River Cafe Cook Book Easy Rose Gray and Ruth Rogers $ EBURY PRESS Frozen Sculpture by Marc Quinn Contents Introduction 7 Bruschetta 9 Antipasti 19 Carpaccio 39 Soup 47 Spaghetti 65 Short pasta 77 TagLiateLLe 89 Tutti ricotta 99 Risotto 109 Seafood 119 Birds 143 Veal, Lamb, pork, beef 163 Potatoes 179 Verdura 193 Fruit & ice cream 213 Italian biscuits 231 Almond cakes 237 Chocolate cakes 245 Sauces & basics 257 Italian store cupboard 262 Suppliers 263 Index 266 The Italian food in this book is easy to cook. Each recipe emphasises the things we value at the River Cafe - freshness, subtlety and quality - while being short, easy to shop for and easy to serve. Simple, delicious food relies on its ingredients. Here you'll find a useful guide of what to keep in your store cupboard and in your fridge: olive oil, capers, balsamic vinegar, organic eggs, pancetta and more. Each recipe begins with a shopping list to make it easier to buy the things you'll need, and we've shown you where short-cuts can be taken. We want you to feel inspired and confident in cooking Italian food. In chapters such as Tutti Ricotta we give many ways to use one basic ingredient. The pastas are divided into Spaghetti, Short Pasta and Tagliatelle to show how in Italian cooking each suggests a different type of sauce. You'll see that Gnocchi needn't be as hard to make as you think and that Carpaccio can mean beef or fish. Most of the recipes serve four and many are very quick to prepare, including a 15-minute Chocolate Cake. Where we think it will be helpful we have added notes on ingredients, methods and equipment. There is a Sauces and Basics section at the end of the book which will provide you with the fundamentals of Italian cooking - like peeling tomatoes and preparing salted anchovies - and recipes for the sauces we use most. We have included a list of suppliers, though most of the ingredients are widely available. Easy food doesn't have to mean unsophisticated food. Although the cook book concentrates on simplicity, there's always some surprise element, some little twist that comes from what we've learnt over the years, both at the River Cafe and when cooking with Italians in their kitchens. We hope you take as much pleasure in cooking these easy recipes as we do. Rose Gray & Ruth Rogers, London 2003 31 1 2 3 Basic Asparagus Asparagus bruschetta Parmesan prosciutto 4 5 6 Tomato Broccoli Roast borlotti olives zucchini 7 8 9 Fennel Fig Prosciutto olives rocket spinach 10 11 12 Mozzarella Mozzarella Borlotti olives chillies prosciutto Fennel Cavolo nero Tomato prosciutto prosciutto prosciutto Chickpea Ricotta Tomato chard red chillies olives Broad bean Mozzarella Crab pecorino anchovies lemon Mozzarella Chickpea Grilled tomato tomato aubergine Bruschetta