The Home of Guy

The 20 best Italian recipes: part 1

Capretto Photograph: Martin Poole for the Observer

Giorgio Locatelli's roast kid goat (or baby lamb) with anchovies, rosemary and lemon

Preheat the oven to 165C/gas mark 3.

For the sauce, using a pestle and mortar, pound the garlic very well and add the anchovies. Pound some more, then add the rosemary and pound to a paste. Add the white wine, vinegar, olive oil, and lemon juice and zest.

Have the flour ready on a plate. Season the meat, then dust with the flour and shake off the excess. Heat the vegetable oil in a roasting pan on the hob. Put in the goat and sauté on both sides until golden brown. Add the sauce, cover with foil and transfer to the oven. Cook for 20 minutes, then remove the foil for another 25 minutes, or until the meat caramelises. Halfway through this last part of cooking, turn the meat over, being careful that the sauce doesn't burn or it will taste bitter – if it starts to dry out too much, add a little water. At the same time as you remove the foil from the meat, put all the vegetables and the whole chillies on to an oven tray. Season, drizzle with olive oil, and put into the oven to roast for the rest of the cooking time.

When the meat is ready, lift it out of the roasting tin on to a warm plate, add the roasted vegetables and pour the sauce over the top.

From Made in Sicily by Giorgio Locatelli (Fourth Estate, £26). Click here to buy a copy from Guardian Bookshop for £20.80

Sam Harris's tagliatelle with lamb, mint and broad bean ragu

Lamb Tagliatelle Photograph: Martin Poole for the Observer

A classic Lazio dish inspired by a pasta I once ate in Rome. This recipe takes a very traditional preparation of lamb from the capital city and pairs it with a perfect English accompaniment, broad beans. The ragu uses white wine to give a lightness not commonly found in slow cooked meat sauces. Pecorino here is essential as its salty sweetness is great with the lamb and the broad beans.

Sweat down the onions, celery and garlic. In a separate pan brown off your lamb mince. Once the vegetables have totally cooked down add the lamb mince, carrot and bay leaves.

Add the tomato puree and the wine. Turn the heat up to cook out the alcohol, stirring all the time. Add the tinned tomatoes and the chicken stock.Turn down to a low heat and cook for 1-2 hours until totally tender.

When ready to serve, cook the pasta, then mix with the ragu and all of the broad beans, some grated pecorino cheese and mint to taste. Sam Harris is chef patron of Zucca, London SE1; zuccalondon.com

Ann & Franco Taruschio's spaghetti with garlic, oil and chilli

Spaghetti Garlic Oil Photograph: Martin Poole for the Observer

Boil the pasta in plenty of salted water until al dente. In a frying pan, gently heat the olive oil. Add the garlic and chilli, toss in the drained spaghetti and remove the pan from the heat. Toss in the parsley and serve at once.

From Leaves from The Walnut Tree: Recipes of a Lifetime by Ann & Franco Taruschio (BBC Books, £20).

Ann & Franco Taruschio's egg and chicken broth

Egg and Chicken broth. Photograph: Martin Poole for the Observer

When I (Franco) first took my wife home to meet my parents in Italy, my mother prepared a meal which was repeated many times over the years for weary travellers. The table would be covered with a linen cloth and napkins, which she had woven from linen she had spun 35 years previously, as part of her bottom drawer. To start she would bring a steaming bowl of stracciatelle soup, the broth made from a free-range chicken. To follow, the boiled chicken would be served with extra-virgin olive oil, freshly ground black pepper and home-cured black olives, ulive strinate, a speciality of the Marche region. The freshly picked black olives are put in a sack with sea salt and hung outside for 40 days in the frosty weather. To serve they are washed, dried and quickly fried in extra-virgin olive oil with crushed garlic, chilli flakes and zest of orange.

Beat the eggs in a bowl, add the remaining ingredients. Dilute the egg mixture with a cup of cold stock, blend in well.

Bring the remaining stock to the boil, pour in the egg mixture, and stir roughly with a fork. Lower the heat, simmer for 2 minutes, breaking the egg up with a fork, so that it looks like little rags. (Stracciatelle means little rags.) Serve boiling hot with more parmesan cheese.

From Leaves from The Walnut Tree: Recipes of a Lifetime by Ann & Franco Taruschio (BBC Books, £20).

Dino Joannides's trenette with pesto

Pesto trenette Photograph: Kris Kirkham

Perhaps the most common way of eating pesto alla Genovese, this is also one of the most delicious. It's a lovely way of celebrating good-quality basil, and for me is very much a summer dish. It makes a delicious first course or a one-plate meal, especially with the addition of French beans.

Making pesto properly is another good case for slow food because it should ideally be made shortly before it is eaten. It is also one of the many recipes where you need to be very flexible in terms of quantities; tasting and adjusting them during preparation is a must.

To my mind there is no substitute for pounding by hand, and I recommend using a marble pestle and mortar. Pesto made in a food processor tends to require extra olive oil and in my view, the machine is too harsh on the ingredients, making both the texture and flavour somewhat insipid.

To make the pesto, wash the basil leaves in cold water and dry them on a tea towel but without rubbing. The following steps must be done as quickly as possible to avoid oxidation.

Put the garlic and pine nuts in a mortar and pound with the pestle until smooth.

Add a few grains of the salt and some of the basil leaves, then pound the mixture, using a light circular movement of the pestle against the sides of the mortar. Repeat this process until all the basil has been pounded.

When the basil drips bright green liquid, add both cheeses and mix well. Pour a thin layer of the oil over the pesto and mix very lightly.

Cook the pasta in plenty of boiling, well salted water until al dente. If you plan to add beans, put them in the water at the same time as the pasta. When ready, drain the pasta, then return it to the saucepan. Add 8 tablespoons of pesto and stir well so that the pasta is fully coated.

Serve in pasta plates and place a basil leaf in the centre of each portion. Grate some parmigiano on top before eating.

From Semplice by Dino Joannides (Preface Publishing, £25). Click here to buy a copy from Guardian Bookshop for £20


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