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Review: Angela Hartnett’s Cucina |
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Written by Andy Lynes
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Thursday, 27 September 2007 |
 You’ll probably know Angela Hartnett from her television appearances on Hell’s Kitchen alongside boss and mentor Gordon Ramsay, or more recently on the BBC’s Great British Menu series. If you’ve eaten at her Michelin starred restaurant in London’s Connaught hotel, you’ll also know that she serves delicious, often complex modern European food worthy of those luxurious surroundings. Her first cookbook however is not full of flash dishes and techniques only a chef who has toiled for 16 hours a day in a basement kitchen could possibly hope to reproduce.
Instead, she draws on her Italian heritage to present a seductive collection of highly do-able recipes. Along the way, we learn about her family’s origins in the village of Bardi in the Emilia-Romagna region of Northern Italy and get to know her Nonna, Mother and Aunts who taught her to cook. It’s a story told with self deprecating charm and one which underlines the bonding power of food.
Arranged into chapters covering soups, starters, pasta and grains, seafood, meat, vegetables and salads, desserts and snacks, the book is both comprehensive and easy to use. You can knock yourself up a quick supper of rigatoni with tomato and pancetta or compose a sophisticated dinner party that might include roast pigeon with sausage and date stuffing and a frankly wicked chocolate and vanilla semifreddo.
Ingredient lists are generally kept short and most things, apart from a few exceptions like fresh borlotti beans and summer truffles, are readily available. But Hartnett is not one to cut corners. Beef brisket, smoked bacon, Toulouse sausage and a whole chicken (which at the end of the cooking process will all end up in the bin) are described as “vital for the depth of flavour” of her Nonna’s meat broth, and she extols the virtues of using hand chopped chuck steak and veal rump over mince to make an authentic Bolognese sauce.
The book reflects both sides of the author’s culinary experiences. Authentic family recipes like bomba di riso (a risotto rice cake formed in a bowl stuffed with mushroom ragu) sit alongside restaurant creations such as roast scallops with potatoes and pata negra ham.
There’s illuminating tips and techniques from the domestic and professional kitchen alike. Add chilled butter when making a traditional risotto; if it’s warm it will make the dish slushy rather than creamy. When roasting monkfish restaurant style, deglaze the pan with balsamic vinegar in order to give “a rich potent flavour” to a variety of fish which Hartnett says can otherwise be bland and watery.
The book’s elegant, unfussy design makes it a joy to read and use. You’ll wish you could hang Jonathan Lovekin’s gorgeous food photography on your wall and snaps from Hartnett’s family album give the whole enterprise a touchingly personal feel. Angela Hartnett’s Cucina is a must buy for anyone who wants to learn more about Italian food and the family traditions that are inseparable from it.
Angel Hartnett’s Cucina: Three Generations of Italian Family Cooking by Angela Hartnett is published by Ebury Press at £25
Buy this book now from Amazon 
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