Episode 1 Nigellissima

CHURCH BELLS RING

This is where my great love affair with Italy began.

I came here as a teenager to Florence and in fact worked as a chambermaid in this very hotel.

I just wanted to be Italian, I think, and I absorbed it all, I loved it all,

but the food has been an enduring inspiration.

-Buon giorno.

-Buon giorno.

I suppose I regard Italy as my gastronomic

and, dare I say it, and I probably shouldn't, but I'm going to anyway, my spiritual home.

It's not that I'm trying to pretend to be Italian,

but more that I want to evoke the spirit of Italy just on my own doorstep.

So this is really all about my kind of Italian cooking,

but just using ingredients a little closer to home.

'In Italy, food is life.

'It's family, it's tradition,

'it's passion.'

Utter rapture. 'It's style,

'it's confidence and I love that.'

Out of this world! 'I'm taking the bold flavours of Italy and giving them my own express approach.'

One taste and it's kapow!

You can't come to Florence without encountering Florentine steak.

It's justly famous, a huge T-bone cooked over a grill.

I never had the chance to try this when I lived in Florence and I wouldn't attempt it at home.

Instead, I've got my own version of another Italian classic,

the tagliata, which is simply a steak that you cook,

then slice on the diagonal, so you can feed two people out of one steak.

If you have steak, you have chips.

If you have my tagliata, you've got to have my Tuscan fries.

I don't peel the potatoes,

but I just chop them really more into the size of British chips than French fries,

then I slightly dry them with a tea towel,

so they have no excess starch or liquid.

And then this is the radical departure and you have to have faith.

Instead of plunging my raw potato chips into hot oil,

I put them into cold oil.

You would think this would make for soggy chips that absorb a lot of oil and this is not the case.

These make simply the best chips I've ever had,

crisp on the outside and sweet and fluffy inside.

But what's going to make these into Tuscan fries,

rather than French fries, is the addition of fresh garlic and herbs,

dropped gently into the bubbling oil towards the end of the cooking.

I think it's all coming together perfectly now.

The griddle is ready to set my steak a-sizzling and the chips are ready for their garlic.

Beautiful pink cloves. I shall drop them in gently, of course.

The thing about the garlic cloves, because they're fried in their skins,

it's as if the insides steam to a caramelised stickiness.

Vegetarians turn away now.

I have a luscious steak

that needs sizzling.

It's incredibly easy.

Two minutes a side,

then let it rest for two minutes a side in its marinade,

or rather its post-hoc marinade, because it goes in after, rather than before cooking.

Let's get on with that. I start off with some olive oil, proper extra-virgin olive oil.

Somewhere between a marinade and a dressing, really.

A splash of red wine vinegar.

My favourite -

an inferno of red chilli flakes.

And some dried oregano.

And "sale".

I'm going to swirl it about.

I love those colours and that's because I know what it's going to taste like.

Time to turn the steak first time,

shooting from the hip.

Great. I'm going to get all my herbs ready, a beautiful Tuscan bouquet.

I've got sage, which is bitter, but in a good way,

and I love the way the Italians fry sage, often adding it to pasta.

I've got rosemary - just the smell of Italian summer for me.

I have thyme, which is just absolutely my favourite herb.

I've got some oregano, but I'm going to keep those for the steak later.

Right...

Everything... Everything is keeping me calm.

I'll turn this off the heat.

In this goes to its marinade.

So what happens now is that the juices from the steak

ooze into the marinade

and the fiery flavours of the marinade ooze back into the steak.

It's what you call a very good relationship.

I shall get cracking with my tomatoes.

An arduous task, slicing them in half(!)

Of course, these cherry tomatoes have sweetness in them,

but what I particularly like here is they've got just enough acidity to make the steak taste sweet.

It's one of the things the Italians always know, which is why they often put lemon on their steak.

If you have a bit of acid with meat, everything, all the flavours intensify.

Right, that's its first side in the marinade.

Already it's yielded up all that glorious juice.

Last bit of luscious resting

and I am going to herb up the chips, the fries.

In goes the sage.

Some rosemary, not too much.

Just enough to add its sweet, resiny flavour,

and then a few sprigs of thyme.

You can never have too much thyme!

Final stretch, home stretch.

So...

The steak goes on the board.

