Katie Caldesi's Diary of Italian Living, Food & Culture.

What an amazing week!  The week I had dreamt of a year before finally arrived and it was every bit as good as I hoped it would be.  The six mothers arrived on the Sunday before our special week and I invited them to my house.  As the hours ticked by I wondered why I had invited six good cooks to my house and why I had chosen to cook Italian, cannelloni even!  Giancarlo despaired as I made pasta, tried to finish the children’s homework and tripped over the weekend chaos of toys our boys had created.  I felt the women had journeyed from Italy to cook and I had better show that I could do the same for them.  I also thought that the six mamas would probably all be large ladies with chubby arms and warm hearts and once here they would instantly muck in and all would be well. 

Luckily we finished before they arrived and just as well as instead of the image I had of them, six quite young and very fashionable women arrived with their sons dressed in Gucci, Tods, Versace and more.  I hadn’t even considered putting make-up on and wished I had at least changed from my muddy boots.  As I looked down at my footwear compared to theirs I realised the floor hadn’t been cleaned all week and I know how immaculate Italian houses are.  Oh well, they had better get used to England I thought.  Then to the food; I watched nervously as each mama tasted the cannelloni, I heard one whisper to another “e pieno di sapore”, “it’s full of flavour” she said with surprise.  Humph I thought, we English can cook too!  After an hour our mutual nerves disappeared.  Italians are quite formal and reserved I realised.  Many of them don’t drink so as I giggled over a couple of glasses of Prosecco they sipped water seriously.  However I realised they had taken their tasks seriously too and many had come equipped with their special tools for making pasta as well as bags of their favourite flour and boxes of their regional patisserie for us.     They seemed kind if slightly severe and were keen to share their recipes and passion for food.  Their plates came back clean and all were complimentary on the cannelloni, I had done my job so far and tomorrow would be the first day of Italian Mama’s Week. 

This week I have been having the most wonderful yet stressful time of liasing with Italian sons and their mothers trying to get to the bottom of their most treasured family recipes. I admire their ability to cook ‘a occhio’  or ‘by eye’ and their insistance that they do not need recipes - why would they when they have been cooking these dishes for years. However the problem that I have is that I need to produce full length recipes, accurate measurements and all, for our kitchen staff for the Italian Mama’s Week that we are hosting at all our restaurants and cookery school from October 6th - 10th (check out www.caldesi.com to find out more).

I had a great couple of days at the beginning of the week recipe testing with Matteo (manager of Caffe Caldesi) and Monseratto (head chef at Caffe Caldesi), and many many hours were spent on the phone to their mothers asking many many questions so as to get exact replicas of their recipes down on paper. It was very special to watch the boys stirring and tasting, tutting and actually weeping as the dishes evoked memories of their precious mamas.

Monseratto told me this wonderful anecdote about his childhood when I asked about his mother’s influence on his cooking:

“Monseratto was 10 years old and living at his home in Sardignia. His mother would get up early in the morning and make her speciality desserts on this beautiful wooden chest that is very traditional to Sardignia, called a ‘casadine’. Once the desserts were made she would keep them inside the chest which would then be placed under the bed for safe-keeping (also partly traditional). One day Monseratto, led by his keen nose, found the chest of desserts, crept inside and hid in there whilst polishing off all of the precious home-made puddings. His mother meanwhile was terrified he had been abducted and rang the police to help search for him. Of course, once he was found, chocolate smeared mouth and all, he received a hefty smack from his mother!”

After hearing all these fantastic stories I cannot wait to meet the mothers behind them, although I will admit I am slightly terrified to see their reaction to what I have done with their family recipes that have been handed down through the generations. Let’s hope there won’t be any fireworks!

After my jam and bread fiasco with my father, I thought I might just please him with a sformato  – a word I find impossible to translate as I think literally it would be a ‘moulded’; now who is going to choose a ‘mould’ from a menu. It is actually somewhere between a soufflé and a mousse.  My father, who is in his eighties and dentally-challenged is a fussy man.  Looked after by my mother, who in her day was a fantastic cook, he is used to good cooking. Nowadays however, food is measured not only by its flavour but by its softness and easiness to eat!   So a sformato it was and I am happy to report a great success for my husband, brother and ageing parents.  I won’t repeat what Flavio (6) called it but it is evidently not something for small boys.  You can’t please everyone, at least the boys are chomping into my homemade bread and plum jam that my father was so rude about.      I had originally eaten something similar to this cheese recipe at Peck in Milan where they called it Flan di Parmigiana. A delicious cheese and egg combination that melted in your mouth, this recipe is similar I think and equally delicious.Sformati di FormaggioCheese soufflé-ish, mousse-y, delicious soft things 

These can be served with a tomato sauce, red-pepper sauce or a simple dressed green salad.  They are good hot or at room temperature.  If you want to make them the day before, re-heat them in a bain marie for fifteen minutes in the oven. 

