Home cooked food can be used to nourish our loved ones, as well as ourselves. Whether it's a roast chicken shared on a Sunday night, a thick soup to soothe yourself, or American-style cookies to be eaten whilst still warm, it's the ultimate form of sharing love. With chapters devoted to how food can Comfort, Seduce, Nourish, Spoil and Cocoon, Skye McAlpine has exactly the right recipe for every moment of connection be it: - An elegant dish to make someone fall in love with you - Scallops with Buttery Brandy Gratin - A satisfyingly reliable meal for everyday family life - Polpette di Ricotta with Tomato Sauce - A go-to recipe for a very old friend - Chocolate, Coconut and Cherry Cake - Or something deeply simple to eat alone - Spaghetti with Pistachio and Lemon With hand-marbled patterns and glorious recipes and photography, A Table Filled with Love is a beautiful cookbook. It invites us to pull up a chair to Skye's delightfully aspirational and unabashedly romantic table.

'A real and rare gem, this is the must-have book on Venice and its cooking' -Anna del Conte

Skye McAlpine, author of the successful blog, From My Dining Table, offers an insider's perspective on Venetian home cooking, illustrated with her stunning photographs.

Hundreds of thousands of tourists pass through the city of Venice each year, eat at trattorie, and leave having dined in Venice, but not having eaten well. It is the food cooked in homes and made with local ingredients, the recipes passed down through generations - which Venetians guard ferociously and exclusively for their own gratification - that is Venetian food. It is romantic and it is exotic. It dapples in spices, and delightfully foreign flavours. It's pine nuts and raisins, bay leaves and sweet vinegar, heady saffron and creamy mascarpone. It's a legacy of a maritime republic that once upon a time journeyed across the seas, gathering culinary gems from as far and wide as Turkey, Greece and China, and then over generations wove them into the city until they became the way of living and eating. For Skye it is the food of her childhood, laden with nostalgia, synonymous with comfort and the source of an endless fascination.

Some of the recipes in A Table in Venice are translated and barely adapted from the old Venetian cookbooks. Other dishes are more loosely inspired by Venice, by the ingredients, by the flavours, and by everyday life there. All of the recipes are typical of Skye's cooking style: simple, fresh, colourful and always plentiful, and offer a rare glimpse into the tastes and secrets of a true Venetian kitchen.

A Table for Friends celebrates the joy of eating with friends and family, with over 100 simple and wonderfully inviting recipes that allow you to relax with your loved ones whilst the cooking takes care of itself.

Drawing on years of cooking for more people than it ever seemed possible to squeeze into her kitchen, Sunday Times columnist and cookery author Skye McAlpine shares the secrets to her stylish and relaxed way of hosting, setting you up for success whether you're cooking for two or twenty.

A Table for Friends has recipes for every occasion, from last-minute weeknight dinners to large celebratory gatherings. Skye's recipes fall into four chapters, Stars, Sides, Sweets and Extras, which allow you to intuitively plan a simple and impressive menu, and, because juggling oven space is one of the biggest challenges when cooking for a crowd, each chapter is ingeniously organised into Throw Together, On The Hob and In The Oven so your menu works best for your mood, your kitchen and your time. Alongside these beautiful, deliciously do-able recipes comes Skye's practical, fuss-free guidance for hosting a stress-free gathering, from what to cook in advance to how to lay the table beautifully, allowing you to step out of the kitchen and relax with your guests.

For a super-easy roast why not try her Honey-roast poussins, Butter-&-sage roast pumpkin, Saffron fennel, A really good chicory salad with creamy mustard dressing and Winter fruit & mascarpone tart? Or for a wonderfully soothing pasta supper, Tagliatelle with gorgonzola, pear & walnut and Chocolate chestnut meringue cake is sure to be a crowd-pleaser.

This is a cookbook to cook from: a helpful, approachable, down-to-earth kitchen companion that will give you the confidence to gather friends around your table and the inspiration to do so more often.