the lives of its characters.

Giuseppe Tomasi, Prince of Lampedusa, who died in 1957, had seen his family fortune disappear during his lifetime. The Palermo palace he lived in as a child had been destroyed by American bombing in the Second World War and the family's country villa was reduced to rubble by an earthquake. Lampedusa was acutely nostalgic for the aristocratic world of his childhood, and at the end of his life he wrote a novel, based on the life of his great grandfather, that recreated this lost paradise.

Basing himself in the kitchen of a sixteenth century villa, Antonio recreates the meals of the 1860's that Lampedusa describes with such artistry. He explores the history of Italian unification that forms the background of the novel, and ventures into the vibrant city of Palermo to find the street food that is still an important part of the Sicilian way of life.

Antonio discovers the way that food is central to Sicilian culture, with Greek, Arab, Norman, and Spanish invaders all having contributed to the island's unique cuisine.

Antonio meets Lampedusa's adopted son and learns how this eccentric and impoverished nobleman died before his only novel was published, causing a sensation in Italy, and sparking a national debate on the eve of the centenary of the unification it described.

Welcome to my new website

I have been passionate about food and cooking all my life and in this new site you will be able to find all my favourite recipes and tips. I hope you too will discover the excitement and the exhilarations of cooking.

Autumn is one of my favourite times of year because it is when I go out hunting for the wild funghi. Even after all these years it still fills me with ecstasy and reminds me always of autumnal walks in beautiful woods in Piedmont, northern Italy, where I grew up when I went to search for them.

We all know this summer in the UK has been soggy to say the least but I have just read reports that there is a bumper truffle harvest! I am delighted as these rare funghi are one of my favourite and most prized culinary delicacies. I will be going on 'a quiet hunt' for them as soon as I can.

I want to share with you one of my favourite funghi recipes - Cervo Con Spugnole (Venison with Morel Sauce) with Polenta - it is a little expensive but very worth it for a special occasion!

Buon appetito
Antonio