Italy
Italy’s most celebrated contributions to global cuisine are pizza, pasta and pollenta. We
associate pasta, olives and tomatoes with Italian cookery, but it was the Chinese who first
turned wheat into noodles. Tomatoes and the maize that makes pollenta came from America,
and olives came from the Middle East with the Moors. We should appreciate all the world’s
cuisines and be thankful for the God given plants and human skills and labour which sustain
them.
Pasta la vista, baby
Pasta is quick, easy, nutritious and goes with almost anything. The most useful forms are
spaghetti (long thin), tagliatelli (medium, flat, often sold curled in bundles) and pasta twizzles
(fusilli), but there are many other sorts you can choose. When I was a student, plain boiled
macaroni with butter was a great standby.
Quick pasta with bacon and pesto
Is almost as quick as buttered macaroni, and nicer. Boil some pasta shells, add a dollop of
pesto paste, a few olives (black, stoned olives are the most generally useful) some grilled
crispy bacon sliced into thin strips, and grated cheese. A quick dish from ready ingredients for
the person who keeps irregular hours and misses family meals.
The above picture shows 6 kinds of pasta/noodle, half are Chinese, half Italian. All are good,
each excelling in it’s own way. The fine bundled noodle is great added to a soup 5 minutes
before serving, the twisted fusilli is good with pesto and olives, etc. A great strength of pasta
apart from long shelf life and ease of cooking is its ability to be a base for almost any kind of
sauce. A classic is…..
Spaghetti Bolognese
500g minced beef (or lamb)
2 onions
Tin of tomatoes
Mixed herbs (basil, oregano, thyme etc)
2 cloves garlic
Olive oil
Slice and fry the onions with the garlic in the olive oil, add the beef and as that cooks, add the
herbs and the tin of tomatoes, plus salt and pepper. Stir well, break up the tomatoes. A
squeeze of tomato concentrate intensifies the flavour and colour. When cooked, serve on top
of the spaghetti, which takes about 15 minutes to boil. Alternatively roll the beef into meat
balls, adding any flavour you like (e.g. cumin and coriander, mixed herbs), then fry or oven
bake the meat balls, make the sauce as above, serve the sauce over the spaghetti and put the
meat balls on top. You can add olives, mushrooms, peas, Tabasco®, use other pasta shapes
instead of the traditional spaghetti, or grate Parmesan over it at the table.
Home made Pizza
Pizza is everyday peasant food consisting of tomato paste on a baked dough base, in the end
just a different way of doing a hot sandwich. The ability to use any imaginable topping helps
make pizza so universal. Contrary to popular belief, melted Mozzarella cheese is not traditional,
although it’s very nice and goes with any other topping.
Pizza base
This is how I make pizza. Stir 2 teaspoons of dried baking yeast into half a pint of lukewarm
water into which 2 teaspoons of sugar have been dissolved. Cover and leave in a warm place
for an hour as the yeast comes to life and starts to fizz. Add to 500g of flour-it can be 100%
strong white flour or a 30:70 mix of wholemeal and white flour, which I prefer. Pure wholemeal
flour makes stodgy pizza. Add warm water (or milk) and a tsp of salt, knead into firm dough of
the right consistency-not too wet, not too dry. Leave in a big bowl for an hour, it will rise to 3
times its original volume as the yeast turns sugar into carbon dioxide gas-if it looks like
overflowing, knock it down with the wooden spoon.
Cook your pizza bases in shallow metal dishes: pour a little olive oil into them, spread it round
with a brush or finger, then dust flour over it. Knead the dough again, use some fresh flour to
stop it sticking. Spread dough about a quarter inch thick evenly to fill the dish-pull it to the
edges with your fingers, don't worry if its not even, it levels out as it rises. Pizza dishes can be
any size or shape, if you cook pizza frequently it’s worth getting special baking dishes.
