Episode 18 The Box

Across the country, lots of us are working out what to cook tonight

from the ingredients in our cupboards.

To inspire you, we're throwing away the cookbooks

and going back to basics.

We're pitting three resourceful and creative home cooks

against one another to see what they can come up with.

Whoever does it best will be our cook of the day.

Ready to show they can think on their feet are today's three cooks.

Allana is an estate agent from Sheffield

and likes food with an international flair.

I love cooking French, I love cooking Mexican,

Caribbean food from Trinidad - it just reminds me of home.

Simon, a plumber from Chichester, is happy to cook under any conditions.

We used to call our kitchen Ready, Steady, Cook - because

it was just, "Open the fridge and make something out of it."

And Claire, a retail assistant from Hartlepool, likes to rule her roost.

I've got three children and my husband. I do all the cooking.

The kitchen is all mine at home -

no-one gets to go in there without my say so.

Their first test will be to cook from a box of ingredients

put together by today's guest -

Jamie Oliver's mentor and renowned chef, Gennaro Contaldo.

Gennaro, welcome to The Box!

-Such a pleasure.

-Great to have you.

So, shall we have a look at what an Italian buys.

Well, straight away, it has to be pasta - doesn't it, really?

Well, I brought some linguine,

which the proper name is a sparrow tongue, because -

sometimes people confuse linguine with spaghetti

but linguine is flat like a sparrow bird's tongue.

A sparrow tongue. Now, the cooking of that is

slightly different to spaghetti, so they've got to get that right.

-Yes. Al dente - just a little bit undercooked.

-Right.

Now, I see you've got some lovely sea bass in there,

you've got the odd pepper and a few pears. So, pears...

Are you hoping for a dessert or have you got a bit of a sweet tooth?

I love pears. Yes, you can make a lovely dessert.

OK, we're going to send you away for 50 minutes

and let's see what they create.

-Right.

-I'll see you in a bit.

-I'll see you in a bit.

Gennaro will be watching our home cooks go all out

from the comfort of the guest room.

Right, guys, welcome to The Box.

Our guest has created a fantastic box of ingredients for you to cook with.

You're going to need the larder behind you for this one.

What we want is just one dish -

you can do sweet or savoury with whatever's in your box.

All I'm going to say is, "Open it up and have a look."

Good luck.

Today in my box, I have sea bass,

I have cherry tomato, basil,

red and yellow peppers, anchovies,

capers, I have olives,

I have ricotta and pears,

and chilli to give it a lovely lift.

It's simple ingredients but this is what Italian cuisine is -

very simple.

So, it's ingredients which I love to cook with.

Well, interestingly enough - Allana, Claire and Simon

have all decided to fillet the sea bass.

Whether that was a good idea or not, we'll wait and see

because you could so easily overcook sea bass.

I'm pretty sure our guest is

actually shouting at the TV at this point...

They should have left them whole, the sea bass.

So small, they've wasted everything!

They could get a lovely... Oh, my gosh.

You want to almost go in and say, "Don't do that! Don't do that!"

If I was doing it, I would actually keep the fish whole

and I would do a salt-crusted sea bass,

which is just one of the best tasting things out there.

You've got plenty of amazing salt -

you can use Maldon salt or Kona sea salt. Any real flaky salt.

You wouldn't use table salt for this

but the idea is, you whip up some egg whites, fold in the salt

and use that to almost create a crust over the top of the bass.

Then just throw it in the oven and it takes about 15 or 20 minutes

for something like this to cook all the way through - and then

when you take it to the table, you break open that crust and inside,

you have the best tasting sea bass you can get.

Claire - she's very, very careful.

She removed all of the bones out of the fish and that is nice.

-Claire, how are we doing?

-Hey, all right!

-Do you want me to clear up after you?

-Yeah.

-Is that all right?

-I'm a bit messy.

I've usually got people to do that for me.

Oh, right, cos you've got three kids at home running around after you.

-Yeah, three kids. Twin boys and a girl.

-Right.

-11 and 14.

-Now, are they into food as well or not?

-Yeah, they love their food.

They like trying to get involved with it all.

What are you going to be creating?

Well, I'm going along the lines of a tomato pepper sauce,

obviously with the sea bass, and I'm just doing a basil,

pear and chilli salad to go with it.

Pear salad?

Fish and pears?! Claire!

Just remove it, that is a dessert.

That is different.

Are we going to use the anchovies and the ricotta?

