The Cook Who Changed Our Lives

Italian food is the most popular cuisine in Britain.

And there is one woman who's been at the heart of this.

-Hello, love. How are you?

-Hi, gorgeous. Mwah!

An unsung culinary hero, who's changed the way we all eat.

And yet, too few of us know her name.

Now 91, she's the Italian food writer, Anna Del Conte.

Anna Del Conte was a pioneer

of Italian food here in Britain.

When she started to write Italian cookbooks, we were ready for them.

When I was writing my first book,

I think Anna was probably the leading influence.

Ever since she arrived in the culinary wasteland of

-post-war Britain...

-Pour in some of your lovely sauce.

..Anna's waged a quiet war of words to open our hearts to the joy

of eating al Italiano.

And there it is.

Along the way, she's inspired a battalion of chefs and writers

who've been eager to spread the word on TV.

If I ever want a reference, I'll probably go to Anna Del Conte.

She's got it, she's nailed it.

But if our faces have become familiar,

our guiding light has remained quietly in the shadows.

-Thank you.

-Thank you, thank you, very, very much.

I have to say, next to my mother,

there's no-one who has influenced me more.

Don't make me cry, please.

To get a flavour of how she inspired us,

we'll be cooking three of Anna's classic recipes...

That's enough.

..her quick and easy pesto with a special twist,

an authentic ragu a la Bolognese...

It's all a question of nurturing.

..and a very festive tiramisu.

Perfect.

This is Anna's story.

The godmother of Italian food in Britain.

The cook who changed our lives.

Today, Anna Del Conte lives in Dorset,

next-door to her daughter and four grandchildren.

At the age of 91, she's published 15 defining books on Italian food.

For me, food is my country, very strongly.

And I wanted to talk about my country, Italy,

to my new country, England.

And she's still writing and cooking for the whole family.

Now, let it cook gently. It absorbs, you see?

Anna's recipes are infused with the knowledge of

-and a passion for the ingredients...

-This is arborio.

..built up over 80 years in the kitchen.

Now, risotto is a dish of the north,

like pasta is a dish of the south, simply because rice grows there.

Today, Anna and her granddaughter Coco are cooking risotto al limone.

Now, go on, stir. You've got to stir it because you

didn't want it to stick to the bottom.

This recipe combines lemon juice, herbs, egg yolks,

-cream and Parmesan.

-Like that.

It's the perfect example of Anna's quintessential Italian style -

a few simple ingredients, perfectly balanced.

Put it there.

When I read Anna's books or when I look through the recipes,

it reminds me a lot of my grandmother cooking.

Very essential, very straightforward.

It's Anna's unique family quality that

has encouraged us Brits not just to eat Italian, but to cook it at home.

The great thing about Anna's books is they are authentic,

but they are written for an English audience.

She doesn't assume that you're going to know what she's talking about.

And it's her un-chefy approach to Italian food

that has been so inspiring.

When I was writing my first book,

I think Anna was probably the leading influence.

I was so relieved to see a book of recipes written by a home cook

for home cooks, I knew that I could read that and it would doable.

-It's delicious.

-It's really good.

I first met Anna more than 20 years ago.

But this is where we're meeting today, Bar Italia in Soho...

Hello. Buongiorno.

..one of Anna's favourite places in London.

We're grabbing a quick drink before we go shopping for our lunch.

Anna used to come to Bar Italia for a real espresso when she

first came to England in 1949.

It was a refreshing break from British food.

-Were you completely shocked by the food?

-Oh, God, yes. Yes, I'm sorry.

-No, no, no.

-It was... I found it was the smell,

the thing that really put me off.

It was the smell of fried and fried fat.

But there still must have been rationing.

Oh, yes. Certainly the butter and the meat went on till 1954.

'When Anna first arrived, she found Britain was a culinary wasteland.'

The war had shrunk the British larder.

We ate bread and dripping, but meat only if we were lucky.

Rationing was worse after the war than during the war.

Spam fritters and snook, omelettes made with dried egg,

would have been the norm.

Toast and dried egg breakfasts aren't much to shout about.

But now, even they're going.

Honestly, I'm beginning to dread each new day.

There were some signs of improvement.

A transatlantic phenomenon has at last made its mark in British shops,

the self-service store.

Its advocates believe that when the customers see more,

they'll want more.

But with rationing still casting its shadow,

more wasn't really an option.

There was no choice. You ate what was put in front of you.

Stand by of the British diet is the meat pie, but it is just these foods

which are most likely to harbour bacterial infections and poisons.

And lunch was often just a stale and sorry sandwich.

Was it a bit of a culture shock?

-I don't think I felt very attuned for a long time.

-Yes. Yes.

It's no surprise Anna wasn't feeling quite at home.

After all, she'd arrived in a world where Mediterranean flavours

were unknown.

If you said the word garlic, people held their noses.

"Garlic!" they'd say.

And they thought olive oil was something you put in your ear.

You know, if you had earache, you put olive oil in it.

You got it from the chemist.

That was the only olive oil you could get, from the chemist.

And when it came to pasta, a BBC spoof had us all fooled.

The last two weeks of March are an anxious time

for the spaghetti farmer.

There's always the chance of a late frost, which, while

not entirely ruining the crop, generally impairs the flavour.

But in fact, even in the 1950s,

there was a little piece of Italy in Soho.

# Magic moments... #

So, every week, Anna would make a pilgrimage for olive oil

and cheese, pasta and salami.

Her destination was Lina Stores, a culinary oasis of wonderful

Italian ingredients, still there more than 60 years on.

-We are now.

-Here we are.

Let's go in.

-Now, let me get my list.

-Let me get a basket.

On Anna's list are the ingredients for

a gorgeous lunch we're going to cook together.

