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

We live in a flat with no garden and have two boisterous, energetic boys so I am constantly thinking of ways to amuse them - and me too. Since I spend so much time cooking and I love it I try to involve them wherever possible. I also find it helps them become more adventurous with what they eat if they have seen it being made and shared a part of that process. This is one of the quick suppers we enjoy making at home…

Roman Jump-in-the-Mouths (Saltimbocca alla Romana)
Whilst watching the chefs in our restaurant kitchens make this on a regular basis it occurred to me that children would love to do this – all that bashing and banging! Traditionally Roman cooks would use veal but chicken or turkey works equally well. “Saltimbocca” means “Jump-in-the Mouth” , we think it’s because it is so delicious you wish they would jump straight from the frying pan into your mouth.
Serves 4:

• 8 escalopes (approx 400g) veal, chicken or turkey
• 120g Prosciutto, cured ham, thinly sliced
• 16 sage leaves
• Salt and pepper
• 8 toothpicks
• Flour for dusting
• Olive oil for frying
• 50ml white wine, optional (add a little more meat stock if you are not using it)
• 100ml chicken or meat stock
• Knob of butter

Bash out the escalopes between two sheets of cling film using a meat tenderiser, pestle or rolling pin. Take care not to tear the meat. It should end up as ½ cm thick. Peel off the cling film and season each side of the escalopes with salt and pepper.
Cover each one with a sage leaf (leave it out of some if children aren’t keen) and then a slice of Prosciutto. Using a toothpick pierce through the ham, leaf and escalope and out again the other side. Heat the oil in a frying pan. Meanwhile dust the escalopes with a little flour each side and when the oil is hot fry them ham side down for about 30 seconds. Then turn them over and cook for about 4-5 minutes or until the meat is cooked through. To check this press the escalope with a fork and make sure the juices run clear.
Remove the escalopes from the pan set aside, pour the oil away from the pan. Add the white wine and a little meat stock to the pan and reduce for a couple of minutes to let the alcohol burn off. Then add the knob of butter and stir well.
Pour the hot buttery sauce over the saltimbocca and serve with mashed potatoes mixed with some Parmesan.
WHat the kids can do:

• bash the meat between the sheets of cling film, with guidance so that the meat isn’t too thin and becomes torn
• season the meat
• pierce the meat and leaves with the toothpicks
• add the wine, butter and stir the sauce
• put the leaves and slices of ham on the escalopes

If you are serving mash, let them grate the Parmesan and mash it in with the potatoes, adding lots of butter, salt and pepper.

Truffles seem to take over whatever they come into contact with. However my mind has now turned to pumpkins and how to use them in different ways. Unlike the truffle, apart from being sweet they seem to marry well with whatever you put with them. Last night I took a couple of dark orange small pumpkins that we picked up at Marylebone Farmer’s market. From some of the segments that had been roasted with whole garlic cloves in their skins, extra-virgin olive oil, salt and pepper I made a warm salad. I cut up the flesh and mixed it with Tallegio - a lovely strong blue cheese from Italy - some freshly cracked walnuts and some salad leaves. Then I gently tossed the whole lot with French walnut oil, salt and pepper. I put some shavings of Parmesan on the top for a little extra saltiness and enjoyed it with a glass of Villa Antinori’s Toscana 2005.

With the rest of the pumpkin I made a sformato. This is something that really doesn’t translate but is somewhere between a mousse, souffle and a baked puree. The recipe for Carrot Sformato is in our book and you can adapt the recipe to make courgette, spinach, almost any kind of vegetable sformato.

I mixed the pumpkin flesh, mashed, with bechamel - a well flavoured one with lots of nutmeg, salt and pepper and the the milk was infused with onion and a bay leaf - and a handful of grated Parmesan, followed by two lightly whipped egg whites.? The mixture is then poured into a small lasagna dish and topped with small flecks of butter and some more grated Parmesan.? It is then baked at around 180oC for about 20-25 minutes. The result is a creamy light sformato that I would say goes really well with meat stews, chicken or even some baked fish. It is quite sweet however so next time I might mix half carrot and half pumpkin. Giancarlo suggested I do half a courgette sformato in one layer and then top it with the pumpkin so the result would be stunning.

Today I am making roast pumpkin soup and into it I will crumble some truffle cheese, it’ll melt and release the flavour of truffle into the sweet warm pumpkin, umm, I’m hungry already and it not even 7am!

If you have children like mine who wont keep out of the kitchen when you are trying to cook, involve them. Mine scraped the seeds out of the pumpkins, cracked and whipped the egg whites, drizzle over the oil and are always happy to break up the garlic cloves. They’ll do most things now and fascinated in what I am cooking and what everything is. Giorgio came back from school yesterday saying he made a jam sandwich, not sure what that was all about but I wish it had been a bit more interesting than a jam sandwich. I could have given them hundreds of ideas for cooking with kids. He did say they are growing some broad beans so that’s a start. Now he thinks we are going to have broad bean sandwiches in a week’s time!

You will need a plastic tray, if you dont have them you can buy them easily at pound shops - that way you don’t care what happens to them!Some sticks, moss, pine cones, stones, shells etc

A couple of little dishes

Plasticine

Food colouring, not essential

Optional plastic miniature animals

First go on a hunting/gathering trip to the park or garden. Collect anything small that looks interesting from the list above and preferably get quite a bit of moss.

When home make a miniature garden on your tray using the sticks as bridges and trees supported by a blob of plasticine stuck onto the tray.

Fill the dishes, cover with silver foil if they are patterned, and fill with water. This is even better if you splash a few drops of food colouring in the water so you can have blue and green pools. The moss can then be arranged around the edge of the pools and animals can be placed on the moss having a drink at the pool.

Pine cones stood up on a little plasticine make a great wooded area. If you find any empty snail shells bring them back to life by making the snail out of plasticine and sticking the shell on top.

Walnut shells also make great parts of an animal.

My children do an enchanted garden about once a week now and spend ages putting them together. I love the look of the trays and seeing what they come up with to make out of what they have collected.

Our most recent attempt contains nativity figures to follow the Christmas theme. Giancarlo says when he was young he used to help the local priest in the church make their Presepio - the Nativity brought to life through moss, waterfalls, donkeys and little figures. I have seen some of these in churches at Christmas time and couldn’t believe how intricate and beautiful they are. It must be wonderful to see when you are a child.

Good luck with the trays, do have a go - the results are worth it.