I remember Cin Cin from their early days, serving prosecco and antipasti from a cute vintage Fiat van. I think I even went to the launch, and very nice it was too, as were their series of pop-up events. But mamma mia, did we need a permanent base for some real Italian food in Brighton. If only to allow me to actually recommend a restaurant, rather than dramatically sighing before launching into a 30 minute monologue about the importance of regional distinction and diversity across Italy whilst the person asking glazes over. Amazingly, in a city where the food scene is flourishing, Italian food has generally remained in that generic sloppy pool of tourist pleasing pizza* pasta set menus, risotto or if really pushing the boat out, a chicken Milanese (served with spaghetti - natch).

Enter Cin Cin in restaurant form. No checked tablecloths, no greyscale pictures of some random moustached zio on the wall, no oversized pepper mills and no plastic strings of garlic hanging from the sodding ceiling. Housed in a former MOT garage and tucked in a side street, as all good restaurants in Italy are, the petite interior is a modern working of a trattoria. Diners sit around a communal chipboard clad bar overlooking the open kitchen and dine on simple, honest but exquisitely executed dishes.

We were dining lightly so begrudgingly passed over some of my favourite things like lardo, culatello, and bresaola, instead opting for all of the three small plates. I have popped in before and supplemented a glass or two of prosecco with a selection of their antipasti and nibbles; it's all good and the fact that you can tailor your meal precisely to your appetite is handy.


The small plate dish of new season tomatoes was Italian cooking epitomised; simple with ingredient as hero; sweet, full flavoured tomatoes. Making up the flag colours were basil leaves and stracciatella, the rich creamy, soft buffalo cheese you get in the centre of a burrata. Drizzled with grassy extra virgin olive oil, a healthy pinch of sea salt and a few pieces of bread, this combination never gets tired.

Pheasant can be such a dry meat but perfect as a juicy, slowly cooked ragu, with added flavour from bacon and porcini mushrooms.  Serve it with a ribbon pasta like tagliatelle, fettuccine or pappardelle or alternatively with polenta. It takes a good while to cook, over 2 hours, but super easy to prepare.

I absolutely HATE hotels, so being "creative" with holiday accommodation, we've stayed in unusual choices from vintage steam railway carriages to huts on Zanzibar beach. But for our "luna di miele" I wanted something really special, so we stayed in, yes, a former ghost village. The obvious choice, I know.

Abruzzo, post-war, is formerly one of the poorest areas of Italy with whole villages being abandoned as people went in search of a better life. One of these crumbling villages was San Stefano di Sessanio. It now features a very interesting concept, the diffusion hotel, with rooms being scattered around the village in various buildings, with beautiful, rustic dilapidation surrounding them.





These buildings have been lovingly and sensitively restored, yet the essence and style (and blackened walls from centuries of soot) from that abandoned time retained, just with the addition of luxury bathrooms, hidden electricity and beautiful touches like handmade rosemary soap, hand blown modern glass lamps, ceramics from Castelli, saffron-dyed bedspreads and hand stuffed mattresses. Everything, as you may have guessed, is either an antique find or made by hand using long-forgotten methods and techniques.





The hotel features a communal cantina and Liquorificio in different buildings in the village. It also has a fantastic restaurant with only a set daily menu with no choices based on the historic Abruzzo cucina-povera ("cooking of the poor" or peasant cooking). Whereas the poor of that time would have been lucky with one plate of food, the meal offered follows the classic antipasto, soup, pasta primo, meat secondo and a dessert all with wine and liqueurs (50 euros). 50% of all the produce used in the kitchen is grown by the hotel, with a view to making it 100% self-sufficient in the near future. San Stefano di Sessano is famous for its tiny brown lentils, chickpeas and saffron, their USP being the mineral-rich mountain spring waters that naturally feed the crops, so it's a fantastic place for food.