Serves 6

250g ricotta, sheep or cow’s milk

4 tbspns double cream, mascarpone or greek yoghurt

3 free-range organic eggs

50g Parmesan or Pecorino, finely grated

Quarter of a nutmeg, finely grated

1 tbspn thyme, oregano or rosemary, finely chopped

Salt and freshly-ground black pepper

Butter for greasing

Handful of fine breadcrumbs or Parmesan cheese, finely grated

Pre-heat the oven to 160oC.  Then find six moulds, such as thin metal dariole moulds or ramekins.  Butter them inside generously and line the base with a small circle of baking parchment.  Dust with the breadcrumbs or the cheese and shake out the excess.

In a mixing bowl, combine the ricotta, cream or yoghurt, cheese, nutmeg, thyme, pepper and salt.  In another bowl whisk the eggs until frothy and then combine them with the rest of the ingredients.  (Season to taste if you don’t mind tasting raw eggs).  Pour this mixture into the moulds until they are three-quarters full. 

Stand these in an ovenproof dish such as a lasagne dish and then put this into the oven.  Pour a jug of water into the dish, avoiding the moulds, so that the sformati are surrounded by water up to halfway.  Cook for around 40 minutes or until they are golden brown and slightly raised.  Remove from the oven and leave to rest for a few minutes.  When you are ready to serve them, work around the edge with a dinner knife and turn out.  Serve onto individual plates with salad or sauce.

I am writing a cook book, in case I hadn’t mentioned it before.  My house, therefore is usually full of the intoxicating aromas of Italian cooking.   At least that is how feel about it.  Sometimes I wish Italian cooking didn’t smell or taste so good as I battle with my increasing waist line.  Each spoonful of gelati or pasta gets me nearer a perfect recipe but equally nearer a size 16.  This week it has been jam.  I thought I couldn’t tire of plum jam but actually after almost a whole jar I did.  To make it easier to go on tasting I made some wholemeal bread, it made the sugar-loaded sticky stuff feel almost virtuous when slathered onto a slice of wholesome wholegrain. 

I also experienced a feeling of self-satisfying, self-rightousness as I consumed my own bread and homemade jam.  If I had only made the butter (and lost four stone) I could have been Felicity Kendal in an episode of the Good Life.  Unfortunately my moment of wellbeing was quickly dispelled by my parents.  Love them as I do, so much that they live with us in their old age, their honesty can drive me to distraction.  My father pronounced my bread as heavy (which it was not) and a bother to cut (which is easy with a sharp knife and a pair of glasses) and promptly demanded some sliced bread of a well-known brand from the nearest supermarket on my next trip.  I couldn’t believe he could prefer something manufactured to homemade.  But when he added Baked Beans and fishfingers to the list I knew I had been defeated.  So tonight my children are eating little pillows of pasta filled with ricotta and spinach in a fresh tomato and basil sauce and my parents are having freezer food.  Each to their own I suppose! 

I have come to realise it is a generational difference as well as a question of taste.  My parents would have had homemade bread, jam and everything else pre-1950 but then saw the wonders of commercial baking and sliced bread.  As I delight in a homemade unsliced loaf they would have delighted in the ready cut plastic wrapped variety that we take for granted now.  When I have time, I relish activities such as shelling peas that I can share with family or friends whilst chatting. However when rushing during the week I can’t help thinking of the freedom that frozen peas gave women from being tied to kitchen duties for most of the day.  

Well, since writing my last blog entry back in february things have been a bit hectic to say the least! It may be a slight exaggeration but I do feel as if I has travelled around the world in 80 days! To be exact, over the past few months I have been travelling back and forth to Italy all in the name of research for my new recipe book. It has been a rollercoaster ride of travelling, cooking, madly writing down recipes, researching new areas and doing photography and, even thought it has been hard work, I have loved every minute of it. I have been so lucky to visit some incredible places such as Rome, Tuscany, Naples, Bari, Parma and Ravenna and I have met the most fascinating people. To top off the ‘travelling theme’ the lovely organisers of the South African Gourmet wine and food festival invited Giancarlo and I out to Cape Town to take part in their cookery demonstrations. So it has been a busy few months and apologies that this blog has been a long time coming.

