Gennaro’s Italian Home Cooking

From Gennaro Contaldo, the chef who taught Jamie Oliver everything he knows about Italian food, comes this latest offering designed to give you a feel for not simply cooking but entertaining Italian style. Most recipes serve at least eight people but many will do up to 15, the idea being that if you’re going to be having a few pals around, you might as well rope in a real crowd and make it a party.

The dishes are mostly pretty simple and chapters are broken up with Gennaro’s reminiscences about growing up on the Amalfi Coast and Mama’s home cooking. And it was a good thing Gennaro hung out in the kitchen with Mama because it’s there he learnt how to make calamari in umido — or stewed squid, which doesn’t sound nearly as good. It has all the hallmarks of southern Italian food: simplicity as well as gutsy flavours courtesy of anchovies, capers, garlic and chilli. Bring it on.

Vegetable recipes are worth checking out, too: the sweet and sour pumpkin, despite disintegrating into a mush, is a delicious, oily mush that works beautifully as a dip (perhaps Japanese pumpkin wouldn’t have been Gennaro’s choice, but he doesn’t specify). Another example of deftly balanced flavours in what’s a new twist to this reviewer is bruschetta with gorgonzola, walnuts and honey. Oh, and the calf’s liver with spring onions and bay leaves is a winner, too. There’s a chapter on pulses and another on preserving, reflecting Gennaro’s humble origins, while providing some of the book’s highlights.

Photos are an interesting mix of simply presented food and ordinary-looking Italians on picnics or toasting each other over a groaning dinner table. All up, a nice addition to any Italophile’s cookbook library.