On the menu are three British favourites,

dishes we all love, but we often get wrong or simply buy ready-made.

We've got some serious shopping to do.

I've got a huge bit, sorry.

TRANSLATED FROM ITALIAN:

For the antipasti, we're making a very special pesto.

Anna's hunting for the perfect piece of cheese.

-You taste it.

-I will, with pleasure.

As any Italian will tell you,

small variations in flavour can make or break a dish.

No, it is very salty. I love that it somehow tastes lemony and salty.

Yeah, it's very good.

-Oil.

-Oil, oil, oil.

'Finding olive oil in an Italian deli is easy.

'The trick is to buy the right one.

'For a pesto, a light Ligurian oil is perfect.

'Though it appears they've got everything but.'

I... Probably Marche.

-ANNA SPEAKS ITALIAN

-Exactly.

So that's similar to the Ligurian one.

So I presume you want a light one so it doesn't overwhelm the pesto.

-On the pesto, yeah. Shall we do the salumi?

-Do.

'No antipasti would be complete without some beautiful cured meat.'

-Felino.

-Felino...

-Ah.

'Anna chooses a Felino salami from the north of Italy...'

SHE SPEAKS ITALIAN

Very good. The flavours. Chilli. It's just...

pig. Beautiful, lovely pig.

'..and some luscious lardo, or back fat. It's delicious on warm toast.

'Now we just need some pancetta for the ragu, and mascarpone

'for the tiramisu. Oh, and the olives.'

-They look lovely.

-They're huge!

-After you.

-Bye.

-Ciao, grazie.

-Goodbye.

-Bye-bye.

-Thank you very much.

Being with Anna's a reminder that at the heart of real Italian

cooking is good shopping...

and an encyclopaedic knowledge of ingredients.

And that know-how certainly shines through in our first recipe.

-We're going to have lunch, and I'm going to cook for you.

-I'm honoured.

And first we are having pesto. I'm making pesto for the antipasti.

This is the basil. Quite good, actually.

It is quite nice and smelly.

So I think what we'll do... Shall we do it in this one?

-Are you ever going to be allowed back in Italy?

-Yes. Don't tell them.

Don't tell them.

'In Italy, pesto is traditionally made in a pestle and mortar.'

-That's enough.

-'But Anna's as pragmatic as she is passionate.'

-Do we have the pine nut?

-Yeah.

'And using a processor,

'it's surprisingly easy to make pesto at home.'

Mm. It really smells fantastic.

-You think a little more?

-Always.

-Always.

SHE LAUGHS

'Next is the vital ingredient for a good pesto.'

-This is...

-A light one.

-It's very mild. And for...

And you... You taught me that about 20 years ago,

-and everything you tell me, I remember.

-Press it down and I pour.

'If the oil's too strong,

'it'll overpower the essential flavour of the basil.'

Ah! Pesto here is so popular.

I know, because when you think what

-a teeny, teeny part of Italy it comes from.

-Now...

pecorino and Parmigiano.

'The flavour of the two cheeses gives the pesto silky depth.'

Can you manage?

-I didn't mean to be rude.

-THEY LAUGH

-I meant to be kind.

-You are kind.

-It's quite extraordinary.

-Yes.

-We, in Italy,

-mainly use pesto only on pasta.

-Yes.

-That's it.

-And here we use it on everything.

-Yeah, on everything.

Well, I have to say, in my experience of feeding children,

if you put pesto in something, they'll eat it, whatever it is.

-It's lovely to have you around. Come again.

-I'll stay forever.

'For a classic pesto, you can stop here.

'But Anna's transforming hers

'with another gorgeous Italian ingredient.'

-Where is the ricotta?

-It's in the fridge, but...

What are you doing eating my cheese?

Um, I'm clearing because I can't bear....

-to have things around that I don't use any more.

-OK.

Here's your ricotta, I'll get rid of this.

Now, what we do is put it in.

'Anna's twist turns the pesto into an incredibly moreish dip.

'Perfect for parties.'

-Go on, add, add, add.

-Add, add, add, add, add.

But not so much more. All done.

It would be nice on pasta, even like this.

-Because in a way, when you stuff pasta, you use ricotta.

-Yes.

-I might have to steal this from you.

-Now, can we taste it?

-Mmm!

-Mmm!

-Lovely.

'Now, time to assemble our antipasti misti.'

-The Felino.

-The Felino.

And here we've got some wonderful culatello.

'Antipasto means before the meal, and misto, mixed.

'It's a careful curation of flavours,

'a lesson in the essence of Italian food.

'We've got the obligatory bread and some choice pieces to dip

'into the ricotta pesto.'

This is a lovely spread.

'The perfect accompaniment is Anna's trademark cocktail

'of Prosecco and Campari.'

That's lovely. Chin-chin.

-Mmm!

-Lovely. Now...

-I'm going to have some of this.

-I love...

-You don't need to have such a big array anyway, do you?

-Oh, no.

This is more what you might have in a restaurant.

We're managing quite well, just the two of us.

'The secret to good antipasti is simplicity.

'Beautiful, fresh ingredients, lovingly prepared.

'It's the key to Italian cooking,

'and it's a lesson Anna learnt as a child in her hometown of Milan.'

It was here that Anna's fierce culinary intelligence took root.

She's brought her granddaughter Coco to the house where she

was first inspired to cook.

-And that is the flat where we were.

-The top one?

Yes. And this was the kitchen. The second floor.

Maria's kingdom, our cook.

I spent hours in the kitchen with her.

Coming home from school, we used to run into the kitchen and say,

-Maria...

-SHE SPEAKS ITALIAN

"What are we cooking?" And she used to...

Oh, she used to make the most fabulous gnocchi di patate.

