The Silver Spoon for Children: Favourite Italian Recipes 9781838660192, 1838660135, 1838660194

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RECIPE NOTES Butter should always be unsalted.

Pepper is always freshly ground black pepper, unless otherwise specified. All herbs are fresh and parsley is flat-leaf, unless otherwise specified. Vegetables and fruits are assumed to be medium size, unless otherwise specified.

Eggs are assumed to be medium size, unless otherwise specified. Milk is always full-fat, unless otherwise specified. Garlic cloves are assumed to be large; use two cloves if yours are small. Ham means cooked ham, unless otherwise specified.

Prosciutto refers exclusively to raw, dry-cured ham, usually from Parma or San Daniele in northern Italy. Sugar is always granulated white sugar, unless otherwise specified.

Cooking and preparation times are for guidance only, as individual ovens vary. If using a convection oven, follow the manufacturer’s directions concerning oven temperatures.

Some recipes include raw or very lightly cooked eggs. These should be avoided particularly by the elderly, infants, pregnant women, convalescents, and anyone with an impaired immune system.

All spoon measurements are level, unless otherwise specified. 1 teaspoon = 5 ml 1 tablespoon = 15 ml

FAVORITE

ITALIAN

RECIPES

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Most people love eating Italian food, so it’s fantastic if you know how to cook it! We have chosen forty recipes from The Silver Spoon, the best-selling cookbook that can be found in almost every Italian family’s kitchen. We’ve adapted the recipes so they are very easy for you to follow. These are traditional Italian recipes that have been handed down from generation to generation, so with this book you can imagine that you are in a kitchen in Italy, learning how to cook the Italian way. Over the centuries, Italians have discovered exactly how to mix a few simple, good-quality ingredients to make meals that are full of flavor. For instance, you can make a delicious sauce for pasta with just a few basic items such as good-quality canned tomatoes, fresh basil, garlic, and a good olive oil. The recipes in this book will help you learn some key skills and techniques used in any kitchen, not just Italian ones: you will learn how to use a small sharp knife (which is essential if you are going to do some proper cooking!), how to prepare vegetables, how to cook pasta, even how to make your own pizza dough from scratch.

Cooking isn’t just about making something good to eat: by following the recipes, you will practise some maths (measuring, sharing), reading (the recipes as well as lots of fun bits of information along the way), geography (you will learn some interesting facts about Italy), and perhaps even art (you could try drawing the food you have cooked, just like Harriet has done for the recipes in this book).

All the recipes in The Silver Spoon for Children have been tested by children—if you’re aged nine or ten or older, you should be able to follow most of the recipes by yourself, with some occasional help from an adult. But do always remember to check with an adult before you begin and make sure that there is someone with you when you use a sharp knife, the oven, or electrical equipment like a food processor. If you’re younger than nine you will need help from an adult, or an older brother or sister. Harriet’s drawings will help you along the way. So make some time to have fun in the kitchen preparing these delicious Italian dishes. You can then enjoy sharing your meal with family and friends—just like the Italians!

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Cooking is a little like reading: Once you have learnt the basics, the rest will begin to fall into place. You will learn some very useful techniques and skills in this book, but there are a few things to think about before you start, most of which I'm sure you will already know: 1 Wash your hands before you start cooking, and use a hand towel or paper towel instead of drying them on your clothes. You will also need to wash your hands after handling any raw meat or fish. 2 Take off any jewelry you’re wearing on your hands. You don’t want to bite into a piece of cake and find yourself munching on a ring! 3 If you have long hair, it’s a good idea to tie it back. No one likes eating food with hair in it. 4 Put on an apron to protect the food you're preparing from any dirt on your clothes (and to keep your clothes clean, too!).

5 Always wear oven mitts when you're putting anything into the oven or taking anything out of the oven. You will also need to wear oven mitts when you're putting food under a hot broiler or turning over food halfway through cooking. 6 Always ask an adult to help when you use the oven or a food processor, or when you're draining pasta in a colander. 7 And the most important thing: Always ask an adult before you start cooking.

You don’t need much equipment to make the recipes in this book, but it helps to have the following:

1 SMALL SHARP KNIFE One of the first skills all budding chefs should learn is how to use a knife properly. It’s also good to learn to choose the right knife for each job. A paring knife is a good place to start—this is a small sharp knife suitable for trimming and chopping fruits and vegetables.

Did you know that a blunt knife is more dangerous than a sharp one? You have to apply a lot of pressure to cut through something with a blunt knife, but a good sharp knife glides through food easily, with less risk of it slipping. The two main cutting techniques are the bridge and the claw techniques (see pages 12-13). Once you have mastered these, you will be able to cut most things safely, but always ask an adult before you use a sharp knife.