Before we dig into the food, let's firstly have a look at the interior of the restaurant. At night it's really dark and moody with flickering amber candles. Amazing and hopelessly romantic! All of the plates are made and painted locally which was a nice touch.



The antipasto was a taster plate of little bits and pieces; a rather good zucchini omelette, a little roast potato, fresh (not the usual dried) pecorino... Gave me lots of ideas on how to spice up my antipasto at home from the usual items.



Minestra: Although not much to look at, especially with the dark lighting - hence the flash, this was an incredible dish of grano (much like farro) in red wine with lots of pecorino, some speck I believe, and a deep, intense stock. Gorgeous texture and rich flavour.



Pasta: Fettucini with ragu. Mr. Graphic Foodie commented on how al dente the pasta had been on this trip. Yup and I loved it. There was no Michelin* starred wafer-like nonsense with this plate of pasta. This was like my mum makes it. Thick, heavy and richly coated in sauce.



Secondo: These sausages were made by a local chap and we were very lucky indeed to sample them as he only delivers to the hotel every few weeks. They look like your average banger but the texture and flavour was very, very Italian as you will find them typically much denser, heavier and simply spiced. Oven roasting coarse sausages like this brings out the best in them. The roast potatoes with rosemary, swimming in glossy olive oil was the perfect accompaniment.



Italians are not famous for their desserts and in a cucina-povera, very few families would have had the luxury of a dessert. This nut tart however, was lovely and surprisingly light.

**Update** The chef on the night, Rosella Madonna, after seeing this post, has informed me via email that the nut tart was a recipe of her grandmothers, written on 23rd July 1914. Isn't that sweet?



The home-brewed liquors were brought out at the end of the meal, a common occurrence in this neck of the woods, my own family home-brew lots and just a few shots will render your legs useless. These ones luckily were rather more refined and were all the classic liquors of the region:



Genziana (the gold one): My dad swears by a shot of this after a really heavy meal to "aid" digestion. Made with the roots of a local herb.

Ratafia (the almost black one): A cherry liquor made with the fruit and leaves of the tree. A hit with the ladies - it's the local version of sherry.

Ortica (the green one): Made with stinging nettles and tastes like it too. Yerk.

The only one I didn't try (as I had to navigate the crumbling cobbles back to the room!) was the reddish one that I believe was Rosa Canina. This is made with rose hips.

So as you can see the restaurant is well worth seeking out, even if not staying at the hotel.



Breakfast is an event in itself. In yet another building, a banquet table awaits you lined with home baked crostatas, lingue di gatti, pastries, cakes, home made yoghurt, savoury pies, cured meats all served by the sweetest Italian woman you will ever meet in your life. Local honey, preserves and freshly baked bread are all laid out on your tables.







When you leave, as you hand back your 7 inch iron room key, they even give you a bottle of their olive oil. This is a real foodie paradise.

It is worth mentioning that sadly, the iconic tower in the top picture had fallen down in the recent L'Aquila earthquakes and we saw a lot of heartbreaking damage in the village and surrounding areas as well as the temporary accommodation chalets for local people whose homes have been destroyed. Abruzzo has never been like the manicured tourist areas of Italy but rugged and breathtakingly beautiful. The real deal. Although parts are now scaffolded up and restoration is in progress, the beauty of the region still shines through. The damage may still put off visitors but this area could do with as much money as possible from tourism. I say go and support it and see and taste what Italy is really about.


www.sextantio.it

(You can read more about food travel in Italy at http://inghamsitaly.co.uk/blog/2014/march/04/a-foodies-guide-to-italy/ which also includes a little article I've written about regional food across Italy.)

*Although saying that, the head chef, Niko Romito, does own the Michelin starred Ristorante Reale in nearby Rivisondoli.

This is a family favorite around here, the aroma of the sauce wafts around the house better than any home fragrance on the market. You can use veal mince or 50% veal and 50% pork (my favourite), or if you can't get hold of any veal at all, then pork will work as well.