Very quickly. And polpette with...

And seasoned with a little truffle inside. Heaven.

She was a very, very good cook. She inspired me a lot.

Maria's truffle-laced meatballs showed Anna how to use one

very special ingredient to make a dish really sing.

And Anna's mother, Ernesta, knew just where to buy the very best.

At Milan's smartest deli,

the shelves are lined with lavish treats.

But Anna's making a beeline for truffles.

How wonderful. These remind me so much of my mother.

We used to buy the small one,

and we used to go back all the way to where we lived.

Like that. Smelling it, with the truffle in my hand.

What does a good one smell of, Nonna?

Some people say they smell of armpit, Parmesan...

SHE LAUGHS

-Armpit, Parmesan and garlic.

-OK.

The luxurious flavours of Milan

kindled Anna's love affair with food.

But when the Second World War broke out,

bombing raids and food shortages

forced the del Contes to leave the city,

taking refuge with friends in Emilia-Romagna.

Anna arrived in a land of plenty.

In this rich farmland, she discovered the beauty of fresh,

seasonal ingredients.

Here, her mother knew the family would never go hungry.

I think probably she had the inkling that we would never be starved,

and we never starved. I never ate so well in my life like here.

Anna's returning to the farm where she learned some of the most

important culinary lessons of her life.

There it is. Yes.

This one is it, yes, I'm sure.

Lessons that shaped her cooking, and ours.

Back then, a family friend took them in,

and it's his great granddaughters who are meeting Anna today.

THEY SPEAK ITALIAN

Brings back a lot of memories. Let me see, let me see, let me see.

It's more than 70 years since Anna stepped through these doors.

Thank you.

Yes, yes, yes. Oh, yeah, that's the same.

When they took us in, they gave us this room,

which was my parents' room.

-And here was our little sitting room.

-Ah, OK.

Anna's room was on the first floor.

Oh, gosh, yes. Isn't it beautiful?

Now, these are all vineyards, are still vineyards, I presume.

-Yes, they are all vineyards.

-Peaches.

-Apricots, peaches.

-Apricots.

-Apricots, peaches. And some apples, but just a few.

The ingredients were incredibly good.

They would all come from here, they were all local.

The chickens were here, the eggs were here.

The milk was there, the butter was there. The wine was there.

So I learnt here what materia prima, "the good ingredients", are.

And that gave a tremendous impression on my palate, I think.

My food culture. And I will never forget that.

Anna ate some of the best meals of her life at the farmhouse.

But the cooking had a very different flavour to the sophisticated meals

she'd enjoyed in Milan.

The pig, which was slaughtered once a year.

It was a real feast, because you ate everything.

Pig is like the music of Verdi, there is nothing to throw away.

And everything is ate, from the ear to the tail.

They made the salumi and they made the prosciutto.

And it was slightly more salty than the one of Parma.

But they were quite delicious.

At the farm, Anna learnt that with a little creativity

and loving attention, even the most basic ingredients could be turned

into something sumptuous.

It's the secret to cucina povera, or peasant cooking,

the heart and soul of Italian food.

And it's a lesson she'd take with her when she left Italy

for England in 1949.

When she came to London to work as an au pair,

cooking Italian was the one way Anna could connect to her country.

There were two things that I missed terribly when I came here.

One was the light. Nothing I could do about light.

And the other thing was food I missed.

But I could try to do something about food. And I did.

After meeting her husband Oliver, Anna started a family,

and she was soon serving up soulful Italian food.

60 years on and she's still at it.

Today Anna is making a classic Tuscan bruschetta with Coco.

First, the skin,

and you cut it in half.

I always take the germ of the garlic out. You see, that's the germ.

The garlic is much sweeter if you remove that.

And brush.

-Rub.

-OK.

-Squeezing it so the juice comes out.

-OK.

-With any luck.

And we go like that.

You do the garlic and I do the tomato.

The bruschetta is an example of Italian simplicity.

What's the most important thing for a bruschetta, do you think?

It's good bread.

The bread should be, I think, a ciabatta type of bread.

-Yeah.

-Good tomato.

Excellent olive oil.

Bruschetta can take a rather nice, strong oil.

There's some lovely leaves. Now...

And there it is.

These days, we take good Italian ingredients for granted.

But when Anna was raising her family, it was a different story.

There was no mozzarella, for instance, no mascarpone, no ricotta.

Peppers were unknown,

courgettes practically unknown.

There was marrow, but, frankly, not very good to eat.

There was no squash.

Very boring.

And if the family wanted to eat out,

restaurants were a rather stuffy affair.

English restaurants right at the beginning of the '60s

had white tablecloths

and an incredibly snotty head waiter,

who would look down his nose at you if you ordered the house wine.

And it was all holy hush - you know, you were in the presence

of gastronomy, so you had to be very quiet.

And the food wasn't very good.

But in the '60s, the pendulum started to swing.

The British were slowly developing an appetite

for more sun-kissed flavours.

More and more people were able to travel to the Mediterranean.

You know, it was that whole thing about sun and olive oil

and garlic and tomatoes that actually tasted like tomatoes.

It meant that when they came back home

they wanted something different.

This isn't Rome.

It's a London restaurant which hasn't been slow to cater

for the Italian craze.

Mm-hm! How would YOU like to be waited on by a vestal virgin?

Offering flamboyant spectacle,

the new Italian trattorias made an exciting change.

I think they really turned a page

and really put the fun into having dinner.

Italian restaurants, they were like really cool and trendy.

It would be noisy, there'd be lots of Italians yelling,

and they enjoyed serving.

And their whole attitude to food was so different.

With affordable prices and unchallenging menus,

they opened up restaurants to the people.

Sometimes I have the spaghetti, which I like very much.

