Angela Hartnett - Italian Food Food & Drink

There's nothing I'm more passionate about than what, how and why we eat and drink.

In this series, we'll be looking at the trends in modern food and drink

that influence the way we all shop and cook today.

Pasta is the world's favourite food.

It's versatile, value for money and convenient.

But more importantly, when we cook pasta,

we bring a little bit of Italy to the table.

'Chef Angela Hartnett is proud of her Italian roots

'and is a pasta purist.'

You're making it look so easy!

Well, in my youth, I've made a fair bit!

Journalist Matthew Fort believes that when it comes to good food,

no-one does it better than the Italians.

The joy of Italian food in Italy for me is the simplicity

and the way it focuses upon the qualities of the ingredients.

Drinks expert Kate Goodman gives us the inside track

on what's hot in the drinks world.

There's a growing trend to matching cocktails with food.

I think it's a really interesting idea.

Got a bit of a kick, hasn't it?

And Antonio Carluccio shares his secrets about what makes Italian food so good.

You need passion, fantastic ingredients and a lot of confidence!

Food and Drink is back!

The world is in love with pasta.

It out-sells meat, rice and even vegetables.

It's such a simple dish, with just three ingredients.

Angela.

Your Italian roots. Tell me about it.

On my mother's side, Italian background.

Her parents emigrated to South Wales between the wars.

As the eldest granddaughter, I always had to do the cooking,

the cleaning and all the rest of it.

My brother, bless him, two years above me in age,

-I don't think has ever to this day made me a bowl of pasta!

-No.

I'm making a rustic wild boar ragu from northern Italy,

while Angela makes the traditional accompaniment of tagliatelle.

If you can't get hold of wild boar, beef will do just as well.

..chopped and fried in olive oil

to create the base of this hearty Italian stew,

-or cinghiale.

-Cinghiale, yes.

-Did I say that right?

I think you did. I'm not going to start correcting you, Michel!

It's a Toscana dish.

It's very much the north west.

That's the thing about Italian food, everyone thinks it's a mixture of everything.

But I think it's even more regional than French food.

In northern Italy, traditionally they would have butter, cream and cheese.

It's very much about the regions and how rich they were traditionally.

Even today, the north is much more wealthy, more industrial,

whereas the south is seen as much poorer.

So they'd use more vegetables, more olive oil,

less meat, cheese and butter.

Pasta has just three ingredients.

Flour, eggs and salt.

It takes a matter of minutes to make.

Angela's using 300g of finely milled 00 flour,

which is best for making pasta,

and three eggs with salt to season.

She simply makes a well in the middle of the flour,

cracks the eggs in and mixes together.

I'm just kneading it to a nice firm consistency.

Then let it rest for about ten minutes.

Then we can roll it into tagliatelle.

This is how, as a kid, I learned to make it.

My grandmother, till the day she passed away, was making it by hand.

-Can I have a feel?

-You can, indeed.

You're checking my work, now!

-It's lovely. Lovely and elastic.

-Let's hope so.

-It's not sticky.

I always do this little trick.

I slice it in the centre so you can see that everything's mixed in,

there's no flour, it's nice and smooth.

-You know you're ready.

-It looks so, so smooth!

In a separate pan, seal 750g of wild boar

until it's turned a lovely golden brown.

I'm using the neck, as this is the most succulent cut.

Once the vegetables have softened, add 100g of pancetta

and a bay leaf.

I'm going to be adding just a little bit of orange peel

to this, just to add more flavour.

Just a tiny bit.

It's important to cook these vegetables off and get some colour.

After a few minutes over a high heat,

transfer the boar into the casserole

with the vegetables and pancetta.

In the restaurants we'd probably do a lovely veal stock that's already been prepared.

A bit of chicken stock. But we're doing authentic.

-Authentic. So Italian wine, of course.

-Good, good, good.

Into the pan.

-And water.

-Perfect, yes.

