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Alastair Little: recipes for a summer Italian feast | Four Favourite recipes


Antipasto: broad bean and pecorino morbido salad

Prep 5 min
Cook 10 min, plus skinning time
Serves 4-6

Broad bean and pecorino morbido salad



Alastair Little’s broad bean and pecorino morbido salad.

This type of pecorino may be hard to find. Morbido simply means soft in Italian (not depressed), so you need a relatively fresh cheese and certainly not a mature one (stagionato) – try a good Italian deli. The olive oil should be the best you can lay your hands on.

1 kg frozen broad beans, not defrosted – you don’t need fresh beans for this, because the frozen ones are lightly cooked before freezing and actually taste nicer than the expensive, rarely available fresh ones
250g pecorino morbido (see note above) – if you can’t get hold of it, try asiago instead: a cow’s cheese that has a similar soft texture
Flaky sea salt and black pepper
Top-quality, Italian extra-virgin olive oil

To serve
1 garlic clove
, peeled
Bruschetta

Put three litres of water on to boil and salt generously. Blanch the broad beans for a minute at a rolling boil, then drain and leave to cool in the colander for a couple of minutes. Now slip off the white outer skins by gently squeezing the beans: the alarmingly green inner bean will pop out easily and, with practice, fly directly into a receptacle, which might as well be the bowl you’re going to serve the salad in.

Remove any rind from the cheese and cut into small dice (the cheese may not cut easily, in which case crumble it with your fingers directly on to the beans).

Season to taste and sprinkle generously with ridiculously good olive oil. Do not refrigerate. Serve with garlic-rubbed bruschetta (go easy on the garlic) doused with the same oil.

Primo: summer minestrone

Prep 25 min
Cook 40 min
Serves 6-8

Alastair Little’s summer minestrone.



Alastair Little’s summer minestrone.

50ml standard extra-virgin olive oil
300g diced onions
200g diced celery
400g diced carrots
2 garlic cloves, peeled, one minced, the other bashed with the flat of a knife
¼ tsp chilli flakes
Salt and black pepper
200g frozen peas
250g green beans, topped, tailed and cut into 1cm lengths
250g courgettes, cut into 1cm dice
1 x 400g tin cannellini beans, drained
400g ripe tomatoes (San Marzano ideally), skinned, deseeded and cut into 1cm dice
Lots of very, very good extra-virgin olive oil (I use a Tuscan single-estate oil), to finish
20 basil leaves

Heat a generous film of olive oil in a large, wide-bottomed pan, then sweat the onions, celery and carrots until collapsed and lightly coloured.

Add the minced garlic, chilli flakes, a heaped teaspoon of salt and half a heaped teaspoon of ground black pepper, cook gently for a few minutes, until the carrot is just tender, then add just enough boiling water to cover and leave to come back to a simmer.

Meanwhile, fill a second pot with salted water and bring to a boil. Blanch and refresh the peas, beans and courgettes separately in the same water – they should be just tender.

When the soup is back at a simmer, add the cannellini beans and simmer for 10 minutes. Add the blanched vegetables and just enough boiling water to cover the solids. Season to taste, bring back to a simmer, then set aside (or chill, if making it in advance).

This soup can be served hot or lightly chilled.

Dress the diced tomato with a little salt and your best olive oil, roughly tear in the basil and toss with the tomatoes. Stir the tomato mix into the soup, then ladle into shallow bowls, drizzle over a generous amount of good oil and serve.

Secondo: arrosto di vitello

Ideally, you need a good, outdoor-reared, milk-fed joint for this (take heart that the unspeakably cruel, crate-reared veal is now illegal in Europe). If you want a substitute, I’ve had some success with a turkey breast joint cooked in exactly the same way.

Arrosto di vitello.



Alastair Little’s arrosto di vitello.

Prep 5 min
Cook 1 hr 20 min
Serves 6-8

1kg veal rump or boned loin – ask the butcher to tie it for you: its cost will more than justify asking for any amount of assistance
Salt and pepper
50g butter

100ml dry white wine
1 small sprig rosemary

Heat the oven to 180C (160C fan)/350F/350F/gas 4. Select a high-sided roasting dish or casserole with a lid into which the veal joint will fit quite snugly. Season the meat generously with salt and pepper. Melt the butter in the casserole over a medium flame, then brown the joint thoroughly on all sides.

Add the wine and rosemary, baste, cover the dish, then roast for about 45 minutes – after 20 minutes, turn the joint and baste the meat, adding a little water or wine to the dish if there is little or no liquid left. The internal temperature of the veal should be 60C for slightly pink meat.

Once cooked, remove the casserole from the oven, baste the meat and turn it again, then leave to sit in its dish for 15 minutes to calm down.

Carve the meat into thinnish slices, arrange on your best serving plate and spoon over the pan juices. If you have lots of juices remaining in the pot, however, boil them down to a small amount of deep brown, syrupy, very savoury gravy, and use that to dress the meat on the platter.

Congratulations: you have now made classic Italian arrosto di vitello, as made by the sainted Marcella Hazan. Serve with Italian roast potatoes and wilted greens.

Dolce: panna cotta

This is best made the day before you intend to eat it. If you are lucky and rich enough to have a real, 20-plus-year-old balsamic vinegar, a few drops and some raspberries or strawberries are the best accompaniment. Otherwise, make the ridiculously easy summer fruit compote below. Stainless-steel or plastic dariole moulds are best here: look online.

Alastair Little’s panna cotta with summer berries.



Alastair Little’s panna cotta with summer berries.

Prep 5 min
Cook 20 min
Set 3 hr
Serves 4-6 (depending on mould size)

250ml double cream
1 vanilla pods, split and seeds scraped out
25g caster sugar
2 gelatine leaves, soaked in cold water until swollen and soft
250ml whole milk

For the compote
300g frozen mixed summer fruit and berries
100g caster sugar
Lemon juice, to taste

Heat the cream in a saucepan to just simmering, adding the vanilla seeds and empty pods as it heats up. Stir the sugar into the cream until it dissolves.

Drain the gelatine and add to the cream, again stirring to dissolve. Add the milk, tip the lot into a bowl, then remove and discard the vanilla pods. Refrigerate until the mix is just starting to set.

Whisk the cream to distribute the seeds throughout, then pour into the moulds and return to the fridge to set for about three hours.

For the compote, warm up the berries in a stainless-steel pan, add the sugar and stir over a low heat until it dissolves. Leave to cool, and add a squeeze of lemon juice to taste (the compote can now be frozen, if need be).

To serve, have your plates chilled and any garnish ready. Run a small, thin-bladed, flexible knife around the inside of one of the moulds. Hold the mould on its side next to where you want it on the plate and tap to loosen the panna cotta. As it starts to slide out, quickly turn the mould fully upside down on the plate. Tap the base with the knife and lift off the mould. Repeat with the others.

Recipes by Alastair Little, whose latest venture is the London delivery service byalastairlittle.co.uk



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