Mediterranean turquoise cover, splashed with a couple of ripe lemons and the promise of a “summer of passion and secrets … under Italian skies”, Recipe For Life is intended to feel like an invitation to paradise.

A quick dip into its short chapters, each devoted consecutively to Nicky’s two lead characters – wise, old, head-scarved Italian gardener Babetta and mid-life crisis London waitress Alice – and it’s tempting to predict their inevitable meeting and subsequent happy ending, with some brightly coloured bougainvillea and ceramic-tiled terraces along the way.

This is a well-worn path … but the author delivers not only on every sensory front – combining her love and knowledge of food with her passion for the Italian coast (and West London mansions and trendy Soho restaurants, too) – but also with her energetic writing, layering every character with shades of darkness and believable charisma.

When fearless Babetta realises her job at the crumbling Villa Rosa is at risk, she starts to seduce its visitors with food and drink – coffee for the real estate agent signorina and iced lemonade and mint for the noisy workmen. And when she welcomes English-speaking Alice and friend Leila – whose mother wants to buy the villa – with fava beans, sweet baby peas and young shoots of spring onion, there is more than method in her kindness. Love-torn Alice turns eggs and flour from the old lady into ravioli pouches filled with a purée of peas, beans and soft goat’s cheese. Where language is a barrier, recipes are the ingredients for friendship and some female bonding. Cooking cures? Well, yes, it does and, while the soil and sunshine nourish the fruit and vegetables, Babetta and Alice gently knead and fold away their sadness and painful secrets.

And it is here that the tale starts to bite with a deeper resonance. Through Alice, the author explores the torment of a young woman in a life-changing trauma and the unglamorous work of a waitress-turned trainee chef. Added to this are delightful diversions buying “roadside” produce at mountain homes, where Alice is greeted with plates of olives and leaves with bags of blood oranges.

“Eat like you’re hungry. That’s what counts as good manners here in Italy,” says Lucio, the chef, to love-struck Alice.

And by the end of Nicky Pellegrino’s searching lessons in love, we are all mouth-wateringly hungry and ready for a trip to Europe.

Read Recipe For Life and in 30 words or less, tell us what you think of it. The best critique will win The AWW Cooking School cookbook, valued at $74.95, and be printed in the August issue of The Weekly.

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