If life deals you lemons make lemonade!: Culture Through Cookery: Italian food with a Sardinian flare

Non bisogna fare le cose a metà.
If a job is worth doing, it's worth doing well.

Italy only became a united country 1871 and perhaps because of that the country still has very different regional cuisines.

These recipes are nutritious and delicious, simple and use ingredients that are easily available in the UK. Our chef hailed from Cagliari in Sardinia, but sadly some of their most special specialities contain ingredients not easily available in London or only available at great cost, or are very time consuming to make. So we learned some simpler but delicious dishes.

What may be interesting is that in Italy pasta is a primo platti- something to fill you up before the main course arrives. It tends to be much less 'saucy' that British takes on pasta because they are served as main courses.

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Tagliatelle with peas and porcini

Takes about 45 minutes to make (because you need to soak the porcini)

Serves 6 as a primo platti or 3 as a main course.

Ingredients

· 5 tbsp Italian olive oil

· 1 large onion, finely chopped

· 100 gr of porcini mushrooms

· 2 handfuls frozen peas, defrosted

· 1000 ml hot water

· black pepper

· 300 g tagliatte all'uovo (egg tagliatelle)

· 300 gr double cream

1. Soak the Porcini in water for about 30 minutes.

2. Heat the olive oil in a large, heavy-based saucepan. Add the onion and fry, stirring often, until golden, around 5 minutes.

Sauteeing the onion

3. Add the peas and the water from the porcini and let the water evaporate while boiling and the sauce thicken.

Adding the water from the soaked porcini into the peas

Cooking the peas

4. Once boiling season with salt and freshly ground pepper and cook for 10 minutes.

5. At this stage, add the tagliatelle all'uovo and the porcini and cook briskly until the pasta is al dente (topping up with boiling water if required).

Adding the porcini

6. Once the pasta is al-dente, add the double cream to the pasta along with the pea/porcini mixture

Mixing the Porcini/ Pea mixture with the Tagliatelle

7. Serve at once with freshly grated Parmesan.

Ready to serve

Ready to eat!

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Involtini (Aubergine wrapped around cheese)

serves 4 as a vegetarian maincourse or 8-12 as an accompaniment

Ingredients

· 4 aubergines, washed

· 1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

· 1 smoked cheese (we used smoked cheddar)

· parsley, garlic, red pepper (according to taste)

· 1 Pinch sea salt

1. Pre heat the oven to 220c/gas mark 7.

2. Slice the aubergines lengthways into 5-6 thin slices, discard the very outside strips as they won't roll

3. Brush both sides of the aubergine slices with olive oil, garlic, red pepper, salt parsley and place under a hot grill for 2-3 minutes per side until they just start to brown at the edges. Leave to cool slightly. We had to do this in two goes.

4. Slice the smoked cheese (slices about 3cm by 1 cm by 1cm) and place it on one end of the aubergine slice.

5. Roll up and place on a baking tray and repeat with the rest of the slices. You may want to hold them together with cocktail sticks.

6. Bake for 10 minutes until golden. Serve hot or cold on their own,

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Pollo all'Arancia (Chicken with Orange)

Takes about an hour to make

Serves 6

Ingredients

6 chicken legs, consisting of a drumstick and thigh, wright 3 pounds total
4 large, juicy oranges
250g carrots, diced
Half a lemon
3 tablespoons olive oil
Flour (1 heaped table spoon)
3 cloves garlice (crushed)
Two red onions, diced
Salt (to taste)

To make:

1) Heat the oil in a thick bottomed frying pan saute the onion until transparent, with the carrot.

2) In the same pan place the chicken, seasoning it lightly with salt.

3) Add the garlic

4) Squeeze the oranges and lemon, getting the flesh as well as the juice, and pour into the pan with the chicken.

5) Wait for the mixture to reduce. When the chicken is cooked (check that it is not pink inside) the dish is ready.

N.B. If the sauce is reducing too quickly as the chicken is not cooked enough, put a lid on the pan and add some water to the pan.

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Classic Tiramisu

Whilst many recipes for Tiramisu include alcohol, a classic tiramisu doesn’t. This version is very tasty, you will not miss the alcohol, and consequently it is also family-friendly and cheaper than the

· 250g mascarpone

· 3 eggs

· 150ml strong coffee or espresso, cooled to room temperature. We made it in a mocha.

· 150ml single cream

· 4 tbsp icing sugar

· 16 sponge fingers (savoiardi)

· Frozen bar of 70% chocolate.

· Cocoa powder to dust

METHOD

1. Whisk the mascarpone with the eggs, until everything is thoroughly mixed together. Whisk the cream with the icing sugar until smooth, then fold in the mascarpone mix

2. Pour the coffee into a bowl (sweeten with more icing sugar if you like). Take one sponge finger at a time and dip it into the coffee.

3. After dipping, place into a large dish in layers (see the pictures), layering with the mascarpone mixture before finally dusting with cocoa powder.