Just before I carve it, I'll drop the tomatoes in, cut side down,

so some of the tomato flavour oozes out into the marinade,

and then the marinade coats the tomatoes.

So it's a bit of give, a bit of take.

So, I know I am the world's worst carver, but even I can slice a steak

and this brings me to why it's called a "tagliata" in Italian

because "tagliare" just means "to cut".

In the same way, actually, "tagliatelle" just means pasta that's been cut into little strips.

The joy of it here is that instead of using a huge, Italian T-bone steak,

I just use a regular sirloin steak and can make one steak feed two greedy people.

To serve this, I have artistic pretensions,

by which I mean I just let the bits of steak drop where they do

and then afterwards, I fill in the gaps with the tomatoes.

And now this is the bit I love,

these burnished, fiery juices just trickled on top of the steak and tomatoes.

You don't have to add fresh oregano, but if you have some to hand,

it would be madness not to.

And now my chips.

I...am going to exercise unfamiliar caution

and take the chips out.

I've got some parchment here, you could use kitchen towel, just to absorb any excess grease.

These are not what you'd expect from chips cooked from cold oil.

Ah, you can hear they're crisp!

-It's ready, it's ready, it's ready.

-Thank you.

-That sounds enthusiastic.

-You might need to take this from me, Bruno.

-Am I doing water?

-You can do water.

-Hmm!

I might add a bit of salt.

-That's what I did.

-Thank you for pouring me some water(!)

-Sorry.

-You don't have a glass.

-Any particular ones you want me to aim for?

-Squishy.

-Squishy, not crisp?

I'm not going to give you any tomatoes. Don't worry.

-How's your day been? Bad? Good?

-Fine.

Fine.

LAUGHTER

It looks like you're joining in.

My children are bigger than me now,

but luckily, I've always got lots of other people's little ones surrounding me, so I'm happy.

It happens that my meatzza and my chocolate hazelnut cheesecake are just perfect for this sort of thing.

It's a family favourite because those two things are my stepdaughters' absolute favourites.

Because the cheesecake needs to sit in the fridge for a long while,

I always get started with this the night before.

The base is made like most cheesecake bases.

That's to say, a mixture of digestives and butter.

And I add two other ingredients -

some chocolate hazelnut spread and some chopped hazelnuts.

I then blitz all these ingredients together until they resemble damp sand.

Tip this mixture into a cake tin and press it down smooth.

The base is made and ready in the fridge.

I now have to make the topping which is as easy as uno, due, tre.

So, uno...

It is a cheesecake, so we have cream cheese.

As easy as this is,

I have got some very strict stipulations.

And chief of those is that the cream cheese must be at room temperature.

You will never get a gorgeously smooth texture in a cheesecake if the cream cheese is fridge-cold.

Due...

Icing sugar - not an awful lot because there is sweetness to come.

This, incidentally, is a no-bake cheesecake,

so it's just a question of mixing up a topping,

slathering it on to the base and putting it in the fridge to set.

And now, tre, and very important -

chocolate hazelnut paste.

Now, I do know, I really do, that cheesecake is not Italian,

but you know what, I have a pot of Italy right here.

The chocolate hazelnut paste, originally called "pasta gianduja",

was one of my early discoveries and I just fell in love with it.

I'm determined to get every last bit out of this.

Now I'm just mixing these three ingredients together,

and while they're mixing, I shall slink off and retrieve my base.

It looks perfect to me,

all smooth and whipped.

This is my treat later.

There's not a huge amount of mixture here,

but you don't want this to be overwhelmingly rich.

You just want it to be gloriously indulgent.

It's actually rather therapeutic trying to get the top smooth.

It doesn't need to be too smooth because I am going to scatter some hazelnuts on top,

ready toasted, ready chopped.

Actually, it does occur to me that this entire cheesecake is made out of ingredients from packets or jars.

Should I be embarrassed? I'm not.

I love the sudden, bronzy gold topping.

Tutto a posto!

Both cheesecake and cheesecake maker can now chill.

# Lasciano tracce impercettibili

# Le traiettorie delle mongolfiere

# E l'uomo che sorveglia il cielo

# Non scioglie la matassa del volo

# E non distingue piu l'inizio

# Di quando sono partite

# Sopra gli ormeggi e la zavorra Sono partite... #

My cheesecake has had time to set, resting overnight and the rest in the fridge,

and I need do nothing further with that.

