Simply Magic!

My grandfather was a stone mason/bricklayer. One of the problems people with these jobs develop is arthritis in the wrists and fingers. This is due to picking up heavy wet stones/bricks in all weathers.

To counteract this, my grandfather had learned from a man, who had been out in Singapore during the war, how to palm coins. This man had learned how to manipulate objects so they could seemingly disappear before your eyes. This also kept his fingers and wrists supple.

Granddad would sit on an evening with an old penny, moving it between his fingers. It would often disappear, and reappear in his other hand. As small children, my brother John and I would watch him in fascination. He would hold a coin between two fingers and seemingly throw it at you, which made you wince in fear, only for nothing to happen. He would then ask one of us to pass his coin back. We would stare at him in confusion as there was no coin in sight, only for him to remove it from our ears, nose, mouth etc.

We all know this as simple palming, simple magic. He once asked if we were hungry, and we said yes. He then asked John to pass him Nonna's headscarf which he laid over his hand, then lifted the scarf to reveal a punnet of strawberries. Both John and I have talked about this many times and still cannot work out how he did it.

But the real magician of the family was Nonna. She was from a family that knew what it was like to be poor, and I'm talking real poverty. People think of Italian food as being fancy cream or pasta dishes, but it's not true. Where her family came from, the staple diet was beans of all varieties and I don't mean the Heinz type either. Just like the working class women of Britain of her generation, she had learned to feed a family for next to nothing, but when you tasted her food it was as if she had magicked up a banquet from a single tomato.

Lots of my friends had egg and chips as their Wednesday night meal. Younger people don't realise that not that long ago people got paid in cash, usually on a Thursday, as this was so people could get the shopping in for the weekend. By Wednesday nights, most families were out of money so the evening meal usually reflected this, hence the egg and chips. Many years ago, when my son was quite young, we went to Turkey for a holiday: we were off the beaten track, but there were quite a few Brits where we were staying. After a week of kebabs, one of the Brits asked the chef if he knew how to cook egg and chips. The chef then received a lesson from the customer on how to cook this British gastronomic delicacy. When the rest of the Brits saw this man eating his meal, they all ordered it, and the next day it was on the menu. I have had egg and chips once in my life and I have to say it doesn't work! Sorry, but it just doesn't go together.

I know I'm leaving myself open to criticism here, but our Wednesday night meal was the same as egg and chips, only cooked differently. And it is a meal I still eat on a regular basis.

This is a meal for one: just up the portions if you have more mouths to feed

Take one medium sized potato, wash and peel and slice it width ways into scallops about two or three millimetres thick.

Take a small onion, cut it in half, and slice one half into fine strips. Save the other half in the fridge.

Put a couple of tbsps of olive oil in a large, heavy-based frying pan on a low heat.

Then place the potatoes in the pan and coat them with the oil, place the onions on top of the potatoes and cover with a lid or, as Nonna did, a plate. Then let it cook on a low heat for about twenty minutes, just turning the potatoes after about fifteen minutes.

When cooked, take off the lid/plate and prod the potatoes with a fork to make sure they are cooked.

If they are soft, take one egg and beat it in a dish, adding salt and pepper, then turn up the heat under the pan and pour the egg over the scallops, letting it coat each slice. Don't let it over cook.

You can empty the contents onto a warm plate and eat it at this stage, which is what my brother does, and, trust me, its lovely. But because I'm a Parmesan cheese freak, I lightly grate Parmesan over the potatoes after pouring the egg in. I then Then I put it under a very hot grill, until it turns light brown.

Serve it with lots of bread and butter and a large mug of hot tea. This is not family sharing food, this is on-your-lap-in-front-of-the-TV food, and for me it beats egg and chips any day,

Buon Appetito!

A Walk In The Woods!

Memories are strange things. Your mind has a habit of stripping them down, cleaning out the boring or nasty bits, then re-packaging them, wrapped in rose-tinted cellophane.

But, for me, there are sounds and smells that take me back to times gone by. If I encounter a frosty morning, where the grass under my feet crunches like frosted cornflakes, I'm transported back to my childhood Sunday mornings. This is not to say that every Sunday was frosty when I was a child, although I did have to endure cold Catholicism every Sunday.

On Sunday mornings, my brother John, my grandfather and I would walk down the hill from the small cottage we lived in, to a large field which was encircled by thick woodland. Because it was always very early in the morning, there was either dew on the grass or frost. The reason for our walk was to gather woodland mushrooms for our breakfast. One of my deepest regrets is that I paid no attention to my Grandfather, who desperately tried to show both my brother and myself where to find mushrooms, and what mushrooms you could eat. We would spend our time tormenting a poor unfortunate goat that was tethered in the field. We had worked out the length of the tether and would torment it long enough for it to charge us, only to half strangle itself when the tether ran out. The rest of the time, we spent sword fighting with any sticks we could find.

But on our return home, with a basket of gnarled discoloured fungi, my Nonna would set about turning our free food into a simple culinary masterpiece.

Put a knob of butter in a frying pan on a low heat.

Add a crushed clove of garlic (More if you really love garlic)

When the butter has turned a nutty brown, add the mushrooms but don't stir them, as you will release all the moisture from them and boil them.

When the moisture has escaped stir them all - this only takes a few minutes.

At the end, before you serve them, add your preferred seasoning, Half a teaspoon of smoky paprika. Or half a teaspoon of chilli. I prefer to finely grate a small amount of Parmesan cheese in, then add a handful of finely-chopped flat leafed parsley, stir.