The key to this is allowing the sauce to reduce properly which should take around an hour, leaving you with a succulent, almost sticky sauce that hugs onto the pasta.

This sauce is best served with a smooth pasta shape, traditionally farfalle (bows). You could use penne, preferably unlined, but never, ever long pasta like spaghetti.




Serves 4

I don't often do jokes around here so here goes. When is a pizza takeaway not a pizza takeaway? When it's probably the closest thing you are going to get to proper Italian cooking in Brighton. Not funny? Well the real joke is probably the PizzaPastaPizzaPasta Italian "influenced" food, depressingly found in the restaurants that take up a large chunk of Brighton's dining scene.

Pronto in Tavola has been well received as a takeaway pizzeria for a while now, but they have added a few tables as of January and Nino, chef and owner, has branched out into offering authentic, home style Italian dishes.

Nino is great. He's one of these passionate foodies that practically levitates when he talks but his ingredients, cooking, family and Calabrian roots. Apart from pizza, you'll now get some regional Italian delights that even I haven't come across like the deep-fried Crocchette di Patate in the bread basket. I would love to see Nino really focusing even more on Calabrian cuisine, because the food in that neck of the woods is truly something to celebrate.




We started with a classic antipasto washed down with a decent bottle of Prosecco. Roast peppers with oil and parsley, Boccocini mozzarella, grilled sheep cheese, pickled octopus, olives and cured meats. All served with a basket of bread cooked fresh in the pizza oven and the aforementioned potato croquettes that deserve a whole review to themselves. I could have eaten a bucket of them.



We had to try some fresh pasta which was served with a cooked to order sauce, made with green peppers. Again, simple but tasty, and the sort of pasta we'd have at home for big Sunday family dinners. The goat's cheese on to was maybe a flavour too far and a couple of shavings of Gran Padano or Pecorino would have done it for me. Still, the green pepper sauce idea I will be nicking for home.





Also, Nino is happy to cook whatever you want with notice, if you have a favourite risotto - whatever. In fact he had a couple of sea bass and rustled up Acqua Pazza ("crazy water") for us, a dish I have always wanted to try. Essentially the fish is stuffed with herbs, tomato and garlic then seasoned and partially covered in water to cook on the hob or in the oven. So it poaches in all that seasoned goodness. My sort of dish, simply executed with the ingredients hero. Nino even brought the fish to the table whole and de-boned it for us. This was served with roast potatoes with rosemary and peas cooked in herbs and wine, so Italian and so delicious. A real stellar dish this so ask him if he has any fish in if you go or phone ahead so he can get some in for you.



For desserts, which are made by Nino's wife, are very typically Italian. The cream filled zeppole (choux pastry puffs) covered with chocolate looked good but we opted for a slice of Torta di Nonna (Grandmother's cake) which is essentially a pie, consisting of pasta frolla (shortcrust), lemon custard cream and pine nuts. This made me smile as it's just like something I'd get visiting an auntie back home (who are all incredible at cakes and pastry). Great consistency, not too sweet and nothing like you have tried before, with lots of that vanilla sugar dust you see on Italian pastry. The coffee here is brilliant so if nothing else, swing by in the evening for something sweet and an espresso to polish off the night.



We didn't eat any of the pizza at this meal but definitely come down to eat it fresh out of the oven. It really shouldn't be shoved in a cardboard box and driven half way across town in a Nissan Micra. Pizza needs to be eaten, risking lip scolding, as soon as possible after it is ready.

So, down to business. This is not refined restaurant food. This is good, honest, home-style Italian food at a really reasonable price, served up with a huge heap of love.
My only concern is that I'm not sure if local people will get this place. It doesn't project the image as a tourist trattoria with the checked tablecloths and the candle in the straw covered bottle of Chianti on the table that people may be accustomed to. This is more akin to the everyday spots you actually get in Italy, the DIY plank benches fixed to the wall, tight space, tinny Italian radio dipping in and out of reception in the background, pictures of the kids on the wall, the phone going for takeaway orders and a drinks fridge full of San Pelligrino. It's the spit of my cousin's bar back in Italy.

