The Recipe Room

Fried Calamari is a must-know for any aspiring Italian chef. I often serve mine alongside home-made chips, taking advantage of the already heated and ready-to-go deep fryer. Besides, that combination sort of gives a nod to the British classic fish and chips.

You may have noticed that most seafood platters are served with lemon wedges, which is interesting to me. The combination of the citric fruit and fish comes from the olden days when it was more difficult to keep fish fresh for a long time. As there wasn’t ice in those days, the product often developed an unpleasant odor after being stored or transported to a nearby city, the journey often taking a few days. Lemon was used to combat the smell of the less-than-fresh seafood. Others say that it was used like salt to help preserve the quality of the nutrients and avoid any bacterial problems.

But now that transportation and keeping our seafood fresh isn’t a problem, we still use lemon! My parents were against the use of lemon and claimed that it is an insult to the chef to use it. If you like the combination, you are free to eat it as you choose. However, maybe you could try it without and enjoy the flavours of the fish exactly as they should be savoured.

(Also try this sea bass with white bean mash.)

This recipe is a hearty favourite of mine. Pasta itself is filling, but with the breaded red meat and strong cheese, I recommend that you make this only when famished!

This is more of a lunch item as well. My wife and I prefer the Mediterranean diet, so we normally eat a substantial lunch and a lighter dinner. Eating a heavier lunch gives us the energy we need and allows time for proper digestion.

I lent this recipe to a friend of mine who wanted to show off his  culinary skills. He proudly served it as dinner to his family. Later, his wife confided to us that although it was tasty, their young son suffered from fairly vivid nightmares all night. We all know that there are a number of things that can affect your dreams, but my personal suspicion is that it was the heavy meal right before bedtime.

I serve a side salad with lettuce and tomatoes, drizzled over with oil and vinegar. The lettuce aids in digesting the meat. You could also try this summer salad with pears and cheese. Or save that option for your light dinner before a peaceful night’s sleep.

Nowadays, when we want pasta, we’re spoiled with choices as we can buy it ready-made either in its dried or fresh form. But the best is when we can make it ourselves! In order to do this fine food justice, you need to take on another of the essential basics for any budding Italian chef: making fresh pasta.

Use this fresh pasta in any of my delicious recipes or with others such as this pasta with chestnut mushrooms and Grana Padano Cream.

Ingredients:

• 400g Tipo ‘00’ flour (plus a little extra for dusting the work surface)
• 4 large eggs
• 1 teaspoon of fine salt

Method:

1 – Sieve the flour and salt into a bowl. I do it in a bowl instead of a flat surface as I find it easier and a little less messy. Just as we did for pizza dough last week, make a big dip in the top of your ‘hill’.

2 – Break the eggs, either into the hole or a bowl, and beat with a fork till smoothly combined. Then, using your fingertips, gradually work the eggs into the flour. Once it’s all combined into a big ball, knead it thoroughly. Really work the dough, pounding it, stretching it, rolling, folding and recombining it. The initially floury texture should ultimately become smoother, taking on an almost satin sheen.

3 – Divide the pasta into generous fist-sized portions, rolling each into smooth balls and wrapping them in clingfilm. Rest the pasta dough somewhere cool for a full hour. Whatever you’re using right away is then ready for step four. What’s left over can be frozen in sealed plastic bags.

4 – Now it’s time to roll out the dough. If you’ve got a pasta-making machine, simply follow the instructions for making wide thin sheets. I roll mine out with a rolling pin because that way I feel more in control. Dust the worktop with some of the extra flour, and roll out a full fistful of dough at a time, into something as near rectangular as you can manage, aiming for pasta as thin as you can get it, dusting the pasta afresh with each pass.

Technology can speed things up: you could use a food processor on ‘pulse’ to mix your dough. But when it comes to rolling the pasta, whether you go the old-fashioned rollingpin route, or use a modern pasta-making machine, either way will take a bit of time. Just be patient and think of the lovely fresh pasta you’ll have as a result of all your efforts.

My first sweet is the utterly delicious tiramisu, which literally means ‘pick me up’, and – if you’re not already familiar with it – after one serving, you’ll be hooked for life. This rich, sweet, layered dessert is incredibly simple to make. Do it the day before you intend to eat it and chill it overnight. This allows the liquids to be absorbed into the biscuit, the flavours to intensify, and makes it firm.

If you are on a diet, I suggest watching this video of Phil Vickery as he demonstrates how to make a light tiramisu.