I mean, I'm just a common chap, like, you know,

which likes his pint and all that.

But in their efforts to pull in the punters,

the food on offer wasn't always authentic.

They were doing recipes...

able to attract British. So...

Rightly, Anna Del Conte said it was Britalian food.

They did have a few uniquely British dishes,

the most famous of which I suppose was called pollo sorpresa,

which was the Italian version of chicken Kiev.

And it was always served with a great deal of ceremony, you know.

You had to cut it open in a very particular way

so there wasn't this sort of Vesuvius-like eruption

of garlic butter all over the place.

I thought it was crazy.

I thought, "That's got nothing to do with Italy."

Whatever their shortcomings,

Italian restaurants had awakened a love for pizza and pasta.

What we in Britain weren't yet doing

was cooking Italian food at home.

For that, we would need guidance.

I thought pasta was an unknown ingredient.

And I wanted the English to know more about it, to know the right...

how to cook the right sort of pasta.

Partly, it was my feeling that the cooking of my country, Italy,

should be better known.

It was a hymn...hymn to my country.

That hymn to her homeland kick-started Anna's career.

Anna Del Conte was a pioneer of Italian food here in Britain.

She touched the pulse of the British

and said, "Something has to be done."

There is this sense of the personal connection.

It's her experience, it's her life,

erm, you know, in a series of dishes.

She's your friend in the kitchen.

There she is at your elbow, telling you what to do.

It's a marvellous sensation.

I think Anna just hit the right moment, didn't she?

I mean, when she started to write Italian cookbooks

we were ready for them.

Anna's first book introduced us to the extraordinary variety

of Italian pasta and how to cook it all.

And in the '70s, Delia took up the baton.

Hello, and welcome again.

This week's programme is all about how to cook pasta,

which does come in a great big array of sizes and assortments.

These are egg noodles, sometimes called tagliatelle.

And that's called lasagne

and that makes a really delicious dish, one of my very favourites.

# Golden brown, texture like sun... #

Delia showed the way, but when Britain began attempting bolognese,

the results were often shockingly inauthentic.

Burn an onion, abuse a bit of nasty, grey, grisly mince.

Chuck a bit of ketchup in.

It was pretty filthy.

And that Parmesan we used to get, that was very much...

And it smelt of puke.

Thankfully, Anna's book showed us how to cook ragu alla bolognese

the proper Italian way.

And that's exactly what we're cooking for lunch.

-We are going to do a ragu for lunch, aren't we?

-Mm. I love that.

And we're going to have it with tagliatelle, not with spaghetti.

I know, I know, I know!

-Not spag bol.

-Not spag bol.

-Anyhow, can we start with the pancetta, please?

-I certainly can.

You've got the non-smoked one.

Absolutely, because we don't have a lot of smoked food in Italy.

It's not very... I'm sure you know. Not smoked such a lot.

There is masses of ragu. There are as many ragus as there are cooks.

The one we're making today - the classic one, so to speak,

the real, proper, the true ragu.

Now, where is the oil?

People in this country always think extra virgin olive oil

always is better. But you don't cook with it.

No. Because it's very...strong.

-Strong... I mean, deliciously...

-Mm.

-..but rather peppery flavour,

which wouldn't go with that.

'Anna starts by heating olive oil and butter.'

You want the garlic? I can remember what you said to me

a long time ago, which is that you just peel the garlic...

-And put it in and take it out.

-..and when it is golden

you take it out again so it has just got like the breath of the taste.

Very seldom in Italy, I'm sure you've noticed,

there is onion and garlic.

-No, I haven't.

-In the old...old fashion

they would never put the two together.

My mother never put garlic and onion, because one...

seemed not to kill, but interfere with the flavour of the other.

'After removing the garlic, Anna adds the pancetta.'

I love that smell.

Oh, it does smell.

So, you've got three different fats going on.

Three different fats going on, yes. Do you not approve?

I approve wholeheartedly.

Can you please chop a little bit?

-No, you can do some work for a change!

-Good.

Oh, my... How old is that?

-My great-grandmother.

-So...

And she died in 1936.

We lost the house, we lost everything during the war.

-Not this one!

-Kept hold of that.

It followed my mother everywhere.

Once the onion is chopped we add it to the pan

with a pinch of salt to stop the onions burning.

Now, this is the soffritto starting.

Now I'm going to put carrots and celery.

-The soffritto is just giving the dish the basic.

-The foundation.

It's the base of a lot...a lot of Italian dishes.

-There.

-Thank you.

After the soffritto has softened, we add the meat.

This is beef.

It should be lean, not too fat.

-We've got enough fat there.

-Yes.

-Well, it's just beef.

-It's only beef.

And this is the closest.

-I want it to be the real regional thing, etc, etc, you know.

-I do.

-OK, do you want to swap?

-Yes.

-Here.

Don't burn yourself, cos it's quite a small fork.

It's very good, though, this, isn't it? It's not too finely minced.

No, it shouldn't be, it shouldn't be again.

-You should feel the grain in your mouth.

-Yes.

-It should get just slightly crusty.

-Yes.

Otherwise it's become a stew instead of...

-Yes, it braises then.

-Yeah.

-Yeah.

-Now...

-Crumbly.

-..the tomato puree.

-Tell me when to stop.

-No, I don't want you to stop.

-We certainly need all that.

-Yeah.

'And in a classic ragu, that's where the tomato ends.'

Some people put... er, peeled tomato.

This is a meat sauce, not a tomato and meat sauce.

-It is a meat sauce.

-Mm-hm.

-Fundamentally, you're right.

That's correct - it is not a tomato sauce, it's a meat sauce.

'Next, we add a touch of grated nutmeg...'

That's it. Thank you.