There is so much more to this little place that meets the eye. Give it a try, see what specials are on and you'll get a dining experience like no other in the city and you'll still have change out of that £20.

Pronto in Tavola
43 Waterloo Street
Brighton

I was invited to review Pronto in Tavola.

I've really taken to serving pasta with some sort of roasted vegetable instead of a classic pasta and sauce combination lately. The soft, creamy vegetables, often with some nice crunchy edges, along with the infused olive oil used in the roasting coats the pasta perfectly. Squash with fennel seeds and chilli is a match made in heaven in my opinion and spiked with salty feta and aromatic pesto, is an Autumnal mid-week treat.

One of my earliest food memories as a little (well even smaller) girl was being taken to a restaurant in Italy with the family and being presented with a plate of homemade tagliatelle with lashings of olive oil and topped with a generous shavings of fresh truffle. I remember initially not being very sure about the alien-like brain section pattern and the unusual fragrance, but with one taste and a table full of encouragement and arm waving from those already in the know, I realised that truffles were going to be one of my favourite foods.

But at 6 years old, you can't quite appreciate how expensive these beautiful "black diamonds" are. Lord only knows what my parents paid for that plate of pasta for me! But I do dip my toe in the pool of extravagace and indulge in a truffle every now and then, life really is too short.



So I knew that I was a very lucky girl indeed to win a fresh Black Winter Truffle in a competition. I got 20g (about £60) from Mister Truffle, a new venture selling fresh truffles by the gram which I think is a genius idea for affordable luxury as you don't have to buy the whole truffle, only ordering what you need. This black winter truffle was so wonderfully pungent, that on opening the delivery, it filled the air with its gorgeous aroma.

Dealing with truffles in recipes can be quite tricky. I think as the truffle is such a wonderful flavour it should shine through, so pair back on the other ingredients. Pasta for instance, is a perfect vehicle to show off the flavour which is why it is often served with it.

Saying that, it does work well with robust red meats; beef, venison, pheasant, rabbit, duck and even veal (but never lamb). My first choice for the ravioli filling would have been pigs cheeks and would have used this base recipe to prepare them, using wine instead of cider but couldn't get cheeks for love nor money this week. Instead I settled for a similar texture and bought a piece of brisket, cooking it slowly in stock then wine for a punchy partner to the truffle which worked a treat.



This makes about 20 large ravioli but depends on the size and shape.
Serves 2 people gluttonously (Mr Graphic Foodie, the truffle pig, happily ate 14 of them which was OUTRAGEOUS), 4 people sensibly and 6 people as a starter.

For the filling
Olive oil
Half an onion, chopped very finely
1 small carrot, peeled and diced finely
500g beef brisket, cubed
400ml vegetable or meat stock
2 garlic cloves
1 tbs tomato puree concentrate
2 large sprigs of thyme
200ml good red wine
15g of fresh black truffle (you could get away with 10g but if you're going to do it, do it I say)
Butter and Parmesan or better, Pecorino cheese

In a small, heavy bottomed saucepan, fry the onion and carrot gently in the olive oil until soft. Add the beef brisket and brown thoroughly. Add the stock, tomato concentrate, thyme and garlic cloves. Cover and simmer for 1.5 hours, stirring occasionally. Add more stock if the pan becomes dry.

The stock would have reduced by now so add the red wine and gently simmer for a further hour until reduced and thick.

Turn out onto a plate and allow to cool thoroughly. Once cooled, take half the mixture and blend until smooth. Break the remaining meat down a little with the back of a spoon. Add the blended mixture back to the meat and combine thoroughly.