I'm going to clingfilm the pasta and leave it for five to ten minutes

just to rest, like pastry.

While the meat juices bubble away with the wine,

add a couple of tablespoons of puree to the ragu.

It's important when using this stuff

-that you actually cook it off a bit.

-Yes.

Because it can be bitter if it's not cooked out.

Do you cook with wild boar?

Yes, we do similar to this.

We make a tagliatelle and we do a bolognese,

but rather than as the British do with spaghetti, we do tagliatelle.

Or fettuccini. If you go to Tuscany, Lombardia and Piedmont, those areas,

-you'll get this fantastic wild boar ragu.

-Absolutely.

-Wild boar.

-It's there constantly.

Pour the wine and meat juices into the casserole

before adding 200ml of water to help create a thick sauce.

And now...

a few oregano leaves.

Lovely. Smelling good.

It's just about coming to a gentle simmer, so I'll put the lid on

and then I'll slow cook it.

It mustn't boil. If it boils, the fibres will get tough.

Put into the oven at 150 degrees for an hour and a half.

Long, slow cooking is the secret to all braised meats and ragus.

It should be really, really moist. Almost falling apart.

'While the ragu is in the oven,

'take the pasta dough out of the fridge

'and cut it in half.'

It's better to do it in two lots,

just in case something goes wrong,

and also you have more control with a smaller amount,

rather than a huge amount.

Just flatten it out.

'If you're using a pasta maker,

'make sure it's set on the widest setting.'

You're rolling it out by hand first.

I remember my dad making "les nouilles", noodles,

which is the equivalent of tagliatelle in French.

And he rolled them until they were cigarette paper thin, by hand.

I doubt, as a kid, my grandmother ever made pasta with a machine.

It was a new thing.

The pasta needs to be rolled twice on each setting.

At least 16 times to get it to the right thickness.

Tagliatelle and fettuccini is probably the one pasta

I do make by hand.

Whereas spaghetti, linguine,

all the much thinner ones, I tend to buy.

You're making it look so easy.

Well, in my youth, I've made a fair bit!

You want it to feel like it's soft, but not wet.

A bit like a pillow case. Nice and smooth.

Enough so you can see through slightly,

but not totally transparent.

I'm going to leave this a moment just to dry slightly.

I always put it on semolina rather than flour.

It takes the moisture out of it.

'Angela would be the first to admit that when it comes to making pasta,

'practice really does make perfect.'

You can feel it's quite dry now.

We'll sprinkle a bit of semolina.

When you put flour on pasta and it cooks, it tends to stick to it.

The semolina will come off in the cooking.

So we're going to just fold it like this,

into, if you like, little rectangles,

so it looks like little pillow cases and parcels.

Bring it down to you

and then, literally, in one movement, straight down.

About one centimetre? Is that right?

Yeah. You can go thinner like fettuccini,

or a bit fatter like pappardelle.

-And that's it.

-Wow, look at that.

-There you go.

This is what we want, Kate. No pressure!

I'm nearly there.

-Beautiful.

-There we are.

-That's it.

-Let's have a go. All right!

When I eat tagliatelle with boar, I think of my grandmother. We were all there at Christmas.

-20 of us round that table.

-I'm there!

But it's that romantic thing about pasta and all that is Italian.

Yes, it's exactly the same for me with the wine.

Italy has such a variety of wine. It's absolutely amazing.

There are 2,000 indigenous grape varieties in Italy.

Every time I go, or go to a tasting, I always find something new.

What do you think will go with this, Kate?

There are strong flavours. Wild boar, slightly gamey.

Tomato based sauce. Orange peel in it.

Bay leaf, oregano.

For me, it's a Tuscan dish and I want a Tuscan wine with it.

I want that lovely bitter cherry quality. Sangiovese,

which is the main grape variety in Tuscany.

They have a sort of herby earthiness

which this dish has as well.

