Fantastico Modern Italian Food

Tiramisu
This book I’m posting about today was published last year, but I only bought it a few weeks ago, and have been cooking steadily from it since.

Italian Shepherd’s Pie
Fantastico Modern Italian Food by Gino D’Acampo, is just what it’s title says, Gino’s mantra seems to be ‘minimum effort, maximum satisfaction’ and it does seem to be very fitting, but when the recipes are fast the ingredients have to be top notch. This is fine by me searching out good food is one of a food lovers joys, and searching for them in Italian delicatessens is right up my street, but I digress.

Apple and Pine Nut Cake with Honey-Marscapone
I’ve cooked five of Gino’s recipes and here they are three mains and two puddings. Savoury first, the first was a recipe I saw him cook on TV, when he was a guest chef on Market Kitchen, he made Italian Shepherd’s Pie, which is a mince and tomato basil flavoured base topped with cheesy sweet potato mash and sprinkled with more Parmesan to finish. Really delicious.

Pasta with Ham and Mushrooms in Cream
It led me onto Pasta with Ham and Mushrooms in Cream, and then Sausage, Bean and Olive Casserole which was so very good.

Sausage, Bean and Olive Casserole
The two sweet dishes were his Tiramisu and an Apple and Pine Nut Cake with Honey-Marscapone. Both were lovely, the Tiramisu was flavoured with Amaretto,

Tiramisu
light and creamy, mmm. The cake was very unusual and a recipe given to Gino by his Mother-In-Law, which he left unchanged out of respect to her, my little one was wild for the mascarpone cream in particular, we liked it all =)
He has a new book out this year which I’ve pre-ordered on the basis of this one, looking forward to it already.
Click on these links for the recipes for Tiramisu, Italian Shepherd’s Pie , Sausage, Bean and Olive Casserole