I usually start off with whatever and I may add stuff, I may not.

Allana is going to make a more traditional accompaniment for her sea bass.

A Mediterranean sauce with anchovies and garlic.

Your food background, I mean, it's varied to say the least.

Yeah, my husband's half-Persian, my dad's half-Mexican.

I was born in Trinidad and raised in France -

and I've been in England for 15-16 years now.

So, the influences have come from all over the place then.

Pretty much. I just love experimenting.

So, the peppers you've just thrown in there with tinned tomatoes,

-is that right?

-Yep.

Tomato puree, going to add the anchovies

and then just sort of blitz it to make a thick sauce -

and then might add a little bit of pasta.

And then are we going to use this wonderful basil as well or not?

-I'm thinking about it.

-You HAVE to use the basil!

I just don't want to add too much to it

and then all the flavours are muddled. Yep.

Do you know what pasta this is?

-Linguine?

-Yep.

-Yeah.

-Do you know the difference?

-Yeah, cos it's quite flat.

Flat, that's the one,

so you need to cook it and finish off in the sauce as well.

-Right, yep.

-That's the key to it.

With two sauces on the go, I now need to see what Simon is up to.

What's the idea? What are we going to make?

I'm going to make a roasted tomato and red pepper sauce.

OK, can I take some more of the skin off for you?

OK.

Yeah, what you want to do with this is almost blacken it and then,

what you do is - you take your tea towel and...watch.

-Just wipe it off.

-Just wipe it off. It comes straight off.

-OK.

A little birdie tells me you had a burger van, was it?

-I did have a burger van a few years ago, yeah.

-What was that like?

It was fun! It was good fun, yeah. I enjoyed it.

-Who does the cooking in the house then? Is it you or the wife?

-I do.

-You do?

-I do the cooking, yep.

Because you've done an amazing job recently, you've lost 6st.

-I've lost 6st in weight, yep.

-6st - unbelievable.

Yeah.

OK, 15 minutes left, guys.

15 minutes.

Having seen all the cooks fillet their whole sea bass,

I hope they don't disappoint Gennaro with their pasta.

-Now, the key to cooking pasta?

-Make sure there's water.

Plenty of boiling, salted water.

-You don't need to add any oil.

-No.

-No, that's a fancy trick.

There is this theory that when you cook pasta,

you have to put the oil inside.

What the oil's doing, I don't know. It doesn't make the pasta not stick.

How much pasta are you cooking?

I was only cooking a little bit?

It looks like you're warming your water for a bath.

You need one litre for each 100g of pasta.

I love the way she's tasting food to make sure it's good.

Don't look at me!

90 seconds left.

OK, that's your lot. Stop cooking.

Step away from your hobs.

OK, guys, well done,

but you're probably intrigued to know who put this

list of ingredients together in one box for you to cook with.

Well, the wait is over. I can now tell you that

this person comes from the amazing area in Italy

along the Amalfi coat - famous for food.

His career went on to teach a few famous faces,

including a certain Jamie Oliver, how to cook.

Gennaro Contaldo.

-Welcome back.

-Thank you, it's such a pleasure.

Are you enjoying being here?

I am enjoying. I was watching all of you on the monitor.

Oh, my goodness me.

So, what have you made?

It's a pan-seared fillet of sea bass with roasted red pepper,

cherry tomato and chilli sauce.

-Shall we have a taste?

-Yeah, let's have a taster.

Mmm.

It's a bit too al dente.

-Very al dente.

-Hmm.

We call it chewy where I'm from, I don't know about al dente.

The word al dente because it's a little bit undercooked.

You chew it longer, you taste it better, digest it better -

but the fish is not bad,

it's nice and moist.

I think the sea bass is perfectly cooked,

you've got that bang on.

You've got the skin nice and crisp,

the flesh inside is lovely and moist.

Needs a little bit more tomato sauce as well.

The flavour's there with the tomato sauce.

You've got a nice bit of a kick with the chilli and basil, I like that,

-but it's just a shame about the pasta.

-Yep.

Right, Claire, meet Gennaro.

-Hi, Claire.

-Hello. Nice to meet you.

-Now, what do we have here?

Right, we have pan-fried sea bass with a pepper and tomato sauce -

with basil, chilli and pear salad.

-Ah.

-Now, no pasta on here.

That's all right. It was there if you want to use it or not to use it.

I didn't understand at the beginning what the pear salad is

and the ricotta.

