Entertaining All'Italiana

It is no big secret that I collect cookbooks. Unfortunately for me, I do not have unlimited funds to procure said cookbooks, so I always have a list of items that I am looking for with the caveat that they must fall on $20 range. Many of them I can find, but alas, I cannot afford them, so there is an eternal quest for certain grail. One such grail was Anna del Conte’s Entertaining All'Italiana. There have always been a few copies of this elusive book on the market, but they tended to be priced between $100 and $300. That is a lot of tomato sauce and garlic!

First, let me say that Anna del Conte is not well known in America. In England, however, she is cross between Julia Child and Lidia Bastianich. Sure, now there is big food movement in England, but thirty years ago, English food was a bit of a joke. Imagine what it was like when Elizabeth David and Anna del Conte put forward fresh spicy, Italian creations. Del Conte married an Englishman and that is what lead her from her Italian kitchen to England. Del Conte wrote the first complete compendium of Italian food for and English speaking population, Gastronomy of Italy.

Finally, it didn’t hurt that Nigella Lawson stated emphatically that Entertaining All'Italiana was probably her favorite cookery book. (Click here to read Nigella's touching tribute to del Conte.)Published in the early 1990’s, Entertaining All'Italiana is a throwback to older cookbooks, featuring a handful of line drawings for chapter headings, but no pictures of the food.

So finally, I saw a copy of Entertaining All'Italiana. I knew it immediately as I had memorized its blue jacket with the painting of the plums and walnuts. I knew it would be out of my price range, but surprisingly it was under my $20 limit and I practically hyperventilated at the pristine book and fine jacket.

When I got it home, I admired it for several days before I even cracked the spine. The very first recipe was for Linguine coi piselli alla panna, a flat spaghetti with peas and cream. That very morning I picked peas in the garden and had a small bowl sitting on the counter. It was kismet.

Linguine coi piselli alla panna

450 r/1 lb linguine
salt
freshly grated Parmesan for serving

For the sauce

45g/1 1/2 oz unsalted butter
4 shallots, very finely chopped
1 tsp sugar
1 tsp salt
225g/1/2 lb fresh garden peas, podded, or frozen peas, thawed
1 tbsp flour
6tbsp dry white vermouth
120 ml/1/4 pint single cream
freshly ground pepper

If you are using fresh peas, plunge them in a saucepan of boiling water and cook them for 5 minutes, Frozen peas do not nee this blanching.

Choose a large sauté pan or frying pan into which you can later transfer the drained pasta. Put the butter and shallots in the pan and sprinkle with the sugar and salt. Saute the shallots until soft and then add the peas. Coat them in the butter for 1 minute, sprinkle with the flour and cool for a further minute, stirring the whole time, Stir in the vermouth, boil for 1 minute and then add the stock. Cover the pan and regulate the heat so that the liquid will simmer gently for the peas to cook. They must be tender, not just al dente. Stir in the cream, cook for a couple of minutes. Add pepper , taste and check seasoning.

Meanwhile, put a large saucepan of water on the heat and bring to the boil. Add 1 1/2 tablespoons of cooking salt and when the water has come back to a roaring boil, slide in the linguine, a ll at once, pushing them in gently with your hand. Stir with a long fork, putting the lid back on the pan until the water is boiling again, then remove the lid and cook at a steady boil until the linguine is done. Drain, but do not overdrain, and transfer immediately to the pan with the sauce. Stir-fry, using two forks, and stirrings with a high movement so that all the pasta strands are well coated with the sauce.

Now, if your frying pan is a good-looking one, bring the pan directly to the table. The less pasta is transfer from the container to another , the better; it keeps hotter. But if you do not like to bring sauce pans to the table, tun the pasta into a heated bowl and serve, handing round the Parmesan in a bowl.

For my version, I added a bit of ham. It was wonderful. And I can't say enough about how much I love this book. Perhaps it was the quest, perhaps it was Nigella, perhaps it was the first recipe being for peas, but I love it. Frankly, I have long been a fan of Anna del Conte after finding her Gastronomy of Italy. This book is a much more personal journey. Check out our review of Amaretto, Apple Cake and Artichokes,

In the meantime, be on the lookout for you own copy of Entertaining All'Italiana.

Nigella Christmas

For me, food is fun and sensuous and entertaining and no one bathes in that ethos more than Nigella Lawson. Unlike many food presenters who seem to spend more on syrup of ipecac than on butter, Nigella cooks and eats. I'd be happy in her kitchen. Here's her favorite Christmas "jam".

Actually it is a chilli jam, so stay away from the toast soldiers and try it with cheese or as a side to a nice roasted meat.

Chilli Jam

150g long fresh red chillies, each deseeded and cut into about 4 pieces.
150g red peppers, cored, deseeded and cut into rough chunks
1kg jam sugar
600ml cider vinegar
6 x 250ml sealable jars, with vinegar-proof lid, such as Kilner jar or re-usable pickle jar


1. Sterilize your jars and leave to cool.
2. Put the cut-up chillies into a food processor and pulse until they are finely chopped. Add the chunks of red pepper and pulse again until you have a vibrantly red-flecked processor bowl.
3. Dissolve the sugar in the vinegar in a wide, medium-sized pan over a low heat without stirring.
4. Scrape the chilli-pepper mixture out of the bowl and add to the pan. Bring the pan to the boil, then leave it at a rollicking boil for 10 minutes.
5. Take the pan off the heat and allow it cool. The liquid will become more syrupy, then from syrup to viscous and from viscous to jelly-like as it cools.
6. After about 40 minutes, or once the red flecks are more or less evenly dispersed in the jelly (as the liquid firms up, the hints of chilli and pepper start being suspended in it rather than floating on it), ladle into your jars. If you want to stir gently at this stage, it will do no harm. Then seal tightly.

