Traditional Italian cooking is benchmark for a healthy life

THE Mediterranean diet – particularly the southern Italian diet – with its abundance of fresh fruit and vegetables, extra virgin olive oil, light pasta dishes, grilled fish and meat and, of course, that little glass of wine, has long been praised for its health benefits.

I’ve always loved Italian cooking. Memories of making gnocchi with my 80-year-old grandmother when I was barely tall enough to see over the table are a wonderful gift. Victor and I have three children and I’m on a mission to give them the same gift that I’ve been lucky enough to have – to pass on the cooking tips to a healthy life.

Cooking is definitely more complicated now. We’re living in a different age, and we’re exposed to so many more choices.

When I was young, sweetcorn came in a tin, watermelon was a once-a-year treat and there were no multi-buy chocolate packs that are impossible to resist.

Some change is for the better, some isn’t and it’s hard knowing what the healthy choice is. My advice is buy seasonally, be aware of how things are grown, consider the environment and think about the cost.

Working in Centotre, we’re lucky that our working life can fit into our family life. Lunch and dinner are for customers but morning school run and tea time is our family time. And so I cook every night for the family – it’s our time to sit around the table and catch up. In Italy, families spend on average 53 minutes per day eating together, while here in the UK they spend a mere 13 minutes.

Eating together shouldn’t be a luxury, it should be a necessity. I’m lucky that I’ve been taught how to cook fresh food quicker than you can switch on the microwave. Simple, fresh food is never complicated. And Italian food is far from it – you just have to ditch those overwhelming recipes and get back to basics. Which is what real homemade Italian cooking is all about. Many dishes contain just five basic ingredients – hardly rocket science, is it? And it is a whole lot tastier and is much healthier than the pre-packaged alternative.

We all have busy, stressful lives with so many worries and challenges. When we eat and talk together we are happier and it helps us cope and get through the hard times and really enjoy and celebrate the good days.

The two dishes I have selected demonstrate how quick and easy it is to create traditional Italian food using a small number of good-quality ingredients. Following these delicious recipes will hopefully give you a taste for cooking fast food the Italian way.

Carina Contini is joint owner of Centotre, George Street. For information visit www.centotre.com or call 0131-225 1550



Recipes
Spaghettini alla Pomodoro (serves two)

This is the standby dish for all Italian cooks – faster than a microwave meal, guaranteed

Ingredients
500g Pachino (cherry) tomatoes cut in half
8 - 10 slices of fresh garlic (less if the garlic is mature)
8 - 10 leaves of fresh basil
250g (approx) Spaghettini (good quality 00 pasta)

Method
Choose a large, flat frying pan. Use the highest heat you can and add the tomatoes, garlic and olive oil. Keep moving the pan so the tomatoes don’t stick. As the tomatoes start to soften squash them down with the back of a wooden spoon. Continue to cook until the tomatoes look creamy, this will take about eight minutes. If the sauce looks dry add a little more extra virgin olive oil.

Cook the spaghettini in a large pot of boiling salted water. Add the basil to the sauce a few minutes before the pasta is ready. Season with Maldon sea salt and combine the sauce and drained pasta. Serve immediately.

Macedonia di Frutta (serves two)
Ingredients:
200g ripe black cherries
2 ripe yellow or white flesh peaches
Your favourite type of sweet melon, I love orange cantaloupe.
2 to 3 tablespoons of Maraschino liquor (optional)

Method
Wash the cherries, cut in half and remove the stone. Wash, peel and de-stone the peaches, and then cut into chunks. De-seed the melon and cut into chunks.

Sprinkle with the Maraschino liquor (the deliciously lightly fruity Italian liquor made from cherries) and leave in the fridge for about one hour. Enjoy fresh from the fridge.