All I have to do is consider my meatzza. Now, my meatzza is a wondrous thing, I say immodestly.

It's like a pizza, as you might guess,

but instead of having a bread base, it's got like a meatball mixture that's squished flat into a disc.

My meatzza is a regular fixture on the menu in Casa Lawson.

It is so easy to make.

You need a fairly large-sized bowl with some minced meat in it.

Break two eggs on to the minced meat, then sprinkle over some Parmesan.

And that's really to give saltiness and boost flavour.

Then you can add either breadcrumbs, which is more Italian, or porridge oats.

What you want is to help the base of the meatzza firm up.

Mince over the mixture a clove of garlic,

then sprinkle with freshly chopped parsley.

These are the traditional flavourings for Italian meatballs.

Just mix everything together in the bowl. I find this easiest to do by hand.

Whatever implement you choose, do not overmix.

Now put this mixture into a greased, round baking tin.

Squish it down gently, remembering not to press too hard. Again you don't want to overwork the mixture.

Open a can of chopped tomatoes and drain it.

I don't want any excess liquid ruining my meatzza base.

I add a sprinkling of dried oregano,

a small amount of sea salt and a drizzle of garlic oil.

Stir that to mix and then use it to spread over the top of the meatzza base.

Slice a mozzarella ball into thinnish slices.

I think of this as a cheese sunburst.

This needs to go into a hot oven for about 25 minutes,

by which time the meat base is set,

the tomatoes bubbling

and the cheese blistered gold.

Before I slice and serve it, I strew with fresh basil.

It really does look like a pizza.

# Per sentire una canzone con te

# Ed averti solamente per me... #

Look at that!

# E con me ti portero In un piccolo e nascosto caffe

# C'e la macchina dei dischi che va

# Tanta musica per noi suoneri... #

It's a cake!

# Frankie Laine e Doris Day Ogni cuore suoneri...

# Jukebox e una magica invenzion

# Jukebox, pochi soldi una canzon Jukebox... #

LAUGHTER

Look, I have never made any secret of the fact that greed is my main motivation.

I am so often inspired to cook because of something I've eaten.

I am also something of a cookbook geek, certainly a rather obsessive researcher.

Let me explain.

When I was last in Sicily, I had some pasta with something called pesto trapanese.

And I wanted to find out more about it when I got back.

One thing that research teaches you, and this is incredibly important,

is there's no one authentic version, not even with traditional recipes, in fact, particularly not.

Everyone wants there to be one authentic way, but there isn't and cooking can't be like that

because cooking is alive, like language,

so, for example, this Sicilian...

Excuse me.

This Sicilian, in her pesto trapanese, has a cup of basil.

This Sicilian, however,

he uses fresh mint which is a fantastic herb.

I associate it more with Sardinia than Sicily, but that's what he uses in his pesto trapanese.

This Londoner, however, uses neither herb in her pesto,

but instead scatters fresh basil on top of the pasta.

I suppose now would be the time to say that I have taken liberties with this recipe.

Whenever I've come across this Sicilian pesto, it's always been to dress spaghetti.

These are fusilli lunghi, just long fusilli. I think of them as golden ringlets.

But they are often described less poetically as telephone cords.

But I like them and the sauce really clings to them well because of all the ridges.

So this just needs to cook and the sauce doesn't need to cook.

The sauce you just blitz up, so here goes.

There are three ingredients you will always find in a Sicilian pesto and the first one of these is garlic.

I'm just going to peel it and pop it in.

Just as their northern counterpart's pesto has pine nuts,

in Sicily, you always find it with almonds.

They grow in abundance there.

The third ingredient in this holy trinity is tomatoes

and I have a pig full of them.

They're very sweet, these, both in terms of taste and to look at.

Just plonk them in. I'm not peeling, I'm not de-seeding, not doing anything.

So the garlic, the almonds and the tomatoes you'll always find,

but the first time I had pesto trapanese, I encountered an altogether more baroque version

and that contained anchovies, as so much food in Sicily does.

I love anchovies, but when I make this for my children, who don't, I just add Parmesan instead.

It also contained sultanas.

Regular sultanas or raisins would be fine.

