All you need to know about Italian beach clubs and an easy cherry tomato pasta bursting with flavor.

Plus, a bit of This & That.

A Cherry Tomato Pasta

One of my favorite things about our summer road trip is the amount of simple and delicious cooking we've done along the way. All the places we've stayed at have had basic kitchens, and Andre and I always travel (when possible) with a cooking kit filled with our essentials, including a sharp knife, vegetable peeler, fish spatula, ladle, scissors, and a few other tools that allow us to cook with ease and therefore make the experience more enjoyable. Cut to the past two weeks at our rental house in Puglia, where we've been doing a ton of cooking and preparing memorable lunches using the region's incredible local produce and ingredients. This week, we made a quick pasta using a few things in the kitchen that needed to get used up: a few leftover anchovies, juicy cherry tomatoes, the remaining capers from our Cala Molinella farewell gift, and a very aromatic lemon. The result was one of those dishes you keep wanting to have one more bite of, and it took less than 30 minutes for it to all come together. 

CHERRY TOMATO PASTA WITH ANCHOVIES, CAPERS, AND LEMON

Serves 4-6

• Extra virgin olive oil 

• 3 anchovies (ones that have been preserved in oil)

• 1 small Tropea or red onion, peeled and thinly sliced

• 3 garlic cloves, peeled and roughly chopped

• 2 tablespoons capers (ones that have been preserved in vinegar not salt)

• 4 cups fresh cherry tomatoes, stems removed, cut into quarters

• 1 handful Italian parsley leaves, finely chopped

• 4 long strips of lemon peel, then cut into very thin strips or ribbons

• 1 lemon

• 1 pound dried pasta. shape of your choice

• Sea salt

• Black pepper

Bring a large pot of water to a boil. While your water is coming to a boil, prepare your sauce. 

Pour a generous amount of olive oil into a large saute pan, coating the bottom with a thin layer. Turn the heat on medium and add the anchovies, moving them around in the pan and cooking them for a minute or two until they break down and melt into the oil. Once the anchovies have melted, add the onion and garlic and cook, stirring occasionally, until the onions become translucent. Do not let the garlic turn brown. Next, add the capers, tomatoes, a pinch of sea salt, and some black pepper, stirring to combine. Cook for 8-10 minutes or until the tomatoes have softened and their juices have been released. (Taste so you know where the salt level of the sauce is. You will be adding pasta water, which also has salt in it, and finishing the pasta in the pan, so always keep this in mind so you don't accidentally make the dish too salty.)

Once the pasta water is boiling, season it generously with sea salt. Add the pasta and cook for 4-5 minutes, until it is still very hard. Add a ladle of the pasta water to the pan with the tomato sauce. Next, scoop out all the pasta and add it into the saute pan, where the pasta will finish cooking in the sauce. Stir constantly, adding more water as necessary, until the pasta is al dente. Remove it from the heat. Stir in the parsley and lemon peel. Squeeze in the juice from half a lemon and stir to combine. Taste. Add more lemon, sea salt, and black pepper if necessary. Finish the dish by stirring in a final drizzle of olive oil and serve.

---

The Italian Beach Club

Italians are no strangers to taking moments for rest and relaxation. Lots of time spent in and around the sea happens year-round in many parts of Italy. Even when it's not quite warm enough for a dip, Italians often visit a beach for the sheer tranquility and solitude it provides. But, in the dog days of summer, you'll find an entire culture created around beach-going focused on relaxation, dining, and socializing with family and friends at the private Bagni and Lido beach clubs up and down the coasts. If you've spent time near a beach in Italy during the summer, you've likely seen the perfectly sectioned and organized colorful umbrellas and beach chairs lined up on the sand for as far as the eye can see. These are part of a Bagni or Lido and may or may not be accessible to you depending on which one you choose, who you know to get a referral, or if you're going to a publicly accessible yet private beach club. After years of appreciating and enjoying bagni culture, I've met some proprietors of small and hard-to-book clubs. I can confirm the myth is true that there are, in fact, clubs where an Italian family may have a generational standing reservation that is never let go. Even if the owner does not hear from the family, they maintain the space for them, knowing they will return season after season. This is not to discourage, as there are plenty of accessible and fantastic clubs everywhere, but rather to mention the depth and history that some of these clubs have.

There are some slight differences between Bagni and Lido, but they may also be used interchangeably in some cases. In Italian terms, sometimes it's like this, but also sometimes it's like that! In the spirit of keeping things simple, let's focus on the experience because it's one of my favorite things about beaching in Italy during the summer, especially with young kids.