We had not vacationed together as a family since right after my father died, in 2011, which meant that we had not vacationed together as a family since my two children, Miles and Nathaniel — 5 and 7 — were born. Sometime last year, Rima, my stepmother, started talking about a large-format family vacation, the kind where all of us (her, my two sisters, my husband, me, my kids, my sister’s partner) could all fly off to some far-flung island for a week in the sun.

We had done this, actually, on repeat. When my father was alive, our destination of choice was Caneel Bay, on St. John, a resort opened by Laurance Rockefeller in the 1950s. When my father died, we went back, one last time, to spread his ashes in the jet stream. This time, taking the advice of friends, we booked the four-bedroom Imperiale Villa at Eden Roc Cap Cana, a Relais & Chateaux property in the Dominican Republic that could accommodate our big group.

Our villa had rooms upstairs and down. We were greeted by hats and beach bags — enough for adults and children. A bottle of Champagne awaited us, as did cheese, fruit and assorted snacks. The backyard of the villa was entirely aquamarine pool, a vision in the afternoon heat, when you’ve just left frigid Boston with two children under 8.

The first night, we took our golf carts (included) over to La Palapa, one of the resort’s multiple on-premises dining concepts. La Palapa is open-air and overlooking the water. I had been tipped off by a friend: Order the spaghetti pomodoro and basilico — spaghetti with tomato and basil.

To be honest, it wouldn’t have been my first choice, but actually, it took me back to my first-ever adult summer in the Hamptons, the year that Scott Conant opened Tutto il Giorno in a tiny space on Bay Street. A friend of mine was the general manager, and I had only ever been out east once before, as a child. I came in and sat at the bar, and Conant’s legendary pasta, threaded through with butter (his recipe was a riff on Marcella Hazan’s, but I didn’t know that then, either) stayed with me, like the permanent glow that lived on that part of Long Island from May through August.

Read full article on 27east.com