It's not a kind of combination I would do with fish,

but let's have a taste first.

There you go.

Well seasoned.

Wow. Got a kick of chilli.

I can taste lots of lemons.

It's got that lovely sweet and sour flavour.

Pear's a bit weird, I've got to say.

It's like eating a dessert with a piece of fish.

It's, kind of, a bit weird.

What you've done is create an amazing sauce.

I love the roasted pepper, the tomatoes -

correct amount of seasoning as well.

You did the right thing to pass it through a sieve.

The fish is perfectly cooked as well. You've got this

lovely crispy skin but underneath it's lovely and moist.

Just forget the salad, just the fish and that sauce - wow!

Well done.

-Hi, Allana.

-Nice to meet you.

-Nice to meet you.

Now, what dish do we have here?

You have a pan-fried sea bass with a Mediterranean based sauce...

-Mmm.

-..and some linguine and some roasted cherry tomatoes.

We've gone classic Italian.

-I wouldn't even call it Italian.

-THEY LAUGH

-I wouldn't dare call it Italian.

-Well, it's a good start anyway.

So, let's have a taste. Let's have a taste.

Let's have a taste of fish.

Mmm. Interesting, I'm tasting the peppers - which is good.

I can taste a little bit of spice.

I'm tasting some olives as well.

-Did you put some olives inside here?

-I did, yeah.

It's so nice when you taste just the sweetness of the tomato

with the fish - it's so simple.

Mmm.

The pasta, actually, is very good.

I like the pasta cos you've cooked that nicely.

You've got a little bit of bite.

-It's about bang on, that.

-It's al dente. Perfect.

I like the capers in there, I like the olives,

I love the tomatoes with it.

I close my eyes and it reminds me of Italy.

I'll take that.

-So, Gennaro, you've tasted all three...

-Yes, I have.

..what did you think on the whole?

Well, it's not bad actually. I like every single one.

It's not up to me to decide, it's your decision.

Which dish do you think is the best one?

Allana - yours is my favourite dish.

Allana, well done.

-It was a fantastic dish.

-The pasta - perfect!

And the tomato and the fish - so well together.

-Taste of Italy.

-Thank you very much.

Right, round two.

Now you get to cook with my three boxes of ingredients.

But, Allana, what Gennaro has done is given you the full stack

of cards to decide what Simon and Claire will be cooking with.

So, you've got three boxes. We've got meat...

Veggie...

And a pudding box.

First of all, what box of ingredients

would you like Simon to cook with?

Meat.

-You look pretty happy with that, right?

-Yeah.

Given the other two boxes of ingredients that were here.

That just leaves Claire.

Which box of ingredients would you like to give Claire?

The vegetarian box or the pudding box?

The vegetarian box.

She don't look happy with that.

Alanna, that leaves you with the pudding box.

That leaves you just 50 minutes to create a dish

to impress me this time, because I get to pick the cook of the day.

Good luck, collect your boxes.

Which box would you have gone for - vegetarian, meat or the pudding?

Well, I'll tell you the truth, I'd almost go for the three

because there is an ingredient in almost everything.

Claire has got my vegetarian box.

Inside, it contains portabello mushrooms, some goat's cheese,

aubergines, a beef tomato,

hazelnuts, chicory, olives,

cucumber and fresh mint.

-Now, you've got the vegetarian box.

-Yeah.

Not my strength, I have to admit.

-I presume you wanted the dessert box, is that right?

-Yeah.

Or the meat would have been lovely. Either one, just not this one.

So, what are you creating?

I'm not 100% sure on the filling yet,

but I was going to do a bit of a stuffed mushroom.

Now, what chicory is really good for,

I'll give you a little tip here,

-is, with the tomatoes, it makes amazing chutney.

-OK, yeah.

The key to this is, you start off with a hot pan,

a small amount of sugar...

-You see this caramel now?

-Yup.

-It's just starting to glaze up.

At this point, what we do is, we throw all that in there -

that's the chicory, the garlic, the tomatoes -

and then you just deglaze it with the vinegar.

-Nice!

-Lovely.

-And then we cook this for about five minutes.

Season it up.

And that, you'll have a nice little chutney.

In Italian, we call it agrodolce.

To go with the chutney,

Claire has decided to make portabello mushrooms,

stuffed with goat's cheese.

Well, Claire's doing some stuffed mushrooms,

which is a great idea, and then a little chutney on the side.