When the dough rises to double the original height, put the trays in the oven pre-heated to
mark 6 for around 10 minutes, until they are firm, then remove and apply the sauce and
topping.
Pizza sauce For 6 full size pizzas
2 onions
2 tins of tomatoes
50mls tomato concentrate
15g oregano
Chop the onions fine and fry in olive oil. When they are done, add the tomatoes, concentrate
and oregano. Stir for a few minutes; the basic sauce is now ready.
Pizza toppings
A basic onion and tomato sauce pizza is fine, but generally you add a topping. These are a few
suggestions. Grate a cheddar and/or mozzarella cheese over them if you like.
Mushroom (slice thinly) and ham
Ham and pineapple
Bacon (lean, sliced into thin strips and applied raw)
Seafood (peeled prawns, clams, squid, mussels. These should all be pre-cooked)
Fish (sardines, tuna, anchovies)
Minced beef (cooked and spiced with, for example paprika, garlic, Chinese 5 spice.
Sausage (salami, chorizo, previously cooked, cooled and sliced
Having applied the basic tomato, onion and oregano sauce plus topping to your partly cooked
pizza base, place in a hot oven, mark 7, for 10 minutes more and it will be done. Serve a whole
pizza per person with just a leaf, tomato, onion and olive salad, alternatively slices can be
served with chips and vegetables or as part of a buffet. It keeps in the fridge for a few days to
reheat or serve cold.
PS some writers say put the topping on the raw dough before cooking. I think partial pre-
cooked pizza bases are better, judge for yourself.
There is a Minestrone recipe in ‘Soups and Stews’. The other Italian staple I find useful is
pollenta, this is pre-cooked powdered maize (sweet corn) which can be reconstituted with
boiling water into a nice yellowy porridge in 5 minutes, instructions on the packet. Very good
with braised meat dishes as an alternative to mashed potato.
‘Lads’ Lasagne al Quattro Formaggi
Another recipe from the Reverend Gary Keith
The Ricotta, Mozzarella and Parmesan Cheeses make this Lasagne quite expensive and a
little self indulgent, so reserve it for a special occasion. If you would like to serve this dish to
children you can omit the red wine and double the quantity of beef stock. (and if you’re not as
thin as Gary, you might like to halve the quantity of cheese! SH)
30ml olive oil serves 6-8
2 onions, finely chopped
2 garlic cloves, crushed
675g minced beef
400g can chopped tomatoes
300ml beef stock
300ml good Italian red wine
230ml sun dried tomato paste
10ml oregano
12 sheets no pre cook lasagna verde
450g sliced mozzarella cheese
450g ricotta cheese
115g freshly grated parmesan cheese
450g strong mature cheddar
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
1. Heat the oil and sauté the onion and garlic, stirring frequently for 10 minutes until
softened. Add the beef and cook until it changes colour, stirring constantly and breaking up
the meat.
2. Add the tomatoes, stock, wine, tomato paste, oregano, salt and pepper and bring to the
boil, stirring. Cover, lower the heat and simmer gently, stirring occasionally, for 1 hour.
3. Preheat the oven to 190 C / 375 F / Gas 5. Adjust the seasoning in the meat to taste,
then place 3 sheets of lasagna verde in a 23 x 33cm / 9 x 13 in ovenproof dish. Sprinkle with
half the cheddar. Ladle one third of the meat sauce into the dish and cover with a further 3
sheets of lasagna. Arrange one third of the mozzarella slices over the top, dot with one third of
the ricotta, then sprinkle with one third of the parmesan.
4. Repeat these layers twice more then cover the top with the second half of the mature
cheddar, a little olive oil and a sprinkling of oregano. Bake in the oven for 40 minutes until the
top is golden brown and bubbling. Leave to cool for ten minutes before serving with a crisp
salad and glass of red wine.
This is a pretty rough overview of Italian food, but if you can do a Bolognese type sauce, pasta
with pesto, and pizza, you’ll pass this section with at least a B.
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