Elena Spagnol published more than 20 cookbooks, among them: Presto e Bene (Quickly and Well); Allora, Si Mangia (And So, We Eat); La Gioia in Cucina (Joy in the Kitchen); Cucina Intantanea (Instant Cooking); Il Forno a Microfonde (From Oven to Microwave); and the beautifully titled L’Apriscatole della Felicità (The Can Opener of Happiness).
Spagnol was a highly respected translator, working on texts by Bertrand Russell and PG Wodehouse, when her first cookbook was published in 1967. The book was called Il Contaminuti (The Timer), a cookery book for women who work. Its aim, as with all her books, was to simplify cooking, eliminate unnecessary ingredients and find rapid and economical methods. It was a book born of her own experience as someone who loved and needed to cook, and loved and needed to work, too. Also, as someone who worked with words. As a translator, you are required to evaluate, acutely, each word the author chooses. Spagnol applied the same principle both to cooking and writing about it. No wonder she loved writing about the pressure cooker.
