Whenever Gino D’Acampo plates up impressive-looking meals on TV, he can rest assured that along with the usual chorus of ‘Oohs’ and ‘Aahs’ in the studio, somewhere in southern Italy, at least one person will be bewildered by the fanfare.
“Every time my mother sees me on television, she says to me, ‘I cannot understand how Italian people make plates of pasta every day and nobody notices. You make a plate of pasta and end with a job on television’,” explains the lively 38-year-old cook, who won I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here! in 2009.
According to D’Acampo, his mama “always has something to say” about his food. So presumably when he sends over a batch of DVDs of his latest series, Gino’s Italian Escapes: A Taste Of The Sun, his dear old mum will have plenty of feedback.
“Often I say to her, ‘Don’t tell me too straight, lie to me!”‘ the chef confides, laughing.
At least he had a great time making the programme, spending an idyllic month exploring his home country once again.
While the previous series focused on southern Italy, the second helping, which is accompanied by a book of the same name, sees D’Acampo travelling around the north of the country, sampling regional specialities.
“The north side of Italy is completely different to the south, and the food is very different,” says the Naples-born foodie, who says his dream travelling companion is his wife Jessica, with whom he has two sons and a daughter.
“The people are different, the ingredients are different. I did enjoy this time, because it was like 25 days travelling the most beautiful places in the world. I mean, how lucky am I?”
He came home with happy food memories of “absolutely wonderful little cherry tomatoes”, fennel, and a very tasty ham from Bologna. The Italian adventure was also a welcome chance to escape a certain sugary treat, which he is often sent when he works on ITV’s Let’s Do Lunch With Gino And Mel.
“Cupcakes,” he vents, “are a waste of time. The stodge at the bottom, with a whole load of sugar on the top. They’re big and people make so much effort, and you think, ‘Really? You spent two hours doing this?’
“You know what? If I want a heart attack, I got better ways to do it,” he adds with a wry laugh.
He does, however, make an exception for his wife’s Nutella and hazelnut cupcakes, and knows he has to be polite when he’s given baked gifts.
“You always have to do the thing, ‘Oh lovely!’ And, ‘Thank you very much’,” he says, laughing. “And then as soon as they’ve gone, I give them away!”
If you fancy making some food that wouldn’t leave D’Acampo running for the hills, here are three recipes from his new book.
SMOOTH FENNEL AND TOMATO SOUP WITH PRAWNS
Serves 6
2tbsp olive oil
1 large onion, peeled and sliced
2 large fennel bulbs, halved, cores removed and sliced
1 medium potato, peeled and cut into quarters
800ml hot vegetable stock, made with stock cubes
500ml passata (sieved tomatoes)
1 bay leaf
200g cooked peeled prawns
1tbsp chopped fresh dill, plus extra to garnish
Salt and black pepper to taste
Heat the oil in a large saucepan and fry the onion over a medium heat for eight minutes, until starting to soften. Stir occasionally with a wooden spoon. Add the fennel to the onions and fry for two minutes. Add the potato, vegetable stock, passata and bay leaf. Bring to the boil, cover the pan with a lid and simmer for 25 minutes.
Take the pan off the heat and remove and discard the bay leaf.
Blitz the soup with a hand blender until smooth. Add in the prawns, reserving a few for a garnish, with the chopped dill and continue to simmer for a further 10 minutes. Season to taste.
Serve hot, sprinkled with the reserved prawns and garnished with a little dill.
MY GRANDFATHER’S TAGLIATELLE
Serves 6
2tbsp olive oil
1 onion, very finely diced
2 celery sticks, very finely diced
1 large carrot, very finely diced
500g minced pork
500g minced beef
50ml red wine
50ml milk
4tbsp tomato puree
300ml passata
400ml chicken or vegetable stock
500g fresh tagliatelle
Parmesan shavings, to serve (optional)
Salt and black pepper
Heat half the oil in a large saute pan and fry the onion, celery and carrot for five minutes, until soft and starting to colour.
While the vegetables are cooking, put all the meat in a large bowl, pour over the remaining olive oil and crumble the meat between your fingertips. Add the meat to the pan and fry until brown – around five minutes.
Deglaze the pan by adding the red wine and allow to simmer for a couple of minutes, then add the milk. Simmer for two minutes before stirring in the tomato puree, passata and stock. Simmer gently for three hours until reduced and thickened.
Once cooked, remove from the hob, season with salt and pepper, then cover with a lid and leave for 20 minutes – you do not want the sauce to be boiling hot when you serve it.
When ready to serve, bring a large pan of water to the boil and season generously with salt. Add the pasta to the pan and cook for two to three minutes, or until just cooked.
Drain the pasta, then return to the pan with the sauce and toss to combine. Serve in bowls with a few Parmesan shavings scattered over, if you like. Enjoy!
CHOCOLATE ICE CREAM WITH RAISINS
Serves 4
50g raisins
3tbsp Cognac
4 large egg yolks
100g caster sugar
350ml full-fat milk
250ml double cream
200g dark chocolate
50g dark chocolate chips
Place the raisins in a small bowl and pour over the Cognac. Leave the raisins to soak while you prepare the rest of the ingredients.
In a large bowl, beat together the egg yolks and sugar for about five minutes until thick, pale and creamy. Set aside.
In a medium saucepan, gently heat the milk and cream, stirring occasionally to prevent a skin forming. Take off the heat just before it starts to boil. Pour the milk mixture into the eggs very slowly, beating continuously. Return to the saucepan over a gentle heat and cook, stirring, for 15 minutes. Remove from the heat, pour into a bowl and leave to cool.
Break the dark chocolate into a small bowl and melt in the microwave in short bursts, stirring in between, or melt it in a heatproof bowl set over a pan of simmering water – do not let the base of the bowl touch the water. Add the melted chocolate to the milk and cream mixture and mix to combine.
Pour the chocolate mixture into a freezer-proof shallow dish and place in the freezer for two hours. Remove from the freezer and add in the chocolate chips with the raisins and soaking Cognac. Gently mix through with a fork. Return to the freezer and take out after 20 minutes to fork through again.
Repeat the same process three times. Enjoy!
- Gino’s Italian Escape: A Taste Of The Sun by Gino D’Acampo, is published in hardback by Hodder, priced £20, available now. The series of the same name is on ITV on Fridays.