Nicky Pellegrino recreates the summer tastes of the island that inspired her book

Nicky and Grant tackle pasta-making. Photo / Doug Sherring
Nicky and Grant tackle pasta-making. Photo / Doug Sherring

You think you can cook until you find yourself in a kitchen beside a real chef. A day with Living's Grant Allen recreating some of the dishes I experienced while researching my latest book showed me that I have a thing or two to learn. Grant cooks in a relaxed way, almost as if it's incidental to everything else he's doing: talking, laughing, producing cups of coffee. I have to concentrate on every step otherwise ingredients start going into the pan in the wrong order. Mind you, I don't seem to produce as many dirty dishes as Grant manages either ...
For my novel The Food Of Love Cookery School I journeyed to Italy's far south and spent a week on a Love Sicily food holiday with another great cook Katia Amore. She showed me how to recreate the unique tastes of this sun-soaked island.

 The food of Sicily differs from that in other parts of Italy. It has been invaded many times - by the Greeks, the Spanish and the Arabs - all have left something behind to enrich the cuisine. Spices are used; lots of nuts and honey; vegetables are served agrodolce - the traditional sweet/sour flavour Sicilians love that shows up in dishes such as the eggplant-based caponata, as well as fragrant stews of chicken and olives.
This is a simple, healthy way of eating. You don't have to be a chef to master caponata, and it's the perfect accompaniment to summer's barbecued meats and grilled fish. And if you think making fresh pasta is too complicated, the Sicilian method will change your mind. They don't add egg to the recipe or stuff the dough with cheese and meat as they do further north. There's no need for fiddly machines either.
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