Part autobiography, part cookbook and part controversial opinion, Made in Italy, Food and Stories is a comprehensive guide to the food of northern Italy.
Giorgio Locatelli’s new book, Made in Italy, Food and Stories (HarperCollins, $49.99), is a magnificent read. Winner of the Glenfiddich Food Book of the Year in 2007 and voted the Best Italian Cuisine Book in the World 2006 at the Gourmand World Cookbook awards, it deserves a place on the bookshelf alongside Marcella Hazan’s definitive Essentials of Italian Cookery and Elizabeth David’s Italian Food. Most of all, this book deserves to be in the kitchen or by the bed, but certainly not on the coffee table.
The book, which took five years to write, is part autobiography, part cookbook and part controversial opinion. It is 600-odd pages of beautifully presented food, with gorgeous photography by former Voguefashion photographer-turned-baker Dan Leppard.
Beginning with “Antipasti”, the chapters follow a menu format, which makes it reasonably easy to follow. Between courses, Giorgio narrates his journey from the small town of Cogeno in northern Italy, where he got his love of food from his grandparents (and was expelled from cooking school for kissing girls – so Italian), to the extremes of working in Michelin-star restaurants in Paris and finally to his London restaurant, Locanda Locatelli.
My only criticisms are that some of the recipes are too ambitious for home cooks (you will require nitrous-oxide siphons for some desserts) and that the occasional use of unusual ingredients can be a bit irritating, even though alternatives are given.
Regardless, the book is a brilliant guide to the food of northern Italy, and emphasises the diversity of Italian cuisine.
Northern Italian food is full of big, robust flavours – authentic rich meat dishes, risotto, pasta, and bold fish recipes – and this is what the book does best. The risotto chapter alone features 15 recipes, and the eight-page introduction covers everything from the rice, the stock and the cheese to the careful crafting of beautiful risotto.
“Pasta” begins with a quote from actress Sophia Loren – “everything you see I owe to spaghetti” – and the 119 pages that follow contain recipes, a history of pasta, a small treatise on the various types, and details on how to make your own.
What matters most, though, is that Locatelli’s genuine passion for food shines throughout the book, and in between the chapters, he offers strong opinions on sustainable farming and fishing. It’s a great read, whether you feel like cooking or not.
In this recipe, the vividness of the flavour and colour is very appealing.
BROCCOLI SOUP WITH RICOTTA CHEESE DUMPLINGS
150g ricotta cheese
6 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
2 onions, thinly sliced
1 leek, thinly sliced
2 large potatoes, thinly sliced
3 heads of broccoli, plus some florets
(blanched) to garnish
salt and pepper
1.5 litres vegetable stock
1 egg, beaten
1 tbsp freshly grated parmesan
Tip the ricotta into a clean tea towel and allow it to soak up the excess moisture. Heat 3 tablespoons of the oil in a pan, add the onion, leek and potato, and sweat for 5 minutes until soft but not coloured. While the vegetables are cooking, take the heads of broccoli and peel the stalks. With a small knife, scrape off the very tops of the florets – so you have a mound that looks like green breadcrumbs. Keep on one side.
Finely chop the stalks and add to the vegetables in the pan. Season with salt and pepper and sweat for another 5 minutes. Add the stock and cook until the vegetables are soft – about 20 minutes.
In a separate pan, boil enough water to blanch the “green breadcrumbs”. Put them into a sieve and dip them into the boiling water for 10-15 seconds only, just to soften them. Drain and, while still warm, crush them with the back of a knife or purée in a blender until you have a bright-green paste. Add a little water, if necessary, to loosen.
Remove the pan of vegetables from the heat and put them into a food processor. Blitz until smooth (the soup will be quite pale). Mix the egg, ricotta and parmesan in a bowl. Keep to one side. Return the soup to the heat and season with salt and pepper if necessary. Turn down the heat to a simmer and whisk in the puréed broccoli flowers. The soup will turn bright green.
Dip a teaspoon into hot water and scoop out little quenelles of the ricotta mixture. Drop them into the hot soup and let them rise to the surface – about 15-20 seconds. Gently ladle the soup into bowls, taking care not to break the dumplings, which will be quite fragile. Add the blanched florets and drizzle with the rest of the oil.
YOU DON’T NEED TO USE best-quality balsamic vinegar for cooking. In fact, if you use an expensive aged vinegar, it will have a higher concentration of sugar that will make it more prone to catching on the bottom of the saucepan when you are reducing the sauce.
CALVES’ LIVER WITH BALSAMIC VINEGAR
small bunch silver beet
2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 tbsp sunflower or vegetable oil
8 pieces of calves’ liver, each about 70-80g
salt and pepper
80g butter
250ml balsamic vinegar
3 tbsp pine nuts, toasted
3 tbsp sultanas, soaked in warm water
Preheat the oven to 220?C. Remove the leaves from the silver-beet stalks. Blanch the stalks in boiling, salted water until just tender – about 3-4 minutes – then drain and pat dry (this is important as you are going to put them into oil later). Put the leaves into the water for about a minute, then drain and pat dry. Cut the stalks into thin batons. Put the silver-beet leaves and stalks into a pan with the olive oil. Turn the heat to low and gently warm these up.
Heat an ovenproof sauté pan until medium-hot, then add the sunflower or vegetable oil and liver. Seal until crusty on both sides – taking care not to get the pan too hot or the liver might burn. Season. Turn down the heat, add half the butter and put the pan into the oven for a minute or so, depending on the thickness and how you like your liver cooked.
Take out of the oven, lift the liver out onto a warm plate, drain off the butter, add the vinegar to the pan and reduce by half or until it’s a syrupy consistency. Beat in the rest of the butter, add the pine nuts and drained sultanas, then turn the heat down and put the liver back in. Spoon the silver beet onto warmed plates, place the liver on top and drizzle with sauce.