Bruschetta with Garlic and Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Bruschetta with Squashed Tomatoes, Dried Oregano and Chilli
Bruschetta with Baked Borlotti Beans
Bruschetta with Mashed Broad Beans
Wood-Roasted Cherry Vine Tomatoes
Wood-Roasted Potato and Trevise
Wood-Roasted Jerusalem Artichokes
Stuffed Round Fresh Red Chillies
Swiss Chard with Olive Oil and Lemon
Boiled Lemon and Artichoke Heart Salad
Vegetables form a very important part of our cooking. In Italy vegetables are cooked simply but very carefully; the seasons dictate availability. The special quality and taste of individual varieties is what interests us, as is the proper growing of plants in their natural, organic way with the correct amount of natural sunshine and water.
Seeing the enormous variety of vegetables in the markets in Italy has spurred us on to encourage market gardeners here to try growing some of these previously unknown Mediterranean vegetables.
Their work has been such a success that cavolo nero, the black, bitter winter cabbage of Florence, is now available in supermarkets as are a wide variety of pumpkins and squashes. Rocket salad, trevise, cima di rape and Swiss chard also grow easily here and the difference in quality of freshly picked vegetables as opposed to those that have travelled across Europe for days is very obvious in the cooking and eating.
In the programme we hope to excite you with ideas for salads – such as the raw zucchini with Parmesan, or the unusual combination of boiled lemon and artichokes in a salad with almonds, honey and thyme.
Wood roasting is a method we use over and over for vegetables in every season. Your domestic oven will roast in virtually the same way. Discovering how roasting at high temperatures intensifies flavours has led us to experiment, starting simply with the sweet cherry tomatoes on the vine, to more complicated ‘al fornos’ such as potato, pancetta and trevise in which the sliced potatoes slowly take up the flavours of the pancetta, rosemary, garlic and bitter trevise.
Pumpkins and squashes we roast very quickly. The initial generous seasoning with herbs and spices and the way that the vegetables are cut is what gives our recipes their particular character.
In Italy, green vegetables (and there are so many varieties like spinach, Swiss chard, cicoria and cima di rape) are all blanched simply but – we cannot stress this enough – carefully, and then used as antipasta. For us there is nothing more delicious than eating a plate of these blanched vegetables when they have been beautifully seasoned, and that means the best extra virgin olive oil, coarsely ground black pepper, freshly squeezed lemon juice and Maldon sea salt.
Use sourdough bread that has an open texture. Sourdough bread will last for up to 2 weeks. The starter from one batch of bread can be used for the next. A bakery in Puglia uses a sourdough starter dating back to 1945.
Use a combination of ripe yellow and red tomatoes. Choose large tomatoes so that there is plenty of juice to push into the toast.
In speciality grocery shops in Italy, you can find two or three different grades of borlotti beans, including the really plump, fabulous ones, known as borlotti di Lamon. Here you can find dried borlotti in health-food shops and Italian shops; you can also buy them canned. In the summer they are available fresh in their pods.
The baking method for the beans is based on an old-fashioned technique. In this method, the beans were put into a large glass Chianti bottle; water, oil and sage were added, and the neck was stuffed with straw to allow steam to escape. The bottle was put over a fire and the beans were slowly cooked until the water evaporated. The principle in the oven is the same: as the beans slowly cook, they absorb the flavourings and water as well as a bit of the oil. The final result is a bean that has absorbed the olive oil, and all you need to do is season.
This is a wonderful recipe when broad beans are very young and tender. Smashed with mint and garlic, there is no cooking, just blending together in the way you make pesto, adding cheese at the end.
The porcini season begins in September and October and finishes when there is a hard frost. Choose big, firm ones and slice them through the stems and caps. Season with dried chilli to complement their unique flavour and add lemon juice at the end of cooking.
Cima di rape is the flowering shoots and leaves of a variety of the turnip family. It has a strong individual taste and is best blanched then tossed with the new season’s olive oil, and served on bruschetta with lemon juice and black pepper. Castellucio lentils are delicious combined with cima di rape and make a more substantial dish.
Keep the tomatoes on the vine while roasting and serve them in bunches – they look great. It’s important to wash the stems thoroughly before cooking as they may have been sprayed.
The asparagus cooks very quickly. Use Niçoise olives as they are the nearest to the small, purple olives you find preserved in brine in Tuscany.
Roasted red and yellow peppers go well together. Try to find dried wild oregano on its stalks with its flowers – the flavour from oregano dried in this way is intense and complements the sweetness of the peppers.
Small zucchini should just be cut in half; bigger ones should be sliced lengthwise into 2 cm (1 in) batons. Always scrape out the seeded centre of large zucchini as they have a bitter taste.
Onion squash has firm orange flesh that is ideal for wood roasting. Leave the skin on the pumpkin because as it cooks it caramelises, and tastes divine. Season with ground coriander seeds, garlic, salt and pepper; or dried oregano, garlic and chilli; or thyme smashed with garlic, salt and pepper.
Only drizzle on a little olive oil when roasting. Serve with roast meats and birds, or use in risotto and soups.
Buy small celeriac with green shoots on the top and tangled roots. Large ones often have holes in the middle and have lost their flavour. Cut in wedges to roast and flavour with thyme and garlic.
The combination of bitter trevise, sweet pancetta and rosemary make a perfect combination with sliced waxy potatoes such as Roseval. The potato mixture is layered in a baking dish and roasted slowly in the wood oven.
Jerusalem artichokes are small, knobbly and difficult to peel. They also cook quickly. They have a very distinctive flavour of their own, but are complemented by woody herbs like thyme and rosemary. Serve with other roast vegetables. You can also use this recipe with Ratte or Pink Fir Apple potatoes, or with sweet potatoes.
There are only three ingredients in this salad – rocket, zucchini and Parmesan – and they must all be of the very best quality. Choose young zucchini. They must be very fresh, not soft, and should be sliced very thinly at an angle so that they can absorb the flavours of the lemon juice and olive oil.
The chillies used in this recipe come from Piedmont. They are round like small tomatoes and have a mild taste. Never use ‘Scotch Bonnet’ as they are far too hot for this recipe.
The Florence fennel season starts just before Christmas; the best bulbs are round and fat with long green stalks. Use the bulbs raw for salads when they are small and young. In this recipe, the flavour changes as the fennel cooks slowly in olive oil, losing its sharp aniseed taste.
In Italy you might go into a restaurant and have a plate of zucchini fritti while you’re waiting for your main course; they also go very well with fish. Choose firm, young zucchini.
For this salad you should use small, firm porcini that have only just been picked. They will smell fantastic. Just slice the cleaned porcini and mix with lemon juice, olive oil, salt and pepper. Then toss rocket into this salad so that its pepperiness complements the taste of the raw mushroom. The final ingredient is freshly grated Parmesan, and its saltiness is part of the seasoning of the whole dish.
Swiss chard is delicious cooked in this simple way. Varieties to look for and grow include Bright Lights, Ruby Chard and Green Chard. Serve the dish as part of an antipasti di verdura.
This recipe probably originates from Capri but has a North African influence as well.
It is vital that you cook the lemons in a large amount of salted water, otherwise the lemons will taste like marmalade; salt counteracts the acidity of the lemon, and gives it a fresh and very particular taste that complements the boiled artichoke hearts. The slivered almonds add texture, and honey is necessary to sweeten the lemon.