'Having gone to the effort of making fresh pasta,

'the secret to cooking it properly is to boil it in lots of seasoned water.

'Too little, and it'll all stick together.'

-Mmm!

-Beautiful.

'It only takes a minute-and-a-half

'and when it's ready, simply lift the pasta out of the water

'so it stays wet.'

'Mix together with the sauce and heat through for another 30 seconds.'

Every little bit of pasta is coated

with that sauce.

A lot of people have two thirds sauce, a third pasta.

I go two thirds pasta, a third sauce.

The pasta, to me, is the dish.

Look at that! Ooh!

We're going to... Beautiful flavours there.

I'm making a bit of a mess!

You're allowed to make a bit of a mess!

That's it. Little bit of Parmesan grated on at the end.

-Freshly grated Parmesan, of course.

-Freshly grated.

'Just before serving, top with fresh porcini mushrooms or ceps

that have been fried in olive oil.

The ultimate Italian garnish for this hearty stew.

Pasta may be one of the quickest dishes to make,

but the trick with the ragu is not to rush it.

Take your time and you'll end up with a thick, rich sauce

that tastes of the time you've invested in making it.

-Mmm!

-Smells good.

Looks amazing, as well.

-Oh, yes.

-The ragu is delicious.

The pasta is lovely. It's got that wonderful texture

-of fresh pasta.

-Mmm.

It's got a little bite to it, yet give,

-and it's soaked up all that sauce.

-The meat is so succulent and tender. It's falling apart in my mouth.

The wide ribbon pastas like pappardelle, tagliatelles,

they're fantastic with meat sauces, whereas traditional spaghetti is much better with tomatoes.

So what have we got to drink, Kate?

This is really quite an earthy, rustic dish, isn't it?

It's got those lovely savoury, earthy characters.

So the first one I'm going to show you

is a gin version of a bloody Mary.

It's actually called a red snapper.

It's a really lovely flavour match.

Gin actually gives it a bit more body than a vodka.

You've got the Tabasco, so it's quite a hearty, savoury, spicy drink.

-Hm.

-I think it will stand up really well to this dish.

I'm really interested to see what you think.

There's a growing trend to matching cocktails with food.

It's a really interesting idea.

Ooh!

-Ooh!

-It's got a bit of a kick, hasn't it?

That's a really good tomato juice, as well.

What we did there, with the tomato juice,

we actually used fresh tomatoes, warmed them up a bit,

then drained off the pips and the skins so you've got a lovely freshness as well.

It balances that nice tangy orange as well.

-I think all those flavours...

-Does it work?

-Actually, yes,

I think it does work.

You know what, Kate? You've impressed me!

Angela, for you, it has to be the wine, of course.

It's a classic Tuscan wine made mainly with Sangiovese.

It's a Chianti Classico.

Chianti Classico is a step up from Chianti.

So with Chianti, you get lots of bright fruit flavours,

whereas with Chianti Classico you get more depth of flavour,

more richness, you get some cinnamon spice,

which is really important here.

That works perfectly with that. It's not overkill.

It's a bit Christmassy, you know?

You can smell Christmas. There's a lot of that in there.

I have the soft option.

Again, it's interesting to see the rise of soft drinks

and food matching.

You can go into restaurants now and they have a full juice menu

or soft drink menu, to go with the food they're offering.

So people are thinking about soft options and what works well with food.

Again, I wanted something with some spice.

So I've gone for a ginger beer.

-Ahh!

-I like ginger beer, cos it's quite warming,

it's got that lovely spice.

You have to be careful cos you can get really sweet versions.

This is quite dry and tangy.

I'll have a little bit and pass it round. See what you think.

Again, it's that wintery, autumn.

You always associate ginger spice and everything.

-It's lovely. Really warming.

-It's lovely.

-I like ginger beer.

-It's delicious.

-Mm.

-That tanginess works well with it.

It's lovely.