I also have some really good news in that we have decided to go ahead with our cookery school in Tuscany in October for 2 weeks, so those mad dashes to the market won’t be missed! We are renting the beautiful Castello Gabbiano, makers of the lovely Tuscan wine, just south of Florence.  There are still some rooms left on the second week but week one is sold out.  More details on the main site www.caldesi.com. 

This was one of my first trips of the year - to see the castle and cook for some journalists.  The kitchen is medieval and no longer used as working place (until we descend upon it in October).  This means there is no whisk, no cooking pans to speak of and only a beautiful marble table to work on.  However Giancarlo and I are used to thinking on our feet and soon used a lonely frying pan to bake bread, his fingers to whip up egg white (apparently his grandmother always did it that way, pw1959 (pre-whisk)) and Parmesan shavings replaced Parmesan gratings (lack of grater) on the homemade pasta.  It was a baptism of fire in front of such discerning guests but we ate in the fabulous dining area overlooking the lawns of the castle gardens.  Each course matched a Gabbiano wine starting with Gorgonzola Dolce and Endives with the Rose, Tuscan Ragu made with the local Chianina beef and their Belleza, Sea bass with fennel and Pinot Grigio, Duck with Cherries and finally Poached Pears in Chianti.

It gave us a good opportunity of working there and now I have a list as long as my arm of things to take with us in October.  We are becoming a mobile cookery school, have box of tricks, will travel - or in this case have castle, will cook!

To answer many questions regarding our school in Tuscany, we really hope to return  again this year.  However we will be moving to a new location for July and/or October.  As soon as we have any further details we will let everyone know. 

I really hope it works out, our year wouldn’t be the same without our mad dashes to the market in the early morning sun, barbecueing massive Fiorentina steaks outside and cooking all that fish on a Friday.  The children would forget how to catch lizards and how to ask for their favourite ice cream in Italian.  So for all those reasons we have to work something out!  Having just had our reunion dinner for those that attended last year’s course, it would be a shame not to do it again.

 Courses in Bray

However, courses nearer home!  We are going to start teaching at Caldesi in Campagna in Bray.  The dates so far are Mondays March 3rd and 31st, April 21st.  The courses will start at 10am, cost £100 a person and be taught either by Giancarlo and Katie or Gregorio and Katie.  We will make a three course lunch based on the cooking from Caldesi in Campagna and then sit down to eat it together with Italian wines.  Hope you can join us, for futher details and to book please call our cooking school office on 0207 487 0756.

Well, the post-Christmas period is typically a time of ‘calm after the storm’, not for me this year! On a personal note, I have finally upped sticks from London and moved into my new house in the country. I’m very happy with it now, but it’s been one hell of a journey to get here! So life on the blog has been a bit quiet recently.

Business-wise, Giancarlo and I have been here, there and everywhere tending to our various businesses and collaborations that we are involved with. This week we are honoured to be at the great British establishment Fortnum and Masons where we are demonstrating Italian recipes from our cookbook in the cookery section upstairs. Not only that the recipes are also featuring on the menu at their ‘Gallery’ restaurant. We really are chuffed as it is the first time that they have done a collaboration like this. The staff have been a delight to work with and made the journey out to Bray to train with our staff at ‘Caldesi in Campagna’. Speaking of which this, our latest ‘baby in Bray’, is going from strength to strength and two weeks ago we received a rave review from the formidable Jay Rayner from the Observer Magazine, so all that hard work is paying off.  My other ongoing project for this year is my cookery book that is coming out next year and as this will feature over 400 recipes I have a lot of work on my hands, speaking of which I better get testing…..

Ah, the beautiful countryside.  No matter what the weather is like somehow beauty prevails, as I splash my way through the country lanes driving the children to school I thank my lucky stars that I live here.  The odd deer or red kite is so much better than that angry London traffic. 

The restaurant is going well, despite initial hiccups of our smoky fires, lack of suitable electricity and no front door!  Our new front door arrives any day, the inner door is now in place and that just leaves Len the Flue to come and sort out our smoking chimneys.