-'..some red wine...'

-That's lovely.

And then we put the wine.

-Barbera!

-Yeah.

-How lovely. That's it.

'..and a glug of stock.'

Er, did we put salt? No.

Hmm, only on the onions. Not much.

I'll put a little more.

'The final crucial ingredient is milk,

'often neglected in a British bolognese.'

Now, we put the milk in. The milk softens it.

-Milk is... It's a gentle flavour.

-Mm-hm.

It's all a question of nurturing your dish.

-A ragu needs nurturing.

-Yeah.

And then we put the bay leaves. I think two. What do you think?

Yeah, I think two is absolutely fine.

And then we taste it.

-Oh! Very, very rich. I love that.

-Good.

-Really rich.

-Mmm.

-You cook it for a long time.

-Mmm.

-It won't be cooked yet.

-No, but it will be fantastic.

-I think minimum is two hours.

But frankly, the more longer it is...

One used to cook it for four or five hours.

-Yeah. Is that all right?

-That's more than all right, darling.

MUSIC: That's The Way I Like It by KC and the Sunshine Band

For most of us in the '70s,

Italian food was something you could enjoy only in restaurants.

For many who ate pasta at home, the chances were it came out of a tin.

Well, I sort of belong to a generation where, in fact,

it was tinned spaghetti and spaghetti hoops.

Remember spaghetti hoops?

Most people's idea, in the '70s,

of Italian cooking would probably be tinned ravioli.

And it was in a sort of weak tomato sauce

and slimy overcooked ravioli, which slopped out and was horrible!

I mean, how much more Britalian can you get?

Tinned ravioli on toast!

Great!

Of course, Anna's authentic version might take a little more time,

but the difference is more than worth it.

-It's been cooking for about 2-2½ hours, hasn't it?

-Mm-hm.

'And with the ragu nearly ready, it's time to cook the pasta.'

-Yes.

-Aw, does that make you happy?

-Beautiful.

And so, what did I learn from you, that I quote all the time?

"The water you cook pasta in must be as salty as the Mediterranean."

-Yes. Not the Atlantic.

-No, no, no!

It's about 15ml, which is one good tablespoonful,

-for one litre of water.

-Oh, right!

And we do it with tagliatelle. Ragu is never done with spaghetti.

No, I suppose, if you did it with this, it would be too heavy for it.

-It just slips through it.

-Yes.

-That's right.

-Put them all in. Don't you think so?

-Of course.

-Bring it back as quickly as possible to the boil.

-Yeah.

-And then you give it a good stir...

-Yes.

-..and you boil it without the lid.

-It's boiling.

-You need a roaring boil.

-A "roaring" boil - fantastic!

-LID RATTLES

-There it is.

-Yeah.

-Yes.

'The pasta has to be cooked al dente, still with a bit of a bite.

'Finally, Anna dresses the pasta with sauce.

'It's a delicate art we all too often get wrong over here.'

-We can dress a little bit.

-So just a bit?

So you don't want too much, otherwise you're turning into us.

Ah! Otherwise it becomes a Britalian dish...

-Yes!

-..and not an Italian dish. The proportion of sauce to pasta

should be two tablespoons of sauce per portion of pasta.

How much do we want?

Just carry on. ANNA LAUGHS

We're sharing it now.

-No, that's for you alone, darling!

-Yeah!

OK.

Again, don't overdo it with the Parmesan...

-Yes.

-..because it's quite a strong thing.

It should be grated and not shaved.

I haven't got a fork. Oh, here it is.

-I'm hungry. Are you?

-Very, actually.

Oh, dear. I've got too much.

Obviously, I wasn't born to twirl like you.

-Good.

-It's very good.

-Mm-hm.

Thank you.

Lovely.

-It's the lovely Barbera that I put in there.

-Yes.

Well, that's the rule, isn't it?

Don't use anything in cooking you wouldn't drink.

-Grazie.

-A te.

MUSIC: Take On Me by Aha

Anna's first book was a success,

but she couldn't change our lives overnight.

And with the '80s in full flow,

it wasn't looking good for Italian food in Britain.

Microwaves were in and people just couldn't get enough of them.

It'll be two minutes, OK?

So, although lasagne may have been on the menu,

Mama certainly hadn't made it.

And, of course, pizza came in a box!

People were in love with convenience food.

My sister and I were obsessed with all the really rubbish crap foods.

My mum wouldn't let us have them -

you know, lasagne, microwaved lasagne - all these things that...

We weren't exactly sort of, you know, it wasn't poor us, but, yes,

we wanted to get deeper into this white heat of food technology.

-Cheers.

-Cheers.

And some of our much-loved Italian restaurants

had become a bit of a joke!

-Pasta!

-Thank you.

-Thank you.

-A bit of fattening, eh?

Something to...grab hold of! Nice one!

They're all like that in 'ere -

jamming their groins into your tortellini!

The big comedy pepper grinder!

-Pepper, ladies?

-Thank you.

-Thank you.

Make-a you nice and hot!

Nice-a big one, eh?

Trattorias in Britain were a poor imitation of the original.

We still hadn't cracked the art of cooking real Italian food.

-ANNA:

-Good ingredients are the base of the Italian cooking.

They've got to be pure and simple.

All the other ingredients that goes in are simply to

emphasise the flavour of the main ingredient, not to distract from it.

It's a mantra Anna picked up in her early years in Italy.

And it's the inspiration behind the food at Da Mandarein,

a rustic trattoria near the farm where she stayed during the war.

Now, we're going to have... some of the best food in Italy.

HUM OF CONVERSATION

The restaurant is buzzing with regulars -

workmen who flock there for an authentic hearty lunch.