We've created an authentic Italian dish

I'd be proud to serve to Angela's relatives.

But we've all been there.

Out for a meal and served up something no self-respecting Italian

would ever want to be associated with.

Journalist and Italophile Matthew Fort shares our pain!

It seems we just can't get enough of Italian food.

You can do what you like with a recipe in the privacy of your own home,

but is it too much to ask to get the real thing when you go to a restaurant?

A watered down version of the original gets up my nose

as it goes down my throat.

Over the years, I've explored most of Italy's regions,

absorbing as much of the history, culture and above all its food as I could manage.

The more I've explored,

the more fascinating, diverse and delicious

I've found that food to be.

But there is a problem.

It's a bit like these Roman baths here in Bath.

They are Roman, of course,

built by the Romans in the Roman style.

But the materials they are built from are not Roman.

But over the years, they've evolved to meet the different demands

of different people.

Now, the same can be said of Italian food.

That, too, has evolved when it has left the mother country.

But evolution suggests a change for the better.

And I'm not sure that this is the case.

Franco Pidala and Nunzio Mola

have run one of the most successful Italian restaurants in the south-west of England

for the last 12 years, giving what they promise is true Italian hospitality.

The joy of Italian food in Italy for me

is the simplicity and the way it focuses on the qualities of the ingredients.

Lamb chops, for example,

what you get is three lamb chops on the plate and a piece of lemon.

We're so used to having a piece of meat flanked by the potatoes

and a green veg and a white veg, perhaps.

But that is why we have lost that kind of genuineness that we have in Italy.

All over the world, Italian restaurants are adapting their authentic traditional recipes

to suit the palates of local clientele.

But I want to taste the authentic Tagliatelle Alfredo,

with butter and Parmesan,

not the Anglicised version with ham and mushrooms

and certainly not the all-singing, all-dancing American version.

I'm going to start with "the classic" as I like to think of it.

I can taste the sort of egginess of the pasta through the sauce.

The sauce, although it's quite rich, it's quite neutral.

The tease, it's like a seasoning, really.

OK. This is the English one.

Already the flavour of the pasta has gone.

You're getting the flavour of the ham, the texture of the mushrooms.

And then the American one. It'll taste much the same.

And the peas are for decoration!

It does kind of give you a different flavour.

It does, but it sweetens it.

I think you had a near neighbour who tried to set up a traditional Italian restaurant

and run it along traditional lines.

What happened to him?

He went bankrupt.

The food he was serving was traditional Italian food.

So you've clearly taken the slightly more successful route

and you've adapted your dishes. How do you feel about that?

Well, if you didn't adapt, we wouldn't be here talking to you today.

I'm in no doubt that many Italian restaurants make delicious food.

But like Indian, Chinese, Mexican and French restaurants the world over,

we consumers have diluted their cooking cultures

and I believe lost the magic of authentic cuisine

and the flavours of Italy that so inspire me.

The sad fact is

that too often, the Italian cooking you find here in Britain

and elsewhere

bears about as much relationship to the real thing

as a low-alcohol lager does to a proper pint.

We want authenticity, don't we? Well, I certainly do.

I want to taste a tagliatelle Alfredo without peas,

lamb chops without gravy, sauces or veg,

and a tomato salad that sings of Sicily.

And I'd like to do that without having to go to Italy!

He's got a point. Italian food, great in Italy.

I've never been disappointed. But over here...

It's definitely got better. When my relatives came to this country,

40 or 50 years ago, no-one was interested in Italian food.

And now it's on every high street,

it's in every capital city.

It's one of the most popular, if not the most popular food in the country.

So what would be your tips on how to spot a really good Italian restaurant?

One would be the menu and seasonality on it.

You want to see things that are in season.

They don't have to be from every region, but in season.

You would never go to a good Italian restaurant in December

and then see a tomato salad.

That, to me, is wrong in all levels.

-You can substitute tomatoes with tinned tomatoes.