And as so often in Sicily, whenever you have sultanas in a savoury recipe,

you also find their lip-puckering counterpart in the form of capers,

so just a few of these to scatter in.

A bit of pungency.

And of course, olive oil.

Proper extra-virgin olive oil

because this sauce is not being cooked.

You will taste its peppery flavour.

And this, in essence, is the sauce. I'm going to blitz it.

I do this a lot for bigger crowds of people and I use the processor.

It's the perfect thing to cook when you have a lot of people to feed because it's no effort.

But if you're not cooking in any quantity, a stick blender is just fine.

That's it, well, barring one ingredient, which I'll come to.

Let's just see how the pasta is getting on.

Perfect.

This is the essential ingredient and it's not just for this sauce.

It's the essential ingredient for just about any pasta sauce.

It is this - some of the starchy water the pasta has been cooking in.

I'm going to drain the pasta and that's it.

Almost embarrassingly low effort.

I've just got the sauce to finish.

I just want maybe a tablespoon or so of the pasta cooking water to go into the blender.

Back it goes on, just to help it become a bit velvety.

See, look! That is so easy and yet so perfect.

And I'm a princess in a castle with gold cutlery today.

I am not going to eat all of this. I mean, actually, I could, but I'm not.

The thing is, it's so fantastic cold the next day for a packed lunch.

Hideously inauthentic, I know.

No Italian will own up to eating a pasta salad, but it is really good.

What I shall do is strew picturesquely with my basil leaves.

I say "buon appetito" to myself and chow down.

When I lived in Florence, I was young, so obviously, I wanted to have a good time,

but there's only so much of a good time you can have on a chambermaid's wages.

I preferred to spend my money on a glass of Prosecco than a fancy dinner,

but I did manage to find one dish that I could afford, that absorbed alcohol, that was delicious

and came with a free loaf of bread, so I always chose it

and actually, I still eat it now.

I think my Eggs in Purgatory may just be the best thing to eat after a night out.

On reflection, it may even be better the morning after and you will see why.

So, a light coating of olive oil..

and now for a bit of pungency, a bit of fresh garlic.

I'm using a whole garlic clove which is quite a lot. This is a small pan.

There is something about returning to the books you loved when you were young.

It can be a disappointment, but I can go back to this and it's even better than when I was young.

I would so much rather return to the food of my youth than to my youth itself,

so my Eggs in Purgatory now is the best of both worlds.

The garlic is giving me warmth, but I want heat and that means chilli.

I like this to pack a punch.

I have such a thing about little pixie pans. This is my best yet.

Quite a bit of chilli. I want a kick here.

I don't want the garlic to burn, it'll just taste acrid,

so I'm just smooshing it a bit in the heat.

Now for the tomatoes.

-SIZZLING

-Hmm!

It's very easy to size this up, actually,

because once you have a big pan, more cans of tomatoes, you can get more eggs in,

but this is my selfish solo treat.

Egg goes in.

Beautiful.

And now, I think, some Parmesan...

Really, I'm using Parmesan in place of salt, so I don't want too much.

You could add salt when you're eating, but I'd rather leave it out now

because the one thing you can't rectify in cooking is oversalting.

I'm going to pop a lid on, just so the egg can poach.

I'll get my bread ready.

I can't wait!

I love this particularly on New Year's Day when one needs a bit of resuscitation.

I always say Eggs in Purgatory is absolute heaven when you're feeling like hell!

Now...this is perfection.

The tomatoes are bubbling, the white is cooked and the yolk is still runny.

I am diving in!

There's no other way to do this.

It's only me, so I can double-dip.

# Tu vuo fa l'americano Mmericano... #

Lovely.

Like courgette confetti.

Have you got a napkin?

That gorgeous, golden tornado there!

Since when has chocolate cake got anything to do with need?

# Tu giochi al basebal'

# Ma e solde pe' Camel

# Chi te li da? La borsetta di mamma!

# Tu vuo fa l'americano Mmericano!

# Mmericano!

# Ma si nato in Italy! Siente a mme

# Non ce sta niente a ffa

# OK, napolita! Tu vuo fa l'american!

# Tu vuo fa l'american! #

-21.

-Action!

-The base is already done, so that's... OK.

Can I hang this the other way, so I don't hit things? I've made the base... Oh, for God's sake!

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