Mushrooms are one of those things which soak in all the liquid -

so you've almost got to just cook them so they're lovely

and golden brown and then flip them over.

By adding too much oil they kind of absorb in all of that liquid.

Then, all of a sudden, it's like a drenched sponge

and it just dumps it out into the pan.

Simon has been given the meat box.

Inside, we have Cumberland sausage, bacon, haricot beans,

mashing potatoes, carrots and some fresh thyme.

I think you got the good box didn't you, really, out of this?

-I'm quite happy with that, yeah.

-You look quite happy.

-What are you going to do?

-It screams a sort of cassoulet sort of thing at me.

It does, with particularly the white beans.

You're going to use those in the cassoulet as well?

-Yeah. I use lots of beans in my cooking at home.

-Fantastic,

I'm looking forward to this. What have you started off in there?

We've got some of the bacon, we've got some of the onion

and carrot that I've chopped small so it cooks off quickly.

And then the garlic again in a minute

when that's softened down a bit so I don't burn it.

I've got chilli flakes and thyme will definitely go in.

What about the potato? Are we going to do cassoulet and mash?

I could just boil them and...

Well, he'll peel them while we just chat.

THEY LAUGH

-He'll peel them there, you see.

-I can peel them, yes.

Are you going to cook the sausages and then put those in?

Yeah, I've got the sausage in the oven at the moment.

Now, the key to a cassoulet is crumbs over the top.

You take the inside of this bread and blend it with a food processor

and just cook it down with some butter

so you get some lovely crumbs on the top.

You can mix that with the thyme and

sprinkle that over the top of the cassoulet at the end.

The cassoulet that I learned to cook over in France

takes about 3-4 hours.

It's big chunks of pork with duck and duck fat

with Toulouse sausage, and you cook that with some beans,

tomatoes and rosemary and top it all off with crumbs and

it's really one of those dishes that you put everything together

and slowly cook it.

You can get a similar sort of flavour if you cook it in real time

in about 50 minutes, but you've got to be careful -

you've got to make sure you cook out the garlic otherwise it's very strong.

OK, 30 minutes left. 30 minutes.

I do love the simplicity of this box.

When I put this box together there was a particular dish

that I have in mind and I can't say it at the moment

cos she's listening.

'The pudding I'm looking for...is a cheesecake.'

I've put in some strawberries, basil, vanilla pods,

white chocolate, icing sugar,

cream cheese and ginger biscuits.

You held all the cards there.

Did you make the right choice?

-Well, we'll soon find out if I can deliver.

-Soon find out.

What do you reckon, looking at everybody else's?

Sausages...?

I'm not as confident now. He's got some great ingredients over there.

-Simon?

-Yeah.

-He's looking quite confident over there, now, isn't he?

So, what are you going to be doing with your pudding box?

I've made a ginger nut biscuit base

and I've also made...kind of, like, a cheesecake base

-so that's already in the fridge trying to firm up a little bit.

-Yup.

I'm also going to make a little bit

of white chocolate decoration to go with it.

Now, you could almost use everything in this box, really.

What about the basil that's sat over there?

I am going to try and incorporate basil into my strawberry sauce.

Have you tried these two together?

And normally people go strawberries and black pepper

and that kind of stuff.

But, strawberries and basil - you try that.

-It's very unusual, isn't it?

-It's really nice.

It is very nice.

Allana is definitely going the right way with the cheesecake

but my worry is - is it going to be set?

Because so often - if it goes in the fridge,

it doesn't really set, it just gets cold.

I've got to be honest,

I would stick to the American style of cheesecake, which is wonderful.

It's cream cheese, it's eggs, it's icing sugar, vanilla,

it's double cream. Fundamentally, it's baked in the oven.

You could do that in the time that we've got.

OK, ten minutes, guys. Ten minutes.

Simon's cassoulet doesn't have long to cook now

and he's gone with mash as a side.

-Do you want me to tell you when a mashed potato is ready?

-Yeah.

This little spatula - it's a good trick, really.

When it starts sticking to the spatula

just a little bit, it's ready. So this is about perfect.

Allana's cheesecake is still setting in the fridge

and she's now trying to make white chocolate decorations.

Oh, that's not very good, is it?

Well, it kind of looks like my car

when I went to Whitby one day with the seagulls.

Right, I'm going to give you a suggestion.

Here's a piece of paper.

If we cut it into a sort of elongated triangle.

Then you put the small part of the triangle round there,

fold that over,

you've now made yourself a very fancy piping bag.