CUTTING BOARDS These can be plastic or wood. Keep them clean by scrubbing them with hot water and washing-up liquid. Always wash them particularly carefully after you’ve put raw meat, fish, or egg on them.

6 GARLIC CRUSHER Garlic is small and can be tricky to chop. A crusher is easy to use: put a peeled garlic clove inside the cup of the crusher, then use both hands to close the crusher,

and push hard to squeeze the garlic out. Use a table knife to scrape the garlic off the crusher.

7 FOOD BLENDER OR PROCESSOR For some recipes, it does help if you have a food blender or processor, but if you don’t have one perhaps you could borrow one from a friend. Always ask an adult to help you use a food blender, as it has a very sharp blade in the bottom. Make sure to stay away from the sharp blade, just like you would when using a sharp knife.

8 PESTLE AND MORTAR A pestle and mortar are fun to use: you pound food in the mortar (the bowl)

with the pestle (the heavy stick). If you don’t have one, you can use the end of a wooden rolling pin to bash food in a small plastic or wooden bowl instead.

WOODEN SPOON If you haven't got one of these I suggest you save up some pocket money and buy one—every chef needs a wooden spoon for mixing! SAUCEPANS A couple of pans are all you need, ideally a big one for cooking pasta and a small one for making sauces. If you have a medium sized one as well, even better!

5 KITCHEN SCISSORS When you use kitchen scissors to cut food like fresh herbs, always keep your fingers well away from the edges of the blades so that you don’t accidentally cut yourself.

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1 BRIDGE CUTTING TECHNIQUE Hold the piece of food you want to cut by forming a bridge with your thumb on one side and your index finger on the other. Hold the knife in your other hand with the blade facing down, guide the knife under the bridge, and cut through the food. For some soft items such as tomatoes it may be easier to puncture the tomato skin with the point of the knife first before cutting. 2 CLAW CUTTING TECHNIQUE Place the item on the cutting board with its flat side facing down (often you will need to cut it in half first using the bridge technique). Shape the fingers of your left hand into a claw shape, tucking your thumb inside your fingers and tucking your fingertips in away from the blade. If you're left-handed, you need to make the claw with your right hand! Rest the claw on the item to be sliced. Holding the knife in your other hand, slice the item, moving the “clawed” fingers away as the knife gets closer.

3 HOW TO CHOP AN ONION Put the onion on a cutting board. Carefully holding it in the claw cutting position, cut the pointed end off the onion. Put the onion on the board with the flat end (the end that you have just cut) sitting on the board. Hold the onion using the bridge cutting position. Cut the onion in half. Peel away the dry papery skin. To chop the onion into small pieces, known as dice, make a bridge using your fingers and thumb, and then use the knife to make lots of vertical cuts through the onion from just above the root end to the top. Then switch to the claw technique and cut across the onion the other way to make small dice. 4 HOW TO CUT AN ONION INTO THIN SLICES Sit one half, flat-side down, on the cutting board. Hold the onion using the claw technique and cut across the onion to make slices.

14

5 HOW TO CRACK EGGS Hold the egg in one hand, almost cupping it. Hold the egg over a small bowl and hit the middle of the egg with a table knife to crack it. Put the knife down and then put your thumbs into the slit you have just made in the shell. Carefully pull the shell apart and let the egg white and yolk drop into the bowl.

6 HOW TO USE A Place the grater handle. Hold the food by rubbing

GRATER on a cutting board and hold it firmly by its piece of food at its widest end and grate the it up and down the grater. Watch your fingers and knuckles to make sure that they don’t get caught on the “teeth” of the grater. Have you ever noticed that a grater has different sized holes in it? Sometimes you want the food to be grated into big pieces with the big holes, like grated carrots for a salad. Some foods, like Parmesan cheese, are best grated with the small holes—perfect for sprinkling over pasta!

7 HOW TO USE A VEGETABLE PEELER There are different types of vegetable peelers, so you might need to try a few to see which one you find easiest to handle. Hold one end of the vegetable and rest the other end on a cutting board. Starting halfway down the vegetable, run the peeler down the vegetable away from you. Be careful, as the peeler is sharp! You will need to twist the vegetable as you peel so that you peel all the way around it. Then turn the vegetable up the other way and hold the other end while you peel the other half.

8 HOW TO SQUEEZE JUICE FROM LEMONS AND ORANGES Cut the lemon or orange in half using the bridge cutting technique (see pages 12—13). If you're feeling strong, pick up half a fruit and squeeze it over a small bowl or jug to catch the juice. Or if you have a squeezer like the one in this illustration, you can put the orange or lemon half on it and push down, twisting the fruit at the same time, to squeeze the juice out of the fruit.