-Totally.

Because they've been picked at their optimum ripeness.

Then they're there to be used all year round.

In fact, my grandmother used to preserve her own tomatoes during the summer months

and we'd use that in the winter months.

So there's also a myth there with pre-prepared produce.

-Mm.

-I would definitely have thought

that fresh tomatoes would be superior to tinned.

No, I agree. I think tins are much better.

So how would I know which pastas are best to make at home

or which to buy in?

Pennes, macaroni, those rolled and complicated ones, I'd definitely buy in for home.

To be fair, we, in the restaurants, we buy dried pasta.

So let's see what the difference is.

Taste test!

-We have here some home-made pasta.

-OK.

I won't tell you which one it is.

Some supermarket-bought fresh pasta, and some dried pasta.

OK.

-You try first.

-All right.

This feels very soft.

Mm.

-I'm not such a big fan of this one.

-This one's nice.

-Yeah, that's good.

-Soft.

-It's quite rubbery, this one.

A bit too thick, as well.

I think they're all good.

A drizzle of olive oil, a bit of Parmesan on top, very nice.

My favourite one is the one that's coloured lovely and golden egg yolk.

-Visually nice. And a lovely texture.

-Mm.

A nice bite to it. It's good al dente.

I'm guessing that this is home-made.

I actually really love this one.

I love how soft it is in your mouth, the texture it has.

So...

You two chose this one.

And you were right. It is the home-made fresh.

This one, that I liked best,

-was the supermarket fresh.

-Yes.

-Ahh.

-And last of all, bringing up the rear, was the dried one.

-My palate knew, didn't it?

All three of these pastas are really good, actually.

Everyone should have a packet of pasta in their larder at home.

We all agree that Italian food is so wonderful. It's magical.

But what is it that makes it so great?

Italian chef Antonio Carluccio

believes he discovered the secret at a very early age.

I was born near Salermo in southern Italy.

I remember two things about being a child.

Number one, I was eager to taste everything.

And two, food was central to family life.

-Buon Giorno!

-Buon Giorno!

It's lovely to be greeted in Italian!

'I knew then that I was destined to be a gourmet.

'I had already learned the essence of Italian food.

'To have very good Italian food,

'you need passion, fantastic ingredients'

and a lot of confidence!

'As a child, every week my mother would take me to a cafe

'on the way to market.

'We would buy cured meats, cheeses and vegetables

'to make delicious, simple food.

'Just three or four good ingredients were enough.

'Simplicity is at the heart of good Italian food.'

These are fantastic ingredients.

Basil,

Parmesan, and fantastic tomatoes.

Take all those wonderful ingredients,

tasty, what do you think will happen when you put them together?

Fantastic Italian food.

'When I left Italy, I missed my mother so much.

'I cooked her recipes so I'd feel closer to her.

'If I ever got stuck, I'd just think,

'"How would Mama do that?"

'So when I say it's in my blood, you understand.

'And just like Massimo Perdoni, I am not the only Italian who stays true to his roots.'

This shop's been here since the late '40s.

We've had customers that still come here, over 60 years old,

been coming here since they were ten, 12, and they always buy the same products.

Parma ham, Parmesan cheese and fresh pasta.

What do you think makes Italian food so fantastic?

I always say that Italian cuisine, for me, the best is simple.

We've got a lot of variety.

-You can't go wrong.

-And the quality.

-Quality.

-And the taste.

-And the taste.

-And the passion.

-The passion of Italian food, exactly.

Look at me touching this salami! You can't go wrong!

'Of course, in my lifetime,

'Italians and our cuisine have spread across the globe.

'So we are never too far from home!'

When I read a menu like this...

..my heart really starts to beat.

'What makes Italian food so great

'are the Italian people who love simple flavours

'and keep them alive in their families.'

SPEAKS ITALIAN

'It's no wonder we are such passionate and confident cooks.'

-There you go, sir.