The children and I have made a “presepe” - a nativity scene as they do in Italy.  We went to Naples to buy the pieces and had great fun constructing the stable, sand for the three kings, a water feature that Charlie Dimmock would be proud of and a home for the pizza man (well we had bought it in Naples!).  Now it is taking pride of place in our bar and amusing the customers.

More notes from Naples to follow but we are moving house on Wednesday so things are a little hectic here.

Just come back from Florence where we visited a castle that dates back to the 12th century. The sun was shining brightly on the vines but the wind whistled around us freezing me to the bones. Luckily Tuscan food is perfect for this weather and we were soon warmed by bowls of ribollita - thick vegetable and bread soup full of cavolo nero (black kale). We also had venison in red wine and a semifreddo packed with chestnuts.

This castle is a potential new venue for our cookery school, it is beautiful and has so much to offer in terms of location, atmosphere and not least cooking facilities. We are keeping our fingers crossed it all works out for next year.

At the Viva Italia show at Olympia I promised to put the recipe forPear, Pinenut and Raisin cake on my blog so here it is.

Torta Contadina or Franca’s Pear Cake
Franca is a very good friend of ours and a great cook. She makes pasta everyday for the Buca Sant Antonio restaurant in Lucca. Then she goes home to cook for her large family. Her pear cake is quick, easy and always delicious. She changes the flavour frequently according to the seasons using fruits such as apricots, pears, plums, apples or leaving out the fruit and adding chocolate pieces and walnuts instead. My favourite combination is pear and strawberry.

Serves 8 - 10

200 g flour
3 whole eggs
200 g sugar
Seeds scraped from a vanilla pod
15 g of baking powder
100 g butter, at room temperature
125 ml milk
Grated zest of 1 lemon
80 g raisins (optional)
50 g pinenuts (optional)
2 pears, peeled and cut into eights
50g of chocolate drops (optional)

First prepare a 25.5cm (10) cake tin with parchment paper by making a cartouche a circle cut to fit the tin. I think it is prettier to tear the circle out so that you have rough edges and have it protruding above the edge of the tin.

Using a whisk mix the flour, sugar, eggs, vanilla, lemon rind and baking powder. Stir in the milk and mix until smooth. Add the pinenuts and raisins at this point if you are using them. Stir well to combine. Next tear the butter into smaller pieces with your fingers and whisk them in.

Pour the mix into the prepared tin and scatter or arrange (depending on whether you are going for the rustic or neat look!) the fruit over the cake. Push the fruit in a little.

Cook for 20-30 minutes at 180oC or until a toothpick comes out clean from the centre of the cake.

Tip: This recipe is much better done by hand rather than an electric mixer. There should be small lumps of butter left in the mix which will melt leaving holes that keep the cake light yet moist and buttery.

Ah the joys of our international restaurant community. Most of the time I don’t work with people who�have English as their first language. I have learnt to speak Italian, a little French, use plenty of gesticulations and somehow get through a normal working day but just occasionally something amuses me and I thought I would share it with you.

One of our young Italian waiters was serving a journalist and her husband the other day. The kitchen was nervous, he was nervous and we really wanted everything to go perfectly. The lady in question was served a salad of crab, avocado and it’s appropriate dressing. After a little while she�called the waiter back and said there was something in her salad. He panicked thinking it was something bad but couldn’t understand her so went off to find poor stressed Gregorio the Head Chef. Gregorio quickly donned a new neckscarf, changed his apron and went out to face his critic.

He immediately apologised for something being in her salad, was it a piece of shell, (we have had a shell in crab incident before - it happens, we cook and shell them ourselves). Gregorio sweated as she explained that yes there was something in her salad, a green herb with long leaves and she wanted to know what it was! He told her it was tarragon and she was delighted to know the recipe. Gregorio hastily went back into the kitchen and repromanded the waiter for worrying him unnecessarily!

I do remember when we had our first restaurant and I gave simple English lessons to the staff. I had to teach them once to say the special of the day - a warm salad of wild mushrooms and pancetta - they had real trouble in not saying - a worm salad.

Another fantastic mistake was a young waiter who insisted on describing the special of the day as - seabass on sauteed baby squirrels - the elderly ladies in question became quite upset as he insisted how good these baby squirrels tasted as they were in season now. Eventually the head waiter was called over as one of the women was becoming a little faint. He had to explain that the waiter meant baby spinach! I love that story, its one of those that I remember when I am sitting on a train on my own and it makes me smile when you know you can’t smile because you are on your own and then you want to smile even more.