Keeping Face

Living frugally is competitive in Monculi. Paradoxically cutting a fine figure (la bella presenza) is just as important.

At the butchers it is as possible to be caught behind a woman buying the shop for a family lunch - family is upwards of twenty people from nought to ninety - and making sure the queue knows what they will all be missing on Sunday after eleven o'clock mass, as it is to be consulted on the possibility that a boned, trimmed and flattened chicken thigh (just the one) will be too much for three people.

'You see, Signora, there's tagliatelle with hare sauce (my family are hunters, as you know, and my mother-in-law made the pasta sfoglia this morning), stuffed artichokes - if yours are finished I can let you have some - and then crema with savoiardi (this last is home made custard, bright yellow from the free range eggs, with sugary biscuits). But the Doctor told us all we need to keep our triglycerides down - how are Mr HG's blood counts? Now my husband has...... Anyway, I thought a little chicken thigh couldn't raise anyone's blood pressure.'

I contemplate the little chicken thigh, imagine it sliced paper thin, rolled into saltimbocca with prosciutto, giant sage leaves, dripping in melted parmesan and garlicked olive oil.

Two fillet steaks? I ask the butcher. Heads toss, eyes flicker with contempt - it's only Thursday, after all. Show off spendthrift.