For the pasta
200g Type '00'
2 eggs
pinch of salt

To make the pasta by hand. Sift the flour into a mound and make a little well in the centre. Crack the eggs into the well and add the pinch of salt. Using a fork, gradually combine the flour and the egg, working from the inside out. Once combined and manageable, knead the dough for a good 10 minutes. If the dough is too soft or sticky, add more flour and if too hard add a little water. It should be firm, elastic and smooth.

To make the pasta using a Kitchen Aid mixer. Sift the flour into the mixer bowl and add the other pasta ingredients. Using the beater attachment on speed 1 combine the ingredients. Switch to the dough hook and set on speed 2 for 5-8 minutes until the dough forms into a nice smooth and elastic texture. Add a little touch of water (not too much!) if needed.

After using either method, form the dough into a ball, wrap in cling film and refrigerate for 30 minutes whilst you make the filling.

Make the pasta. Remove the pasta from the fridge. Dust the worktop with flour. Cut the dough into 6 pieces and put each piece through a pasta machine, starting off with a wide setting and getting thinner and thinner, doing all 6 pieces on one setting before moving on to thinner settings, dusting the sheets with a little flour where needed. Go as thin as you dare/are comfortable managing. On my Imperia machine I go to the next to last thinnest setting for this shape.

I used a round ravioli cutter for this (bought at Carluccios) but you can use whatever shape you want or cut them by hand into square ravioli, sealing the edges with a fork.

Place a walnut sized amounts of the meat mixture along the pasta strips at suitable intervals for your cutter, brush the sides and in between with a little water using a pastry brush. Lay a second strip on top, starting at one end, guide the pasta around the mixture using the side of your hand expelling any air as you go. The pasta top should hug the mixture tightly. Cut the ravioli and rest on a lightly floured surface whilst you do the rest. Use the offcuts and put through the machine again for more strips. If you work quickly, it shouldn't dry out. I think it is now best to let these rest for 15 minutes to dry out a little, but you can cook straight away.

Cook the pasta in plenty of salted boiling water with a slug of olive oil until they rise to the surface. Cook until al dente, testing the thickest part.

To make the sauce. Melt a generous amount of butter for the sauce in a small saucepan.

Drain and place on warmed plates, spooning over the butter sauce, shavings of the fresh truffle and Parmesan or Pecorino.

I was quite taken aback by the frankly gopping concept behind Fire & Stone's festive pizza this year which is topped with (deep breath) turkey, roast potatoes, chestnut, sage and onion stuffing, pork and apricot sausage meat, creamy brie, cranberry sauce and gravy. I was actually invited to review this pizza but with the Italian authorities ready to strip my of my nationality if I was ever found out to have eaten this abomination, I waited instead for the verdict from a couple of fellow bloggers who manned up and actually ate the thing. The feedback was as you would expect.

But then finding myself oddly inspired by the F&S horror, I wanted to marry a traditional Italian dish with the classic Christmas lunch so following an afternoon beavering away in the kitchen, I present you dear readers, with Caramelle allo tacchino, salsiccia e mirtilli rossi con burro salvia or Christmas Cracker Pasta with Turkey, Stuffing, Cranberry Sauce and Sage Butter.

Although this recipe started out as a bit of a joke, I was so pleased with how they came out, really delicious with the slight sweetness of the cranberries and the savoury saltiness of the sage butter. Mr Graphic Foodie said they were excellent! Whereas I think the Fire & Stone pizza is a total turkey, this pasta (if I don't say so myself) is a bit of a cracker.

Caramelle means "sweets" in Italian, obviously referencing the shape, but I thought they looked like Christmas crackers. You have to roll the pasta really, really thinly as you want to avoid a thick build up on the folds which won't cook through, so if you are not majorly confident with pasta making then by all means make them into little ravioli.

I now am the proud owner of a Kitchen Aid mixer so I use that for making pasta dough, but I have also outlined instruction on making it by hand.



