Rachel Roddy’s recipe for Italian rice cake with aubergine

The triumph of unmoulding a rich, plump drum of timballo is one of life’s simple pleasures, rivalled only by the act of slicing into the layers of melting cheese and rice, bound by their crunchy aubergine and breadcrumb crust

Rachel Roddy
Tuesday 17 October 2017 12.17 BST

Vita Sackville-West talked about simple everyday pleasures that were known in her family as ‘through leaves”, named after “the small but intense pleasure of kicking though leaves while out walking”. Her “through leaves” list includes: suddenly remembering a name you thought you’d forgotten, crushing thin ice underfoot, writing with a perfect pen, first feeling sand between your toes on the beach, drawing a cork with a good corkscrew or a curtain on a smooth rail, and reading in bed. I agree with all of these. I would add taking off shoes and putting on slippers; the first sip of an ice-cold martini, thinking you have run out of coffee and then finding a packet at the back of the cupboard (likewise with toilet roll), autumn sun on your face, and inverting a timballo successfully.