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pROSCIUTTO

g MELON Prosciutto (pronounced “pro-shoo-toe”) is a delicious kind of ham, and its salty flavor goes very well with the sweet melon in this popular appetizer or antipasto. Choose small ripe melons for this recipe so that they are easy to cut. Cantaloupe and Honeydew are best, but any type of melon is good. Cantaloupes are round, with pale green bumpy skin and delicious orange flesh inside. Honeydew melons are often bigger and slightly more oval, and have yellowy green skin and pale green flesh.

SERVES 4 people as an appetizer

PREPARATION TIME 5 minutes

2 small, ripe melons* 8-12 slices of prosciutto

(2 or 3 slices for each person) *To check if the melons are ripe, smell them-—they should smell of melon!

COOKING -

TIME

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PROSCIUTTO

& MELON

STEP

]

Cut the melons in half (see pages 12-13). You to cut it, so be careful in the bridge position, fingers. You may need

using the bridge cutting technique will need almost to saw through the fruit as you go—always keep your fingers so that the knife is well away from your an adult to help you cut the melons.

STEP

2

Using a dessert spoon, scoop the seeds out of the melons and throw them away.

STEP

3

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Using the bridge cutting technique, cut the melons into quarters by cutting each melon half in half again.

STEP

4

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You can serve the melon on its skin and simply eat it with a knife and fork, or you can use a spoon to scoop out the flesh. Alternatively, you can make the melon easier to eat by using the bridge technique to cut a crisscross pattern in its flesh, but without cutting all the way through the skin.

STEP

5

STEP

6

You will need four plates. Put two pieces of melon onto each plate, followed by two or three slices of prosciutto.

Try draping the prosciutto over the melon pieces—you always want to make sure that the food looks good, so that your friends or family enjoy eating it. Serve with a knife and fork or a spoon.

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| LUNCHES & SNACKS

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Bruschetta (pronounced “broos-ketta”) was originally invented as a good way of using up stale bread by toasting it and adding a range of delicious toppings. The simplest one is made with juicy, ripe tomatoes, and many Italians would say it’s the best! You could also try toppings such as mozzarella cheese, basil, ham, or roasted vegetables.

SERVES 4 people as an appetizer

PREPARATION TIME 15 minutes

COOKING TIME 20 minutes

You might need to make more if you want to eat this for lunch 1 small rustic loaf or 1 small baguette

4 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil for drizzling 8 ripe plum tomatoes 1 garlic clove

freshly ground black pepper (optional) a few fresh basil leaves (optional)

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TOMATO

BRUSCHETTA

Turn on the oven to 350° F. Using a serrated knife (a knife with a jagged edge) use the claw cutting technique (see pages 12-13) to slice the bread into 8 slices. Try to cut the bread slightly diagonally so that the slices have an oval shape. You might want to ask an adult to cut it for you. Lay the bread slices flat on a baking tray. Using a spoon, drizzle 2 tablespoons of oil over all the slices—it won't cover all the bread, just drip it over in places. Wearing your oven mitts, put the baking tray into the oven. After 10 minutes, take the tray out, carefully turn the bread over, and then put back into the oven for another 10 minutes. The bread should now be a light golden color and crisp. Take the bread out of the oven and rest the tray on a pan stand. Let cool slightly. For the tomato topping, cut a ripe plum tomato in half lengthwise

using the bridge cutting technique (see pages 12-13). Put a tomato half on a cutting board, with its flat side facing down. Again using the bridge technique, cut the tomato half into long thin strips, then move your fingers into the claw position, and cut the long strips into little pieces. This is called dicing. The diced tomatoes should be in tiny squares, but it doesn’t matter if they are different sizes—they will still taste great! Peel the papery skin away from the garlic clove. Pick up a slice of toasted bread and rub both sides with the garlic. Do the same with the other slices of toasted bread. Put the toasted bread slices on a big plate, divide the tomatoes among them, and drizzle with the remaining olive oil. If you like, you could sprinkle some black pepper over the top, too, or some fresh basil leaves, torn into small pieces.

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gpushGE ROS Ty), Crostini are little toasts with different toppings. This one, with sausage meat and Taleggio cheese, makes a great lunch dish with salad greens. Taleggio is a soft cheese from northern Italy, where people used to leave it in caves in the mountains to ripen. You can have fun crushing the fennel seeds for this recipe, either with a pestle and mortar

(see pages 10-11) or with a rolling pin.

SERVES 4

PREPARATION TIME 20 minutes

COOKING TIME 15 minutes

3 good-quality pork sausages 1 teaspoon fennel seeds 47, ounces Taleggio cheese, or any other cheese you like that will melt easily 8 slices rustic bread

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