Here, the food's inspired by cucina povera, which elevates

the humblest ingredients by cooking them with loving respect.

Anna's keen to compare recipes,

-so she's joining Signora Gigliola in the kitchen.

-What are we doing?

-Oh, zucca! Pumpkin!

-Zucca.

Her signature dish is home-made tortelli -

fresh egg pasta filled with whatever's in season.

Can I check what is inside there?

-Zucca, amaretti...

-Pumpkin, amaretti.

-..Parmigiano-Reggiano.

-Yes. Amaretti?

-Si.

How fascinating! The biscuit?

The pumpkin filling is carefully wrapped in her home-made pasta.

-And like I do - al dente.

-OK.

Because now the fashion is to put only the yolk.

-No.

-It doesn't work.

The final touch is to cut the pasta into parcels,

a process Anna fell in love with as a child.

I loved the... I loved as a...

-These are the pumpkins one - zucca?

-Zucca.

ORDER GIVEN IN ITALIAN, SHE ACKNOWLEDGES IT

Within the lunchtime rush on, Anna's getting involved.

Now, I've got to work.

I can't just talk.

Along with tortelli dressed with sage butter,

they're dishing up a rich ragu alla bolognese.

And roast quails wrapped in prosciutto.

Not bad for an everyday lunch!

Prosciutto's much nicer than bacon.

But the Italians do care deeply about their food.

And here, everyone eats well.

That's the asparagus one.

-Grazie. I'm going to eat...

-Mangiare?

That's right.

In Italian trattorias, all ingredients are worshipped.

Cooks here know a modest pumpkin

can be as delicious as the regal truffle, if cooked the right way.

Mmm!

The trick is to lead each flavour shine.

It's a philosophy Anna was

determined to pass on to us in Britain.

-Molto buono.

-I really like it.

-Mm-hm.

And, in 1984, she did just that.

Anna's third book, The Gastronomy Of Italy,

was a lovingly-researched encyclopaedia of Italian cuisine.

As well as introducing us

to a comprehensive array of Italian ingredients,

Anna gave us easy-to-follow recipes that we could cook at home.

The Gastronomy Of Italy is an absolute monument of food writing.

To me, it's one of the half-dozen indispensable books on food.

It's about simplicity, authenticity and integrity.

All that knowledge, all that learning, all that elegance,

is all in her work, it's there, and that's why she's such a good writer.

For Giorgio Locatelli, Anna's recipes were a godsend.

HE SHOUTS ORDERS IN ITALIAN

He'd spent eight years cooking French haute cuisine when

a friend asked him to be the chef at a new Italian restaurant.

-..off the bone. To share as well.

-ALL:

-Yes!

I had a few ideas, but you know, in one week,

I was already running short of that, kind of thing,

so I ran down to Books For Cooks down in Notting Hill

and I saw Anna Del Conte and I bought The Gastronomy Of Italy.

As prescribed reading for kitchen staff in Giorgio's restaurant,

Anna's book still influences his modern Italian style.

And they're still firm friends today.

-Anna!

-Hello!

-How are you?

-Very well.

He's invited Anna to his restaurant for a little thank you lunch.

-Buongiorno!

-Buongiorno a tutti!

-ALL:

-Buongiorno!

-Buongiorno.

Giorgio, what are we doing, then?

I think we're going to do a fish soup inspired by your book.

The boys are always reading your book.

-It's one of our favourite things.

-Well, I'm delighted.

If you use it, it means that it's good.

Anna's Brodetto Abruzzese is a simple and hearty fish stew.

But as a Michelin-starred chef,

Giorgio's adding a few celebratory flourishes of his own -

Sicilian prawns, razor clams from Wales and some beautiful plaice.

Oh, look at that! Gosh!

We're going to put a little bit of this as well in it.

-I'm going to fillet it out.

-That's so lovely. Oh!

-It's a very big plaice.

-Very big, yeah.

-You obviously love fish.

-HE LAUGHS

-You handle it as if you love it.

-Ha-ha!

Oh, good. Look at that.

To be Italian is to love food.

There's a fierce national pride in the cuisine,

to the exclusion of all others.

When my dad came here, you know,

I never could take him to a Chinese restaurant.

-"I'm not coming to a Chinese restaurant!"

-No, no, no.

-"I want a plate of pasta!"

-Absolutely!

"I don't go to restaurants where they don't give you bread!"

Absolutely! I have an Italian friend that walked out

-because you couldn't have bread!

-THEY LAUGH

But when it comes to food,

we in the UK are a rather more accommodating tribe.

I've found that the British have got a much more wider palate

-than the Italians.

-Yes.

-In a way.

-Yes, yes.

The English are able...

-It's the only cuisine that's been influenced so strongly.

-Yes.

Let's cook this brodetto now. OK, here you are.

Giorgio begins by adding the shellfish

to a pan sizzling with olive oil, garlic and chilli.

Then he adds some lovely chunks of sea bream and red mullet.

-Put a little bit of white wine.

-LOUD SIZZLING

-Sometimes, people put too much wine.

-No, that's...

-Look at it.

-Yeah.

-The little one you put. A little more.

-No, just tiny. Tiny.

-Yes.

I really want it also... I let it really almost all evaporate.

Once it's cooked, Giorgio puts the shellfish aside to add at the end.

These are opened. These are all right.

And the...? Oh.

And this one I put on top and it stays there.

He intensifies the flavour with some rich tomato sauce

and a glug of fragrant fish stock.

..calamari...

Each piece of fish is added at just the right time,

to ensure every element is cooked perfectly.

I'm looking forward very much. Look at it!

-I think it's ready, don't you?

-It looks delicious!

-Ha-ha!

-Perfect! Perfect!

Oh, I'm excited that I cook a nice fish soup,

but I also cook it with you, so I'm double excited!

