Food

Travel

Life

Professionally Hungry, Chronically Overpacked.

I cook, I travel, I have feelings for butter. Mostly I share recipes that I love, plus the trips, the takeout, and the tangents in between.

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READ THE JOURNAL

Editorial food and lifestyle photograph.

The origin story

Hi, I’m Marina

I have a tiny kitchen, a full passport, and opinions about olive oil that have ended friendships.

This started as a note on my phone called “things I ate” — a running list I kept so I could recreate the good stuff at home. Seven years later it is still basically that, except now there are photos and I have learned to write down the measurements.

Nothing here is fussy. Most of it is under ten ingredients, because I have four square feet of counter, one good pan, and zero interest in pretending otherwise.

THE LONGER VERSION

RECIPES

TRAVEL

SAY HI

Recent Meals

What has actually been on the table this month.

EVERY RECIPE, IN ONE PLACE

Caprese Crostini

Top!

The thing I make when people are already in the apartment and I have said nothing about food yet.

The Basil Gimlet

Top!

Gin, lime, and an aggressive amount of basil. The one I make when there are more than four people in the apartment.

The Sunday Sauce

Four hours of doing almost nothing, and then sauce in the freezer for two months. Worth every minute.

A Very Cold Martini

Temperature is the whole recipe. Everything else is preference and most of it is other people's.

Clams in White Wine & Garlic

Top!

Twelve minutes, one pan, and an alarming amount of bread. Looks like a restaurant, costs like a Tuesday.

Lemon Chicken with Too Much Garlic

Top!

A whole head of garlic. Yes, a whole one. This is not the recipe to negotiate with.

Popular Recipes

Caprese Crostini

The thing I make when people are already in the apartment and I have said nothing about food yet.

Caprese Crostini

The thing I make when people are already in the apartment and I have said nothing about food yet.

The Basil Gimlet

Gin, lime, and an aggressive amount of basil. The one I make when there are more than four people in the apartment.

The Basil Gimlet

Gin, lime, and an aggressive amount of basil. The one I make when there are more than four people in the apartment.

Clams in White Wine & Garlic

Twelve minutes, one pan, and an alarming amount of bread. Looks like a restaurant, costs like a Tuesday.

Clams in White Wine & Garlic

Twelve minutes, one pan, and an alarming amount of bread. Looks like a restaurant, costs like a Tuesday.

A candid editorial photograph from Marina Bell’s journal.

Longer Stories, Fewer Filters

The trips, the meals worth flying for, and the things I only worked out by getting them extremely wrong the first time.

A collected food and lifestyle photograph from Marina Bell’s journal.

Jan 1, 2026

August Is for Tomatoes

Four weeks where the only correct move is buying too many, salting them, and eating them over the sink like a raccoon.

August Is for Tomatoes

Four weeks where the only correct move is buying too many, salting them, and eating them over the sink like a raccoon.

Jan 1, 2026

What I Learned From Cooking Badly for a Decade

On under-salting, crowding the pan, and the very long stretch of being confidently bad at this.

What I Learned From Cooking Badly for a Decade

On under-salting, crowding the pan, and the very long stretch of being confidently bad at this.

Jan 1, 2026

The Tuesday Market

An hour over the border, a stall selling nothing but herbs, and the woman who flatly refuses to sell me artichokes on a Thursday.

The Tuesday Market

An hour over the border, a stall selling nothing but herbs, and the woman who flatly refuses to sell me artichokes on a Thursday.

Jan 1, 2026

A Very Long Argument About Pasta Water

Salt it like the sea, they say, and then nobody agrees on which sea. Here is what actually matters and what does not.

A Very Long Argument About Pasta Water

Salt it like the sea, they say, and then nobody agrees on which sea. Here is what actually matters and what does not.

READ EVERYTHING

Elsewhere

Life Lately

What I ate, where I ended up, with whomever I made take the photo.

Weeknight pasta. The view is doing a lot of the work.

Ordered for four. There were two of us.

Six o'clock, and the only correct drink.

Anchovy pizza, eaten on a boat. No notes.

Weeknight pasta. The view is doing a lot of the work.

Ordered for four. There were two of us.

Six o'clock, and the only correct drink.

Anchovy pizza, eaten on a boat. No notes.

COME HANG ON INSTAGRAM

Postcards from my kitchen

A Letter Every Other Sunday.

New recipes, wherever I have been eating, and the occasional strong opinion. Twice a month at most — I have neither the time nor the audacity to email more than that.

No spam, no random sponsorships. Leave whenever, no hard feelings.

Postcards from my kitchen

A Letter Every Other Sunday.

New recipes, wherever I have been eating, and the occasional strong opinion. Twice a month at most — I have neither the time nor the audacity to email more than that.

No spam, no random sponsorships. Leave whenever, no hard feelings.

Postcards from my kitchen

A Letter Every Other Sunday.

New recipes, wherever I have been eating, and the occasional strong opinion. Twice a month at most — I have neither the time nor the audacity to email more than that.

No spam, no random sponsorships. Leave whenever, no hard feelings.

Say hello

Tell Me Things

Recipe questions, restaurant recommendations, a correction because I got something wrong — all welcome. I read every one and answer most of them, eventually.

hello@marinabell.com

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