The cranberry sauce I used here was made in an edible Christmas gift class at Recipease in Brighton which was infused with clementines and thyme and so easy to make. In the class we also make lemon curd and an incredible florentine butter, both as it turns out way too good to give as gifts!

Finally as the snow this week has hindered food shopping and I wanted to crumble over some pieces of chestnuts as a finishing touch to this dish which I think would work quite well.

Serves 3-4 people.

Pasta
300g type '00' flour
3 eggs
pinch of salt

Filling
1tbs Olive oil
Half an onion, very finely chopped
200g Minced turkey
1 Good quality pork sausage, casing removed
A sprig of thyme, leaves stripped
1 Heaped tbs of cranberry sauce
1 Medium potato
Seasoning

Sauce
50g of butter
6 fresh sage leaves

To make the pasta by hand. Sift the flour into a mound and make a little well in the centre. Crack the eggs into the well and add the pinch of salt. Using a fork, gradually combine the flour and the egg, working from the inside out. Once combined and manageable, knead the dough for a good 10 minutes. If the dough is too soft or sticky, add more flour and if too hard add a little water. It should be firm, elastic and smooth.

To make the pasta using a Kitchen Aid mixer. Sift the flour into the mixer bowl and add the other pasta ingredients. Using the beater attachment on speed 1 combine the ingredients. Switch to the dough hook and set on speed 2 for 5-8 minutes until the dough forms into a nice smooth and elastic texture. Add a little touch of water (not too much!) if needed.

After using either method, form the dough into a ball, wrap in cling film and refrigerate for 30 minutes whilst you make the filling.

To make the filling. Boil the potato until soft. Drain, mash and set aside. Meanwhile heat the olive oil in a frying pan and fry the onion gently until translucent. Add the minced turkey and sausage meat and fry until brown. Add the thyme leaves, cranberry sauce and season generously. Cook for a further 5 minutes. Add the mashed potato, combining really thoroughly. Set as aside whilst you roll out the pasta.

Make the pasta. Remove the pasta from the fridge. Dust the worktop with flour. Cut the dough into 6 pieces and put each piece through a pasta machine, starting off with a wide setting and getting thinner and thinner, doing all 6 pieces on one setting before moving on to thinner settings, dusting the sheets with a little flour where needed. Go as thin as you dare/are comfortable managing. On my Imperia machine I go to the next to last thinnest setting for this shape.

Cut the pasta strips into 5cm squares using a pastry wheel or knife. Place a teaspoon of the mixture in the middle of the square, brush the sides with a little water using a pastry brush. Roll up into a tube then twist the ends in opposite directions to form a sweet wrapper shape. Ensure the fold is secure. Rest on a lightly floured surface whilst you do the rest. I think it is now best to let these rest for 15 minutes to dry out a little, but you can cook straight away.

To make the sauce. Melt the butter for the sauce in a small saucepan with the sage leaves so they infuse.

Cook the pasta in plenty of salted boiling water with a slug of olive oil until they rise to the surface. Cook until al dente, testing the thickest part in the folds.

Drain and place on warmed plates, spooning over the butter sauce e Buon Natale!

See this water? That ends up in your De Cecco Pasta that does. No wonder their predominant brand colour is blue looking at the sapphire sparkle of the mountain water (their own exclusive source, no less).




My family come from the other side of the mountain range where the De Cecco factory nestles in the small town of Fara San Martino, so I decided to pay it a little visit. Sadly the factory was closed (siesta!), but I was mainly looking to visit the factory shop which sells every single shape produced by the company, which run into the hundreds with some weird, wonderful and rare ones to boot that I wanted to share with you.



Hopefully I can get back later in the year for a real snoop around but the surroundings were beautiful, full of fig and olive trees and streams of brain chilling spring water. This just confirmed my love of a really great brand of pasta. (Ps. I'm not affiliated with this brand in any way, I just love it and I'm a pasta geek.)