Ingredients:

• 475ml (2 cups) of strong black coffee or four shots of espresso
• 3 tablespoons caster sugar
• 5 tablespoons Amaretto liqueur
• 2 eggs, yolks and whites separated
• 1 packet of Savoiardi biscuits
• 250g mascarpone cheese
• 250ml double cream
• Cocoa powder, to dust
• Grated dark chocolate, to dust

Method:

1. Mix the cold coffee with half the amaretto and set aside.
2. Mix the egg yolks and caster sugar briskly, till the mixture thickens. Beat in the mascarpone, before folding in the cream.
3. In a separate bowl, beat the egg whites until soft peaks form, and then fold into the cream. Add the remaining amaretto liqueur, and mix gently together so as not to lose the aerated volume.
4. Soak the biscuits briefly in the coffee liqueur mix, and place a layer in the bottom of a rectangular glass dish (with sides a couple of inches deep). Spread half the cream over this layer, and then repeat the process with a second layer of biscuits and cream.
5. Smooth over the top layer of cream and dust with cocoa powder and a little grated chocolate. Chill overnight, and serve when you can’t wait any longer.
6. Remember, refrigeration is absolutely essential to this pudding. Without it, the tiramisu won’t firm up properly. And the longer you refrigerate the dish, the more the flavours combine and suffuse into the Savoiardi. If you’re doing this to impress at a fancy dinner party, you could try making individual portions in wine glasses.

This traditional biscuit from Prato, a wonderful city in Tuscany, is supposed to be very dry and crunchy; in fact, it is Tuscany’s traditional dipping biscuit, and one of the local specialities. Nowadays they are also called cantucci, even though that is a completely different type of biscotti. (Also try these Amaretti Chocolate Sticks.)

You might like to know that Prato is the centre of the ‘slow food movement’, which an international campaign founded by Carlo Petrini in 1986, promoted as an alternative to fast food. It works to preserve traditional and regional cooking and encourages farming in the local ecosystem.

I recommend enjoying these “biscuits” after a meal with a nice glass of Vin Santo.

Ingredients:

• 500g all-purpose flour
• 300g sugar
• 250g almonds, whole
• 50g pine nuts
• 4 eggs
• 1 tsp baking powder
• pinch of salt
• grated peel of one lemon

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C.

2. Sift the flour and sugar in a bowl. Then add eggs and the other ingredients until it all becomes a ball of dough.

3. On a clean surface, shape the dough into a 3cm wide roll that extends the length of a baking tray. Cover the tray with a piece of parchment paper to prevent the biscuits from sticking and then place the dough on top, flattening it softly with your fingers.

4. Place the tray in the oven and bake for 30 minutes, then remove the roll from the oven.

5. Place it on a cutting board and cut diagonally, making 1cm wide slices.

6. Lay the slices flat on the baking sheet, making sure you leave some space between each slice. Slide the baking tray back into the oven.

7. Lower the temperature to 150°C . Bake for 15 minutes, then take the biscotti out and turn them onto the other side and bake another 15 minutes.

8. Remove from the oven and let cool. Remember to store them in an air-tight container to keep fresh.

Serves: 3 dozen aprox.

Time: preparation time 15 min/ cooking time 1 hour

Difficulty: medium

Spaghetti Carbonara is a modern Italian classic, but there are some people who get quite stressed about doing this the ‘authentic’ way. I know it’s a terrible cliché, but I really do love it ‘like my mamma used to make it’. My mother always put a lot of cream in. Others have told me that I shouldn’t use cream at all. I say: Mamma knows best!

Although the classic spaghetti carbonara is made with pork, you can make a spaghetti fish supper that is also quite nice.

Ingredients:

• 1 tablespoon of olive oil
• 2 or 3 cloves of roughly chopped garlic
• 150g pancetta, cut into ‘lardons’ (generous little rectangles, but not too small!)
• 2 large eggs
• Pecorino Romano cheese, finely grated (We’re cheese-mad, and so we grate a big pile and put it in a little bowl so we can have as much as we fancy!)
• 75 ml double cream
• 200-250g spaghetti
• 2 tablespoons of parsley chopped fairly finely, and 2 sprigs to garnish

Method:

1 – Cook the pasta in lightly-salted water with the olive oil.

2 – Heat the pancetta in a heavy-bottomed frying pan: good fatty pancetta should cook in its own fat, but add a little butter or olive oil if you feel you should. The meat will caramelise slightly for maximum rich sugary sweetness. This should take about five minutes. Add the garlic about halfway through, and let soften without burning it, to avoid it tasting bitter. If you like, you can throw in a little chopped parsley as well.

3 – Meanwhile, mix the eggs with the cream and four generous tablespoons of grated Pecorino. Add the finely chopped parsley to the mixture, season well with salt and pepper, and stir with a fork to combine.

4 – Drain the pasta and put it back into the pan in which you cooked it. Add the pancetta, and pour over the egg, cream and cheese mixture. The eggs will cook sufficiently from the heat of the pasta and pancetta. The resulting sauce should have a smooth satin texture.

5 – Serve in deep plates or bowls, garnished with a sprig of parsley, with salt, pepper and plenty more cheese.

It really is as easy as that!

Serves: 2

Time: 20-30 minutes: 5-10 minutes preparation, 15-20 minutes cooking.