Remember, Nigella's British so they have a more relaxed style of canning procedures.

I love a chilli jam. I make mine with habaneros, so it is molten. And for those of you who worry about my addiction to cookbooks, take a gander at Nigella's library.

Granted she lives in London and has a billionaire husband and I live in West Virginia and have a cat, but still...

I could work there.

How To Eat

We love Nigella. Not for the obvious reasons, we know she is easy on the eyes, but because she's just so much fin in the kitchen. She obviously loves to cook for herself and others and she's not afraid to eat and we especially love that about her. Gearing up for that big old Thanksgiving extravaganza, I wanted to offer up something both comforting and light on this day before overindulgence.

Try this lemony risotto for a lovely pre-Thanksgiving meal.

Lemon Risotto

2 shallots
1 stick of celery
60g unsalted butter
1 tbsp olive oil
300g risotto rice, preferably Vialone Nano
1 litre vegetable stock (I use Marigold stock powder)
Zest and juice of 1/2 an unwaxed lemon
Needles from 2 small sprigs of fresh rosemary, finely chopped
1 egg yolk
60ml (4 tbsp) grated Parmesan, plus more to sprinkle
60ml (4 tbsp) double cream
Malden salt to taste
Good grating pepper, preferably white

1. Put the shallots and celery into a Magimix and blitz until they are a finely chopped mush. Heat half the butter, the oil and the shallot and celery mixture in a wide saucepan, and cook to soften the mixture for about 5 minutes making sure it doesn't catch. Mix in the rice, stirring to give it a good coating of oil and butter. Meanwhile, heat the stock in another saucepan and keep it at simmering point.

2. Pour in a ladle full of the stock into the rice and keep stirring until the stock is absorbed. Then add another ladle full and stir again, continue doing this until the rice is al dente. You may not need all of the stock, equally, you may need to add hot water from the kettle.

3. Mix the lemon zest and the rosemary into the risotto, and in a small bowl beat the egg yolk, lemon juice, Parmesan, cream and pepper.

4. When the risotto is ready - when the rice is no longer chalky but still has some bite - take it off the heat and add the bowl of eggy lemony mixture, and the remaining butter and salt to taste. Serve with more grated Parmesan if you wish, check the seasoning and dive in.

Now that is how to eat.

Amaretto, Apple Cake and Artichokes

Anna del Conte is one of the best Italian cookbook writes around. She was a contemporary of Elizabeth David and Jane Grigson and at 85 is still influencing some of the most famous cooks out there. Actually, she is much more of an influence in England where she is has attained "rock star" status. Pretty good for a cook who has never been on television. By her own admission:

"Well, I did three screen tests. I was not good. It was my fault. People like Jane Grigson and Elizabeth David and I were not brought up to television. We were of a different generation."

I first hear of Anna del Conte when I picked up her book, Gastronomy of Italy, but, frankly, it went on the shelf and I rarely looked at it. Then one day I say Nigella Lawson pull out a copy of one of her books and say that next to her mother, Anna del Conte was her biggest influence. So I dragged my copy off the shelf and began looking at it more closely. Since then, I have added several of her books to my library, and I met Nigella Lawson...


and Nigella Lawson met Anna del Conte...

actually, I think she knew her for many years. She says of del Conte,

"It sounds like the sloganising hyperbole of a junior publicist to say that anyone who cooks should have Anna's books, but it is the simple truth, along with the fact that she is, I'm telling you, the best writer on Italian food there is. Actually, all that understates the case."

Alas, many of her books are out of print. I have searched for years for a copy of Entertaining all'Italiana, but at over $200, I have yet to find one I could afford.

Amaretto, Apple Cake and Artichokes is a collection of del Conte's "greatest hits" and the best you can do if you don't have thousands of dollars to find the out-of-print titles. I don't ever cook much eggplant, because I never saw it cooked as a child and I never really know what to do with it, or I didn't, until I read this.

Lemon-flavored Aubergine

450 g ( 1 lb) aubergines
sea salt
vegetables stock-- approximately 150 ml (1/4 pint)
1 tbsp lemon juice
rind of 1/2 an organic lemon
2 garlic cloves, peeled
1 tbsp oregano or chopped fresh marjoram
2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
freshly ground black pepper

Wash the aubergines and cut them into small cubes, without peeling them. The texture of the skins makes the cubes more pleasant to eat and it keeps them in a neat shape. Place the aubergines in a colander, sprinkle with salt and leave for no longer than 1 hour or it will become too soft. Squeeze out the juice and dry with a kitchen paper.

Choose a medium-sized saute pan or frying pan and heat 100 ml (3 oz 1/2 fl oz) of the stock, the lemon juice, lemon rind, garlic and oregano or marjoram. Bring to the boil and simmer gently for 5 minutes. Add the aubergine and cook over a moderate heat, turning it over every now and then. You might have to add more stock during the cooking, which will take about 10 minutes. When the aubergine is ready there should be practically no liquid left.

Remove and discard the garlic and lemon rind.

Transfer the aubergine and any cooking liquid to a bowl. Toss with the oil. Taste and add pepper and salt if necessary. You may like to add a little more lemon juice. The dish can be served warm or at room temperature. It can be made one day in advance, chilled if the weather is hot, but brought back to room temperature before serving.

Both Nigella and I agree -- everyone should have an Anna del Conte book.