Spend an hour with Gennaro Contaldo and you are guaranteed to be fed, for this 69-year-old is still passionate about being in the kitchen.
His new cookbook, Gennaro’s Fast Cook Italian, is a collection of recipes that take fewer than 40 minutes to go from languishing in the fridge to animating your plate.
The idea behind it is to prove to people that it doesn’t take much to put together a simple meal chock-full of flavour.
“You’ve got to have the essentials,” said Gennaro, ticking off olive oil, garlic and chilli. “You can make a beautiful dish with just those ingredients and pasta – it’s what Italian teenagers eat when they get in, especially at midnight, this is how it goes.”
Combine those basics with whatever you’ve got kicking around in the fridge and you’re sorted, he says. “A bit of bacon? Some eggs? Fantastic. You make a lovely carbonara!”
The book itself brims with easy salads, interesting but quick risottos (carrot and celeriac anyone?), straightforward desserts and of course pasta.
The cook and TV presenter grew up in Minori on the Amalfi Coast and his Italian accent hasn’t been diluted by years working on the London restaurant scene, as owner of the now closed Passione, and at the late Antonio Carluccio’s Neal Street Restaurant (with whom he was one of the BBC’s Two Greedy Italians), where Contaldo first met and began mentoring a young Jamie Oliver.
Oliver has his own Italian cookbook – Jamie Cooks Italy – coming out later this summer.
Is there any semblance of competition or rivalry between the two of them?
“Course not – I am in his new book,” he said. “Jamie and me, he’s my boy – of course there’s no competition, it’s never existed.”
In fact, the book saw the duo tour Italy together, learning the skills of Italian nonnas. “You’re always learning,” he said. “There’s no end.”
It explains why he’s passionate about getting people to cook, and also why you’re unlikely to find him ordering takeaways, not when pizza is so “easy to make”.
“People should cook a little more, they should make their own,” he says. “If you do cook every day – I know it is hard – but once you feed your family, you give them good food, you give them a lotta love. Once they grow up, they start to cook as well – they see, they remember.
Food for him is intrinsic to joy, and to taking care of people. “We have to eat three times a day,” he said.
“Let’s do it properly, together – then it becomes a party, then it becomes family, then it becomes love.”
Fresh pea and burrata salad, with sunflower seed crostini
“This is a lovely salad to make during the spring, when fresh peas are available. For speed, you can buy ready-podded peas. Burrata is a fresh cheese from Puglia, which looks like mozzarella but has a very creamy interior. Good Italian delis will stock it, but if you prefer, you can use buffalo mozzarella instead.”
- 175g fresh peas, podded weight
- 85g watercress
- Leaves of 2 gem lettuce hearts
- 250g burrata, or buffalo mozzarella
For the crostini
- 50g sunflower seeds
- A handful of fresh basil leaves
- 1tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
- A pinch of sea salt
- A pinch of dried chilli flakes
- 4 slices of good-quality crusty, seeded wholemeal bread, toasted
For the dressing
- 2tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
- 1tbsp lemon juice
- Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
- Bring a saucepan of water to the boil, add the peas and cook for about two minutes, until tender but not overcooked. Drain, rinse under cold running water and drain well.
- Meanwhile, prepare the crostini. Place the sunflower seeds, basil leaves and olive oil in a blender or food processor and whiz until you obtain a smooth consistency. Combine with the salt and chilli flakes. Toast the bread and spread with the sunflower seed paste. Set aside.
- Combine the dressing ingredients.
- Arrange the watercress and gem lettuce leaves on a large serving plate, sprinkle over the cooked peas, and pour over half of the dressing. Gently break up the burrata or mozzarella and scatter over the greens. Drizzle with the remaining dressing and serve with the crostini on the side.
Lemon-infused steam baked mackerel
“I love mackerel – not only is it a lovely fish, but it’s nutritious and quick to cook. Cooking alcartoccio is an excellent way of keeping all the flavours intact in a healthy way. Serve the cooked mackerel in the foil, so that the delicious juices can be enjoyed with some good bread to mop them up.”
- 2 mackerel (about 240g), heads removed (if desired) and cleaned
- Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
- 2 rosemary sprigs
- 1 garlic clove, finely chopped
- 2 organic unwaxed lemons, finely sliced
- Extra-virgin olive oil
- Preheat the oven to 180°C fan/200°C/400°F/gas mark 6.
- Rinse the mackerel under cold running water, then pat dry well with paper towels. Place the fish on a large piece of parchment paper, which is in turn placed on top of a large piece of good-quality aluminium foil (you can place the fish on individual sheets or all in one package).
- Place on a baking tray. Sprinkle salt and pepper all over the mackerel, including inside the cavity. Place a rosemary sprig inside each cavity, together with the garlic and half of the lemon slices. Top the mackerel with the remaining lemon slices, drizzle with olive oil, then wrap tightly in the foil and bake in the hot oven for 20 minutes.
- To serve, place the whole parcel in the middle of the table and tuck in.
Soft Amaretti
MAKES 12-24 DEPENDING ON SIZE
“Soft amaretti, or amaretti morbidi in Italian, are like little cakes and are not to be confused with the hard, crispy variety of amaretti. They are delicious eaten on their own; filled with a rich, creamy centre, they also make a lovely, quick dessert. If you can’t find raw pistachios, substitute with walnuts, chocolate chips, candied fruit, or a combination, if desired.”
- 20g raw pistachios
- 75g cup ricotta
- 75g cup mascarpone
- 15g caster sugar
- 3tsp Marsala wine, plus extra for brushing
- 20-24 soft amaretti biscuits
- A little icing sugar, for dusting
- Toast the pistachios in a dry frying pan set over a medium-high heat for a couple of minutes, until lightly toasted. Remove and set aside.
- Meanwhile, whisk together the ricotta, mascarpone, sugar and Marsala wine in a bowl, until light and fluffy. Finely chop the pistachios and stir in. Cover with cling film and place in the fridge.
- Using a really good, sharp knife, slice the amaretti horizontally in half, so you end up with a bottom and top of each little cake, keeping any crumbs. Brush each slice with a little Marsala.
- Take the creamy mixture out of the fridge and stir in the amaretti crumbs. Place a dollop of the cream on the bottom slice of the amaretti and sandwich together with the top half. Arrange on a plate and dust with icing sugar, to serve.
Gennaro Contaldo’s Fast Cook Italian by Gennaro Contaldo, photography by Kim Lightbody, published by Pavilion Books, priced £20. Available now.