Giorgio finishes his beautiful brodetto with

a round of toast rubbed with garlic and doused in oil.

Now, Giorgio, you said that I've inspired you a lot, but this is...

This is much better than any I've done.

-HE LAUGHS

-Yeah!

For a Michelin-starred chef, the instinct is to experiment.

But Anna's unpretentious style is a reminder not to overdo things.

This is what is very important for a chef,

because we tend to really overwork!

And overworking with Italian food doesn't work.

Can you read admiration?

"To Giorgio, a great chef, with admiration and..."

-Love.

-"..love."

-Love.

-Affetto!

-Love!

-THEY LAUGH

-Thank you.

-Thank you. Thank you very, very much!

With The Gastronomy Of Italy, Anna had reached a vital audience.

The book had become a Bible for a generation of chefs fired up

to change the way Britain ate.

Suddenly, chefs came from their sweaty, hot, sweary, dank kitchens

and came in front of the cameras.

MUSIC: Vogue by Madonna

As the '90s dawned, the celebrity chef had arrived.

I love cooking fish.

It's so light and full of flavour and perfect for a romantic meal.

Now, to make the risotto, what you need is...

-Had you going!

-As TV fell in love with food, they began

-visiting our sitting rooms each week.

-Beautiful, isn't it?

So is the church!

Orvieto white wine - splendid stuff!

And Italian was top of the menu.

It wasn't long before MasterChef

was serving up Mediterranean flavours to the nation.

Good luck. Have a really good time. And let's get cooking.

Loyd's guest of honour was none other than Anna Del Conte.

'In the forefront of those

'extolling the virtues of Italian cookery is Anna Del Conte.'

Welcome, Anna. Tell me, why has the last five years witnessed

this unbelievable explosion of interest in Italian cooking?

Well, I think that maybe more people are going to Italy than they ever

did before, but I think mainly it's because, having discovered it,

they found that it is very good and very healthy.

Anna had certainly wowed the other guest that night.

Can we just mention your bedside reading at the moment?

-What's on your...?

-It's just the most wonderful coincidence.

I have and I have had your book, The Gastronomy Of Italy,

cos, in a way, it's almost like a history of Italy.

Anna's MasterChef appearance was unusual.

She's never been a TV chef. It's just not her style.

MUSIC: Holding Back The Years by Simply Red

-Mmm!

-But her writing had reached

disciples willing to take her message mainstream.

And it was the discovery of her fifth book,

Entertaining all'Italiana, that inspired me and brought us together.

I had three copies of it - in the kitchen, the bedroom, in a loo -

and, um, I became a bit obsessed with her.

I read somewhere that she was doing a cooking demo and I was charmed

and I went to speak to her afterwards to try and tell her,

you know, how wonderful I thought she was and we made friends.

'I was happy to pass on what I'd learned from Anna.'

I do know that there is so much more to Italian food than pasta,

but you've got to admit -

it is something that makes our daily lives so much better.

I'm making linguine with mushrooms, garlic and thyme.

And this is so easy. You don't even cook it.

By the time the pasta's ready, the sauce is done.

MUSIC: Unfinished Sympathy by Massive Attack

-And Giorgio was obviously keen to spread the word.

-One of the secrets

to making a good risotto is that we add butter to that at the end.

With proper Italian recipes being broadcast loud and proud

to the nation, we were finally cooking them at home.

We had rediscovered a desire for the fresh and the home cooked.

In the '90s, the entire thing exploded.

You know, everyone talked about the Mediterranean diet.

Food that was colourful, that was simple,

that was delicious and that was good for us.

We could embrace it. It wasn't scary. It was easy to cook.

Smart Italian restaurants opened to critical acclaim

-and leading the pack was London's River Cafe.

-OK?

So, when we, when we opened the River Cafe, we thought,

"Why can't we have the kind of food

"that we cooked and ate in Italy in a restaurant in London?"

The River Cafe dared to serve peasant food.

Bean soup with a trickle of olive oil on top.

Really simple pared-down ingredients of real quality.

The River Cafe's devotion to quality seasonal ingredients

echoed Anna's own.

Anna communicated real authenticity about what Italian food was

and what it meant and her A to Z of, you know, Italian food

was something that I still refer to.

But it was one of her junior chefs

who would take that message to the masses.

Good olive oil on the bruschetta.

This bruschetta's been rubbed with garlic.

Lovely jubbly.

Discovered on a TV series about the River Cafe,

Jamie Oliver's easy approach to Italian food

-was an immediate hit.

-The flavours will be fantastic.

People understood Italian food. But when Jamie came along - bang!

You know, this was... We totally fell in lust,

you know...chucked off all our clothes and dived in.

People loved that. People loved the idea that it was

a bit of this, a bit of that, throw it in a pan.

I just want a couple of tablespoons of olive oil.

And in the end, this amazing reinvention of Italian food,

through the River Cafe and then widely interpreted by chefs

everywhere, I think it's really in tune with what Anna

has been writing about and telling us about for years.

Oooh! # I like pasta! #

Through TV chefs, cooks and her books, Anna's passion for

proper Italian food was finally filtering through to the nation.

The risotto with dried ceps and field mushroom on the top.

And it was about to become very big business indeed!

By now, the advertising industry

had spotted the moneymaking potential of Brand Italia.

Short cut sauces weren't just convenient, they seemed

a passport to la dolce vita.

It feels like the people buys into a little bit of a dream

when they cook that plate of pasta.

They're not just having a meal that time,

they're not just having something to stuff themselves,

but they just, they feel Italian, they feel like

they're around the table with their family and so and so.

Everything in Italy is good, everything in Italy is romantic,

it's passionate, it's sunny, it's beautiful, it's cultured, um...