-Ah!

Ahh!

-And I've brought a board of salami.

-Fantastic!

-Bon appetit.

-Fantastic.

Look at this! Sea urchins!

They seem to be very fresh.

It's an explosion of sea.

I wish you could try them.

But for me, the fact that a restaurant in London

has something like that, it's unbelievable!

This never will change in Italy.

The food, it's just fantastic.

In Italy, politics is horrible.

We can't write good pop music.

But the food,

nobody can copy this.

It's just fantastic.

'Whether it's fresh, quality ingredients,

'or traditional rustic dishes,

'for Antonio, authenticity is at the heart of the best Italian food.'

We've talked about ragu and we've tasted the pasta.

But what about great Italian desserts?

Tiramisu is the classic everyone knows about.

But we're going to make one of my favourites, if not my favourite, zabaglione.

-We're going to make this with peaches.

-Yes.

Poached peaches at the base.

So we need to peel these peaches so they're going into boiling hot water

for a matter of seconds, and that makes them easy to peel.

After the peaches have boiled for a minute,

plunge them into a bowl of ice to quickly cool down.

Then peel and chop into bite-sized pieces.

Poach in a pan.

Just a little pinch of these lovely lemon verbena leaves.

They really are so fragrant.

What are you thinking, Kate, for this?

I'm going to go for an Italian liqueur. An Amaretto.

-Ahh.

-A bit of punch there. The base is apricot kernels.

And it's got that lovely sweet almond taste.

To make the zabaglione, separate five eggs

and put the yolks into a bowl with Madeira.

My little trick, which I think was your grandmother's trick as well.

-Indeed.

-For each egg yolk, use half an eggshell of booze.

-Yep.

-Ooh.

-And it works.

-Cartouche for your peaches.

-Cartouche, please, yes.

A lovely round piece of paper to cover the peaches so we've got a bit of steam going on.

Add five tablespoons of sugar to the eggs

and immediately start to whisk.

The sugar is the equivalent of salt as the seasoning.

Once you add it to eggs, it starts to cook it.

-Get whipping!

-He's worked me all morning!

-These upper arms!

-Wa-hey!

Come on, I'll take over!

'Whisk the zabaglione for five minutes over a bain marie,

'a large pan filled with hot water with a bowl on top.

'This helps to cook the food slowly and gives you more control.'

The base of your dish mustn't touch the water, or you'll end up with an omelette!

Right. This is it.

Lovely texture.

It's cooked all the way through.

Lovely and creamy, yet light.

'This is a classic Italian dessert

'that combines contrasting textures and flavours to great effect.

'The crunchy biscuit and creamy custard

'combined with the fresh peaches and sweet Madeira

'make this a dessert to suit every taste.'

All we need now are spoons!

-There's only one!

-I've got this!

Tell you what, I'll just have to get this one!

Good work!

Oh, it's so light and fluffy.

It's fantastic when it's still warm, as well.

The peaches give that nice tanginess as well.

The lemon verbena is coming through, but not too much.

I love the crunch of the biscuits.

It's got that lovely bite from the masala as well. And on that note...

This is the end of the show, isn't it?

-It's a really sweet liqueur.

-Yes.

To dilute it a bit, serve over rocks, nice and chilled.

-It gives it that bit of freshness.

-Whoa, that's powerful.

But with the Amaretti, the zabaglione, it works.

The Italians are passionate about their food, and with good reason.

Over generations, they've mastered perfect flavour combinations

in dishes that are simple to make and delicious to eat.

Next time...

Rachel Khoo joins me to make a luxurious dish

that will really impress your guests.

Cheese and wine. What more do you need?

Truffles are an extravagance,

but they are absolutely to die for.

And food blogger Kirsten Rogers

shares her top tips on how to host the perfect dinner party.

What to ask your guests to bring? Anything. Ooh!

Booze!

Candles!

Dessert, perhaps!

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