There's pasta sauce and there's pasta sauce. There are a million variations and everyone has their own way of making even a basic tomato sauce. But this is the best. Fact. I have no qualms stating that as this is my Mum's recipe and if there ever was an expert in Italian cooking, it's her. Years of making pasta, kneading bread and stirring huge vats of polenta have given her arm muscles that make grown men weep.

Cooking meat in the sauce gives an incredible richness and depth of flavour that will be impossible to achieve without. The meat itself becomes incredibly tender, saturated with the rich tomato sauce. The meat falls off the ribs and just showing a fork to the pork loin will collapse it into succulent bite size pieces. Also, a few clever techniques with the tomatoes gives the sauce a fantastic texture to grip onto the pasta.

If you want to be properly Italian about it, only the sauce should be served with the pasta and the meat eaten as a second course with some nice crusty bread and peasant greens. A 2-4-1 recipe if you like!

Thanks Mum.



Serves 4

Olive oil
1 onion, finely chopped
1 garlic glove, finely chopped
1 red chilli
400g pork ribs, separated
200g pork loin, cut into 2cm slices and bashed lightly with a meat mallet or side of a large flat knife
400g tin of whole plum tomatoes (best quality and they must be whole)
3 heaped tbs of tomato concentrate
1.5 heaped tbs chicken bouillon
3 fresh bay leaves
Generous pinch of finely chopped fresh sage or flat leaf parsley

Heat a generous glug of olive oil in a large, heavy bottomed saucepan. Add the chopped onion, garlic and chilli (if it is a big one I cut it into two pieces) and gently fry until the onion becomes translucent. Add the separated ribs and the pork loin slices and brown all over. Put the lid on the pan and cook for 15-20 minutes.

Meanwhile, put the plum tomatoes and juice from the tin into a shallow bowl. Cut the top end off the tomatoes then mash them thoroughly with a fork. Set aside.

Place the tomato concentrate and chicken bouillon into the empty tomato can, fill to the top with boiling water and stir. Pour this into the pan with the meat. Add a bit more water to cover the meat, add the bay leaves and sage and cook for 10 minutes, bringing it to a rolling boil.

Add the chopped tomatoes and continue to cook on a rolling boil until the sauce is thick (around 40 minutes), remembering to stir every now and then.

"Pasta, pasta, sempre pasta!" (pasta, pasta, always pasta) me and my dad would sing at the dinner table to the hard frown of my mum. But we didn't mean it, we could eat pasta every day!



The Silver Spoon: Pasta contains 350 recipes and the mongrel of pasta dishes, spaghetti Bolognese ain't one of them.

You think it may be quite difficult to come up with 350 recipes for pasta but when you consider the number of shapes available (hundreds? thousands?) and the variety of sauces, you could easily double that. This book defines pastas and the regions and traditions for each, which is an important part of understanding Italian cuisine.

I fell in love with the original Silver Spoon, which was first published in 1950. It is so authentic I would agree with its status as the bible of Italian cooking. My family typically cook many of the dishes that are listed in it on a daily basis and celebrations. Anyone with an interest of going beyond the familiar dishes you find down your local Italain should invest in the book, it really gets under the skin of regional Italian cooking. The greatest thing about it is that it importantly catalogues classic regional cooking for future generations. It's massive with 2,000 recipes but never feels overwhelming and is not a pretty coffee table cookbook, it's a workhorse.

This Pasta edition is an extension of this book. It has been designed in the same no nonsense manner, with just enough good quality photography and some lovely illustrations, but rests firmly on clarity, good indexing and strong structure. As always, multiple bookmarking ribbons are very handy because you are going to want to cook quite a few things in this book.



It has two sections; dried (short and long) and fresh pasta (cut and filled). The sub categories are then the shape of the pasta and the various appropriate sauces for each.





One thing this book does do is shows the versatility of pasta. There are recipes to slum it in front of the telly with a ten minute spaghetti with garlic and chilli or impress your dinner party friends with Tortelli from Lucca which are pasta rounds filled with steak, pork, mortadella and other delicious morsels.