Everything in Britain's a bit grey and boring, so, you know,

go look on the sunny side of life.

Eat some pasta, eat some Dolmio, become a great lover.

Mega chains of Italian restaurants opened up on our high streets,

Italian ingredients filled our shops,

and pasta began to appear on every pub menu.

Today, Italian food brings in the big bucks.

But for Anna, it's never been about the money,

it's always been about the food.

What has been brilliant about her is the humility of it.

You know, there hasn't been big fanfares

and, "Oh! Anna Del Conte" and razzmatazz, you know.

She quietly writes her books, her recipes are authentic.

And there's no better example of Anna's essential joyful style than

the festive tiramisu we're making to round off our sumptuous lunch.

We're going to do the Tiramisu Natalizo. You know what it is?

-Christmas, I would work out.

-Well done.

-It's a Christmas one.

Now, you converted me to tiramisu, cos I was so snobbish about it.

-I always used to call it "The Black Forest Gateau of the '90s."

-Yes!

Now, this is made with marrons glace, which is very different...

-Yeah.

-..because we are Christmassy after all.

-Yes!

'We get cracking by whisking egg whites with a little lemon juice.'

-Not like meringue, but nearly like meringue.

-OK.

I'm going to live dangerously. Excuse me, I'm going up a notch.

-LOUD WHIRING

-That's fine. Lift it up.

Perfect.

'We beat egg yolks and sugar

'until the mixture becomes light and moussey.'

-No, can you do it, please?

-I can do it.

-I'm a bit small, you see.

-NIGELLA LAUGHS

That's it. That's all right.

This is the mascarpone.

I put it in not so much at a time.

'With the mascarpone mixed in, we add the egg whites.'

I mean, it's something of a modern classic, isn't it - tiramisu?

-Fundamentally, it's a trifle.

-An Italian trifle.

-An Italian trifle.

'For the sponge layer, Anna dips madeleines

'in a mixture of milk and white rum.'

When you do an English trifle, you just do the same,

-but you pour it over, don't you?

-Yes.

-The Italians like less liquid.

-Yeah.

-This applies to everything - that we don't like sloppy food.

-Yes.

The English prefer sloppy.

-I'm sorry, I know it's a nasty word to use.

-Yeah.

-But I...

-I know...

-I use sloppy for the sake of a better word.

No, that's why you call our trifle Zuppa Inglese - "English soup."

Zuppa Inglese, you are right.

'And then, we add Anna's star ingredient -

'candied chestnuts, or marrons glace.'

Beautiful. But even now they're used a lot in Italy,

you call them the same, by the French name?

Yes, and it was invented in Italy, in fact.

-First created in Piedmont...

-Yes.

-..the marron glace.

-You're on crumble.

-I'm on crumble duty?

Very extravagant crumble.

-You're not complaining.

-Mmm.

-You enjoy it.

-I do. I love these.

'After adding another layer of dipped madeleines, we slather on

'more of the eggy mascarpone and pop some marron glace on the top.'

-Another one.

-OK, I've got room for another one here.

-That's enough.

'Finally, to allow the flavours to meld together,

'we give the tiramisu some standing time in the fridge.'

And now we have to be patient.

-You want a marron glace, don't you?

-Yeah, I do, thank you very much.

-Beautiful. Shall we just share this bit?

-Oh!

You start.

-Shall I try?

-OK.

-Mmm!

-If you like it...

-It's perfect!

-Do you like it?

The way that the mascarpone and the rum and the madeleine fuse together

contrasts with that crumbliness of the marron glace.

-Oh, I see what you mean, yes.

-It really works.

-I like...

-It is...

-..that slightly waxy crumbliness in the middle.

-I love marron glace with anything.

-Mm-hm, I know!

This is a triumph!

Over 40 years, Anna Del Conte helped transform our culinary landscape,

masterminding Britain's love affair with Italian food.

I think that the cooking is one of the greatest expressions of love.

At least it was for me. I hoped, with my books,

that they would bring a little bit of Italy into their home.

A little bit of sunshine, a little bit of what actually Italian,

real Italian food is like.

Her quiet authority has inspired some of our best Italian chefs.

For me, Anna's cooking really illustrates

the essence of Italian food.

She taught us all an enormous amount. I have a huge debt to her.

-It's not too sweet for me.

-No, it's perfect.

-It's not too sweet for me and I haven't got...

-And you've got...?

I haven't got as sweet a tooth as you and its not too sweet for me.

Some Vin Santo.

A tiny bit.

-See, that's very interesting.

-That's the christening.

And also what's really interesting about you as a cook, which is

you're so, um, respectful of the traditions,

but there's that Italian anarchic nature,

which always wants to make you do little twists on it.

-Well, that is...

-So your next tiramisu is

-going to be a Vin Santo tiramisu.

-Ah!

-You could dunk these in Vin Santo...

-And then?

-..and then pile that up with mascarpone.

-Ah.

-I think it's a good idea.

-Yeah, that's your next one.

And we'll call it... Nigellana Tiramisu.

Yeah, that's perfect! THEY LAUGH

Anna's recipes and Anna's writing will endure,

because they're timeless.

Everything pared back, simple as can be, just about allowing

beautiful ingredients to speak to you on a plate.

-Anna?

-Yeah?

-I know you really hate it when people say nice things

to you, but I have to say, next to my mother,

-there's no-one who has influenced me more or who I love more.

-Aw!

-Don't make me cry, please.

-THEY LAUGH SOFTLY

-Thank you.

-Thank YOU.

-Thank you for everything.

-To you.

-For everything, Anna.

-And I mean it. Mmm!

-I do too.

-Good. It really is good.

Good Vin Santo! Oh!