Description:
‘Italians are taught from a young age to cherish the ingredients we cook with, whether home grown or store bought. We have observed our nonnas caring for these ingredients with passion and knowledge, and turning them into meals we will never stop craving or recreating.’

Australia’s favourite Italian home cook, Silvia Colloca, shares the 100 recipes that will show you how to cook like a true Italian, using the most humble of ingredients: end-of-summer tomatoes, salty anchovies, vibrant greens, oozy burrata and many more.

These are the dishes made lovingly in homes around Italy every day, and they are often brought to life with only a handful of ingredients and the simplest equipment. Try silky handmade noodles, savoury pies filled with fresh ricotta and parmigiano, crispy fried seafood, or slow-cooked ossobuco over saffron risotto. The Italian Home Cook is your essential guide to shopping, cooking and eating like an Italian, and will help you bring a little slice of Italy into your own home.

Another great book from this wonderful cook! I love Silvia’s recipes. Whole Snapper with potatoes, cherry tomatoes, olives and capers is perfect for any family gathering.

“The idea with this dish is to create a tasty bed for a whole fi sh to nestle on. As it all bakes, the juices, flavours and aromas combine to create the most delicious one-pan dinner. Watch out for those coveted potatoes . . . they are sensational, having absorbed all the pan juices like golden sponges” p200

Ingredients: Serves 4

125 g (3⁄4 cup) cherry tomatoes, cut in half
90 g (1⁄2 cup) pitted black olives
1–2 tablespoons capers, rinsed and drained
3–4 anchovy fi llets in olive oil, drained
125 ml (1⁄2 cup) dry white wine 100 ml extra-virgin olive oil
3 potatoes, boiled and cut into wedges
salt flakes
1 × 1 kg whole snapper, scaled and gutted, scored with two slashes on each side
roughly chopped flat-leaf parsley leaves, to serve

Method:

Preheat your oven to 180°C.

Oil a large baking dish.

Place the cherry tomatoes, olives, capers, anchovies, wine and half the olive oil in the dish. Add the potato, season with salt and toss with the other ingredients. Bake for 10 minutes, then remove from the oven.
Place the snapper on the cherry tomato mixture and baste with the pan juices, drizzling them onto the slashes cut into the flesh. Season with a little more salt and return to the oven. Bake for a further 20–25 minutes or until the fish is just cooked through. To test if it’s ready, gently lift some flesh with a butter knife. If it lifts off easily and looks opaque, the fish is done.

Scatter some parsley over the top, drizzle on the remaining olive oil and serve.