The book is introduced with a bit of history, production and of course a few do it or be hit across the legs by mamma guidelines to adhere to in order to get the best out of your pasta. Also it states which sauces are suitable for which shapes which is essential.

Each shape is introduced with a little background history, its regional origins and how it has got its name. Usually pasta shapes are named after their appearance or have a reason for their creation, for example, spaghetti means "small strings", farfalle means "butterfly". Reginette is like a curly edged tagliatelle and was created in honor of Princess Mafalda of Savoy (1125-1158). The name translates as "little queens" as the pasta looks like it has little crowns on the edge.

Quite a lot of the recipes appealed to me but a few that really stood out were a Courgette and Almond Ravioli, a simple Spaghetti with Black Olives and Lemon and a very interesting Cocoa Taglierini (very thin tagiatelle) made with cocoa in the dough but served with marscapone, chilli and bay sauce.



But for review purposes, and when I made them it was Christmas and people seem to put brandy on everything, I chose to make the unusual sounding Brandy Flavoured Potato Tortelli. These originate from the Po Valley in northern Italy. The name derives from torta meaning 'tart'.

I normally use 100g of type 00 plain flour and 1 egg per person, but with big fillings the suggested 400g / 4 eggs for 6 people was spot on. The brandy was not too intense, instead enriching the potato and ricotta filling. I made enough to last two days but the whole batch was polished off in one sitting - so, so good! A simple sauce of melted butter and a little more Parmesan was all that was required.

The tortelli can be cut into squares or half moons but I was excited (yes really) about using my new circular pasta cutter that I found in my local Carluccio's for a mere £3.50.



Brandy Flavoured Potato Tortelli

Serves 6

Ingredients
400g plain flour (type 00)
4 eggs
Salt

Filling
700g potatoes
150g ricotta cheese
2 eggs
25g Parmesan cheese, grated
pinch nutmeg
5 tablespoons of brandy
salt an pepper

Sauce
80g butter, melted
40g Parmesan cheese, grated

Make the pasta dough. Sift the flour into a mound on a work surface and make a well in the centre. Break the eggs into the well and add a pinch of salt. Knead thoroughly, shape into a ball, cover with a clean tea towel and leave to rest for 30 minutes.

Meanwhile make the filling. Boil the potatoes in lightly salted boiling water for 25 minutes. Drain, peel and put them into a bowl. Mash, then beat in the ricotta, eggs, Parmesan, nutmeg and brandy with a wooden spoon and season with salt and pepper.

Roll out the pasta dough on a lightly floured surface into a thin sheet (I use a pasta machine which is much easier). Put small amounts of filling in even rows over one half of the pasta sheet. Fold over the other half of the sheet and press around the filling with your fingers to seal. Cut out the square tortelli and press the edges together firmly. For the half moons, I cut out my little rounds and placed the filling in the centre, lightly moistening the edges with water and folded over the edges, pressing firmly.



Cook the tortelli in plenty of salted boiling water (I always add a little splosh of olive oil when cooking fresh pasta) until it rises to the surface and is al dente. Drain and transfer to a warmed plates. Pour the melted butter over, sprinkle with Parmesan and serve immediately.

Prep takes about 1 hour 15 minutes, plus 30 minutes resting and cooking time in total is 40 minutes. There are many recipes in this book that are around the 20 minutes to plate mark and most are under 30 minutes. The fresh pastas are the ones that take a bit of time and effort but still very doable.

As you may tell pasta is close to my heart (and my hips) and I adore The Silver Spoon: Pasta as much as the original Silver Spoon book. This is going to really get me to experiment with pasta and explore the regions further.

Absolutely essential.

The Silver Spoon: Pasta is published by Phaidon and costs £24.95

I received this copy for review purposes but would pay the above price in a heartbeat.