Images by Ian Wallace for Pavillion Books
However good you may be at rustling up delicious Italian dishes, unless you come from an Italian family, the chances are that you would benefit from a few pieces of well chosen advice on how to improve dishes and make them more authentic – the type of advice that is normally handed down through families, from grandmother to mother to daughter – apparently small details that in fact ensure dishes’ success and have everyone grabbing for seconds.
Anna Venturi is a cooking instructor who has been sharing the secrets of her wonderful cuisine at her cooking school and corporate cookery centre since 1993, and in her book Secrets from an Italian Kitchen (USA Book, UK Book), you’ll find a delicious range of recipes chosen for their simplicity and authenticity, complete with Anna’s clever tips and pointers that come from her vast experience as a cook and from her diverse Italian heritage. Brought up in Milan, Anna was the last of five children and spent much time in the kitchen with her wealthy Jewish grandmother. Her grandfather, on the other hand, came from Sicily, and her father from Bologna, so the variety of dishes prepared in their home was to prove a true inspiration.
The book is split into handy sections: from soups and sauces through to baking and desserts, and there is also a brief chapter dealing with the key foods you’ll find in an Italian larder, with an explanation as to why they are vital to creating the most authentic dishes and what they can be substituted for. But as Venturi points out: ‘The success of a recipe does not depend on a religious devotion to the instructions: it springs from the heart and requires enthusiasm and a genuine love of food...good cooking goes beyond the mere chemistry of a recipe... it is about creating a unique set of flavours, textures and a presentation that is pleasant to the palate and makes one feel good.’ Quite frankly, just the names of some of her dishes are enough to make you feel good, whether it be the delicious sounding risotto with lobster and lemons, her pasta with sun-dried tomato and caper sauce, the sea bass surprise cooked in papillote or the ricotta pot with raspberries. And with lots of dishes that can be flung together in a a matter of minutes – Tuscan bean salad, Savoy cabbage with balsamic vinegar, mussel soup – you’ll find this book a valuable kitchen companion.
Safron Pasta Salad
Anna’s secret: pasta salads lose a lot of their fragrant taste if refrigerated. When you wish to prepare this dish in advance, cook the peas and prawns beforehand, but boil the pasta at the last minute. The difference is quite remarkable.
Ingredients
(for six people)
4 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1/2 onion, chopped
300g petits pois or spring peas
300g cooked prawns, shelled
1 tsp crushed dried chilli
Preparation
In a saucepan, heat the olive oil and sauté the onion until it is translucent but not brown. Add the petits pois and three tablespoons of water and cook, covered, over a medium heat for 10-15 minutes, or until the peas are tender.
Add the prawns and chilli, season to taste with salt and pepper and turn off the heat. Set the mixture aside to cool. Bring a large pot of salted water to the boil. Add the saffron and pasta and cook until the pasta is al dente. Drain the pasta thoroughly, then combine it with the mixture of peas and prawns and serve.
