Made in Italy: Food and Stories

by Giorgio Locatelli

Overview

In this exquisitely designed and photographed volume, Britain's favourite Italian chef brings forth the work of a lifetime: combining old Locatelli family stories and recipes with the contemporary must-have dishes from his celebrated London restaurants.

‘I am an Italian chef who has cooked in Paris and come of age in London,’ says Giorgio Locatelli. ‘Innovative, imaginative food is what people expect from me, but everything I do has its roots in classical, regional Italian cooking.’

This is the book that fans of Locatelli have been waiting for ever since he first made his name at Zafferano. The recent opening of Locanda Locatelli, widely regarded as one of the most exciting restaurants in London, has fuelled interest in this master chef.

Locatelli lights up Locanda with his big, welcoming personality, seamlessly marrying style with an all-Italian mission simply to bring people together at the table to share food, relax and enjoy good company and conversation. In the same way, his delight in food shines through on every page of this exciting new book. Whether he is reminiscing about the dishes of his native Lombardy, suggesting a starter combining the simplest and freshest ingredients, or explaining how to make the ultimate risotto, Locatelli transports the reader into his own kitchen to savour the real tastes of Italy.

Full of the insight and historical detail you might expect from a food writer, combined with the hands-on expertise of a top chef, peppered with evocative stories, and funny and often outspoken observations on the state of food today, this is the contemporary Italian food bible, from the acknowledged master of modern Italian cooking.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780008548346
Publisher:	HarperCollins Publishers
Publication date:	04/18/2023
Pages:	512
Sales rank:	1,055,649
Product dimensions:	7.10(w) x 9.90(h) x 1.80(d)

About the Author

Michelin-starred Giorgio Locatelli is one of Britain's best known Italian chefs. Giorgio began his career at his family's restaurant in Italy before coming to London. He was head chef at Zafferano in London from its opening to a storm of praise and press coverage in 1994, before moving in 2002 to open Locanda Locatelli, where he remains chef-patron.

Read an Excerpt

Made in Italy
Food and Stories

Potato gnocchi with black pepper and goat cheese sauce
(Gnocchi di patate al pepe nero e salsa al caprino)

Ingredients:

½ recipe quantity of potato gnocchi dough
About 2 teaspoons freshly ground black pepper, plus extra to taste
3 tablespoons milk
About 5 2/3 ounces soft goat cheese, broken into pieces
Small bunch of chives, half of them chopped and the rest cut into matchsticks
2 tablespoons freshly grated Parmesan (optional)

Instructions:

When shaping your gnocchi, mix 2 teaspoons of freshly ground pepper into the flour. Warm the milk in a saute pan, add the goat cheese and let it melt gently to form a thick sauce. Grind in black pepper to taste.

Bring a large pan of salted water to a boil, put in the gnocchi and keep stirring until they rise to the surface (a minute or so), then lift them out carefully with a slotted spoon or a skimmer and put them into the sauce.

Sprinkle in the chopped chives and toss the gnocchi around very carefully, just to coat them in the sauce. Add the Parmesan and a little of the cooking water, if you think the sauce needs loosening, but don't leave the gnocchi in the sauce any longer than about a minute, or they will start to break up.

Serve garnished with the matchsticks of chives.

---

Sweet pastry (pasta frolla)

Ingredients:

Makes enough for two 11-inch tarts or eight 4-inch tarts
1 cup butter
1 cup confectioner's sugar
2 eggs
3 cups plus 2 tablespoons flour

Instructions:

This is a very good, very easy pastry that isn't difficult to work with and won't break if you roll it. We use it to line a nonstick tart pan and bake it "blind", i.e., empty, so that it can cook a little and crisp up before you add a wet topping of fruit, frangipane, etc. We use ovenproof plastic wrap, filled with rice, dried peas or beans to weigh it down, rather than baking paper, as it is tricky to keep this touching the pastry everywhere and keep it completely flat, whereas plastic wrap immediately sticks to it. Six minutes at 340 degrees F is enough to start setting the pastry, then you can take out the plastic wrap and return the tart case to the oven for about 15 minutes, until just golden. Make sure you preheat your oven for a good half hour before you start.

With the paddle attachment on the mixer, blend the butter until soft. Add the sugar and continue to mix until the mixture turns pale. Add the eggs one by one, and when they are incorporated, add the flour. Continue to mix until all the flour is incorporated. Divide into 2 balls.

Made in Italy
Food and Stories. Copyright © by Giorgio Locatelli. Reprinted by permission of HarperCollins Publishers, Inc. All rights reserved. Available now wherever books are sold.

Editorial Reviews

‘“Made in Italy “ is quite simply the perfect book. So many books are rattled off to accompany television series that when you come across the real thing, written in its own time and to its own agenda, it really hits you between the eyes…Buy this and you’ll never want to look at another Italian cookbook again.’ Gordon Ramsay, Times

‘This book is nothing short of a masterpiece.’ Nigel Slater

‘Packed with delicious recipes, many from his restaurant, and the reminiscences from his life, it is the ultimate gift for anyone interested in Italian food.’ Telegraph

'(Locatelli's) “Made in Italy”, is my Book of the Year and puts everything else I have on my Italian shelf in the shade.’Nigel Slater, Observer Food Monthly

'”Made in Italy “by the flamboyant Italian chef Giorgio Locatelli is such a fashionable combination of charming anecdotes and stories about his family that could double as recipes.' Saturday Telegraph Magazine

‘A compendium that should replace everything but Marcella Hazan on your Italian shelf.’ Kate Colquhoun, in the Daily Telegraph ‘Books of the Year

‘Large and handsome…most of the recipes are painstaking and lucid, and the context embraces Giorgio, his family and professional life, while guiding us effortlessly through some of the riches of Italian foodstuffs.’ Tom Jaine, The Guardian

From the Publisher

By unspooling charming stories and encyclopedic information about ingredients, Locatelli, chef at London's Locanda Locatelli, conveys the atmosphere in a busy restaurant kitchen after hours. When Locatelli waxes sweetly sentimental about the joy derived from feeding others-first discovered at his family's restaurant in the small town of Corgeno, Italy-and what he has learned from having a daughter who is allergic to some 600 foods and once went into anaphylactic shock after eating a bit of smoked salmon, he comes off as an Anthony Bourdain without the bluster. With reams of good information about everything from cheese and eel to how to judge a dish of pasta by sight, this volume is a major addition to the English-language Italian cookbook shelf, particularly as a reference. The savory recipes are mostly carefully considered Italian classics like Linguine with Pesto and Chargrilled Chicken Breast with Spinach, though desserts are not the simple pieces of fruit Locatelli admits that Italians prefer, but presumably restaurant-derived showstoppers like Blood Orange and Fresh Loquat Salad with Violet Jelly and Yogurt Foam. At more than 600 pages, the range of recipes is almost as large as Locatelli's personality. One caveat, though: Britishisms abound, as when Locatelli refers to tomatoes as "the steak and kidney pie of Italy." Despite that, this is an impressive achievement, marking Locatelli as a major talent, comparable to Marcella Hazan in his ability to explain Italian cooking. (Nov.)

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