Serve it on a piece of thick cut warm bread or crostini.

Another smell that, for me, is what I call a memory duvet, is freshly baked bread. Memory duvets wrap you up and snuggle you in a warm glow of nostalgia.

Nonna would always rise at stupid o'clock each morning. For her, getting up at 7am on a Sunday morning was a decadent lie-in. Most days she would be up for 5am and have fires lit, Pasht on the stove, and bread in the oven. I cannot begin to describe the joy of awaking to the smell of bread baking in the oven. With the dough she had left over she would often make pizza. In my previous blog I explained that pizza is something I can take or leave, it's just cheese on toast. But if you would like to make your own pizza use this recipe. I call it my pretend veggie pizza.

For the dough:-

1 and a half cups of plain white four.

8 tbsp tepid water.

1 teaspoon of easy blend yeast.

1 tbsp olive oil

Sift the flour and yeast into a large bowl, make a well in the centre and add the water and oil.

Stir with a wooden spoon. Then turn it out onto a floured surface and knead it for about five or six minutes.

I then put it back in the bowl and cover it with a tea towel or cling film and put it in a warm place for and hour or so.

When it has risen, empty it back out onto a floured surface and just knock the air out of it, then roll it out to your desired thickness, I think real pizzas should have a very thin crust.

Then spread your tomato sauce all over the top (See previous blog. Only use this sauce). Then finely slice a mixture of red, yellow and green peppers until you have about a hand full in total, (I have very big hands). Then spread them out over the pizza. Rip pieces of buffalo Mozzarella: only use this cheese - it is now available everywhere and is quite inexpensive, and put the pieces all over the peppers. Then bake in a pre-heated oven for about 20 minutes at gas mark 6. Keep an eye on it as modern ovens tend to cook them quicker.

When you remove your pizza from the oven, if you are vegetarian, just cut it and eat it. If you want a pretend veggie pizza, just before it is ready put a couple of slices of thin pancetta in a dry hot frying pan and quickly cook them on both sides - it doesn't take long - then take them from the pan and put them on some kitchen paper. They will go crispy this way. When your pizza is ready crush the pancetta and sprinkle over the pizza. This gives it a crunchy, salty, smoky texture, and is just obscenely gorgeous!

Buon Appetitio!

Cooking With Babbo And Nonna.

They say that cooking is the new rock 'n' roll, making household names of the TV chefs, while also making them richer than they ever thought possible! I say it's just knocking up a bit of dinner.

But having said this, you should never under estimate the power of a good meal, cooked with time and love. I learned from an early age how to cook. I spent time with my Nonna, cooking in her tiny little kitchen. Even though the kitchen was small, it had Tardis-like qualities and concealed a myriad of cooking utensils and food ingredients.

Nonna was a tiny little Italian lady who was quiet, patient, and loving, but could erupt like the roaring fires of Vesuvius if you messed with her family. Her food was that of all the Italian peasants of Caserta and the surrounding region. But she could make a humble tomato and a few herbs taste like ambrosia itself.

She was born in 1899 to a mother who was very scary. My great-grandmother's temper was legendary, as anyone who was unfortunate enough to cross her soon found out. But, like my Nonna, she was a pussycat around the family (unless and until they stepped out of line). She herself had an Italian father and a French mother, so she introduced an element of French cuisine to our food.

What these remarkable ladies did was to show the family just how important it is to eat together. Their food was basic, but very nutritious and very tasty. It wasn't rock n roll, it was about the three 'Fs'  - Family, Friends and Food. It was about being able to sit and chat, to eat and laugh, all in the knowledge that everyone sitting around the table cared about all the other diners.

Now that my own hair has turned the colour of the winter snow, I am now a Babbo to my beautiful little granddaughter, Harleigh, and my wife is now a Nonna in her own right. I have carried on the family tradition of cooking for my loved ones and sitting and taking time to talk. Little Harleigh, just like her Papa before her, loves to stand in the kitchen with me and cook and chat.

So that is what this blog is about. It's about love and food and the love of good food. Lots of the recipes are basic Italian fare with lots of my own recipes thrown in. It's about anecdotes of my life and my Nonna's life. Don't expect exact measures, as we believe that it's important to cook the food the way you like it. I will tell you how I cook it, then it's up to you to change it to your taste.

So to start things off I thought that I would tell you how to cook a basic Italian sauce. This sauce is what you are supposed to put on pizzas. And what the so-called "Italian chicken" should have poured over it. We make it in large quantities and keep it in jars, to spoon out as we cook, but I will tell you how to make a small batch to try first and then alter to your taste. It is easy-peasy!

You need:

1 Red onion, finely diced.

1 Tin of chopped tomatoes.

The juice of half a lemon. 

1 teaspoon of sugar.

1 clove of garlic, crushed.

3 or 4 leaves of fresh Basil, ripped into small pieces.

Cook the diced onion and garlic in olive oil in a pan on a low heat until they go translucent. Then just add the rest of the ingredients except for the Basil. Stir, then cover the pan and cook on a low heat for about 15/20 minutes. Then add the Basil and cook for another few more minutes. That's it! Told you, easy peasy. You can use this sauce for all sorts of different dishes, you can even add white wine to it if you wish.

Next time, I will tell you a few dishes to cook with this sauce: until then, buon appetito!