Then, we take our chocolate and we fill up our piping bag,

and use a little knife to cut...

..then... We can then pipe this in here.

That's very fancy!

-You're not having this.

-Oh.

OK, two minutes left.

-Some nice food now.

-I know.

Fantastic.

OK, that's it!

Time, ladies and gentlemen. Well done.

Simon was given my meat box to create a dish with.

It's sort of a cassoulet with a smoked bacon and bean sauce,

and the sausage chopped up on the top -

and there's a herby crust and mashed potato.

-So, the cassoulet is underneath it, is it?

-Yes, it is.

-OK, let's dive into this.

-Yeah, let's dive into it.

Mmm.

Mmm.

The mash potato...

..is perfect!

That has worked, to be honest.

The sauce works fantastically well with everything else.

The sausages - you can see they're quite meaty.

Because of that, it lends itself very well with the cassoulet.

I'm glad you put those in the liquid as well.

It definitely needs that breadcrumb on the top.

Cos it's all about textures.

It goes to show that you can do a cassoulet in record time, really.

That's just a great dish.

It's an inspired choice, it was the right decision.

-It's a great flavour.

-Thank you.

Really, really good. I really liked it.

-Well done.

-Thank you.

Claire had my vegetarian box to cook with.

What did you make?

Portabello goat's cheese stuffed mushrooms,

with a chicory chutney and pistachios and some olive oil.

OK, sounds pretty good to me. Shall we have a taste of this?

Funnily enough, you actually cooked the chicory, which is really good.

-It's a good idea.

-Yep.

Mmm.

Mmm!

I love that sweet and sour which goes with it.

It goes well with the mushrooms, the olives,

that freshness of the tomato.

And to me, the mushroom is meaty.

It's nice.

The chicory works fantastically well,

and if you've never cooked it before,

-you'll probably cook it again...

-Yeah.

..cos it's got a lovely bitterness to it, which lends itself,

really well together, with the sharpness of that goat's cheese.

You need a balance with it and that's why chutney and cheese

works so well together. Mushroom is great, nicely cooked.

Yeah, presented well as well.

-Very well done.

-Thank you.

And finally, Allana,

who chose the pudding box for herself.

I made a strawberry, basil and vanilla bean cheesecake

with a little bit of white chocolate on the top.

I like it.

You've done something very nice.

The basil is incredible. It does work well.

I find that this is a little bit too liquid...

..but the biscuit underneath, you really crunch it.

The strawberry, lovely combinations.

I love the work you've put on top. Yes.

That's a cheesecake in name...

..but for me on this,

there's too much base and not quite enough filling.

But having said that, you've got all the ingredients

that I want on the plate so, when I taste it,

it tastes exactly how I wanted.

The filling, the white filling, is perfect.

Probably could have done with a little bit more whipping up.

Gennaro's right, the sauce is a little bit too liquid -

but you've got all the flavour with the vanilla,

-I'm sure you're going to use basil in desserts...

-I will.

..more often. Now you know how to do the little chocolate motif.

-I think, on the whole, cracking dish.

-Thanks very much.

-I wanted a cheesecake and I got one.

-Thank you very much.

-It tastes good.

-Thank you.

-It's good.

Well, Gennaro, I'm sure you agree,

great tasting plates of food.

I believe they have done very well.

I think you've done extremely well.

So, on the basis of what I've just tasted...

..and the dish that I like the most...

Today's cook of the day is...

..Simon.

-Well done, Simon.

-Thank you.

You weren't prepared for that, were you?

No, not after the first round, no.

You seemed to get sorted on the second one.

You knew what you were doing.

Yeah. It's the sort of thing I cook at home.

That combination of tomatoes with the beans,

particularly with the herbs and those lovely sausages,

was cooked perfectly.

A great effort, you should be very pleased.

-Congratulations.

-Thank you.

-Where is that going to live at home?

-In the middle of the mantelpiece.

Come on over, guys.

Commiserations but fantastic effort.

-Congratulations.

-Well, well done, Simon.

-Thank you very much, Gennaro, for taking part.

-Thank you.

-Such a pleasure to be here.

-And thank you for watching.

Join us again soon where we'll meet three more great home cooks,

some more big names in the world of food, and some more,

a little bigger, boxes, than that, full of ingredients to cook with.

See you again soon, bye for now.

And if you'd like to have a go in the kitchen, go to bbc.co.uk/dishup

for easy recipes and tips.