Dalmia thought writing a book would be a piece of cake but it took longer than she expected

There are cookbooks, and there are cookbooks. Most cookbooks fill me with dread. These are not volumes that are meant to make you feel good about food. Instead, they seek to terrorise you. You are supposed to look at some of their elaborate recipes and wonder, dejectedly, why you exist.

I can see some poor foodies lying down on a couch at the psychiatrist’s, and saying, “Then the recipe said I should assemble 16.34gm of asparagus stalks and cut them with a mandolin, put 523ml of milk in a bain-marie and run the sauce through a chinoise. I felt so inadequate.”

Of course, once in a while, you come across a cookbook that you have been dreaming of all your life — one that is not fussy about ingredients and gives you simple methods of cooking. I have some of these rare books in my culinary library. And now I have added a new book there — Ritu Dalmia’s Italian Khana.

Cream of beetroot and berries

I have always admired Ritu — as a person, an entrepreneur and a cook. Every meal that I have had at Diva, her restaurant in south Delhi, has been a memorable one. Her book, a Random House India publication, is as delightful as she is. Ritu has this wonderful ability to make food recipes seem like child’s play. And Italian Khana is a superb collection of simple recipes cooked with ingredients that are easily available.

What I really like about Ritu is her flexibility when it comes to ingredients and methods. She gives her recipes for different kinds of stocks, but if you don’t have the required stock at home, she tells you not to panic. Don’t have meat stock — use cubes. Don’t have meat cubes? Use a chicken stock or a vegetable stock instead. Something needs to be marinated for a couple of hours, and you are hungry? Then marinate it for as long as it suits you — and then just cook and eat.

Balsamic braised onions

Ritu tells me that had always wanted to write a book — ever since she was in the fourth standard, in fact. So when Random House India asked her to put a book together, she thought it would be a piece of cake. “I thought I’d do it in a month — but it finally took me nine months.” And that was mainly because she was used to cooking by instinct and not going by fixed measurements.

Grilled fish with spinach

The book — with some mouth-watering photographs by Sephi Bergerson — is a food lover’s delight. It has recipes for everything — from cremino di barbabietole (cream of beetroot and berries), peaches poached in red wine, pork roulade and pana cotta to balsamic braised onions with Parmesan shavings, mozzarella tomato salad and pasta with tomato and basil. The recipes in this column are all from her book — and you’ll know how easy they are the moment you try them out.

Pasta with tomato and basil

The book tells you what your Italian bhandar should consist of, what you should cook when you are preparing a meal for friends, for a beloved, or when you merely want to show off. It gives you menus, and even a list of suppliers in different cities.

It also gives you the chef’s tips on a host of things. A tiramisu, she tells you, tastes better the next day, for the cheese absorbs the flavour of the coffee. Rub grated raw papaya on meat as a tenderiser, then wash the meat and cook.

Use a lime instead of a lemon, but since the Indian lime is juicier and sharper, adjust the quantity accordingly. Instead of lemon zest, you can use the zest of a musambi or an orange. Add a dash of olive oil to boiling water while cooking pasta, and add a dollop of butter or some olive oil to the pasta before you add the sauce. Ritu writes that she keeps some dry porcini mushroom handy, and instead of a stock, she uses the water in which porcini mushrooms have been soaked.

Mozzarella tomato salad

She also writes about the first time she cooked a meal for a bunch of ungrateful friends in the 10th standard. They laughed and sneered — and apparently continue to moan even now whenever they recall that fateful meal.

At a celebratory dinner the other night, Ritu recalled how her school teachers had given up on her. “You, Ritu Dalmia, will never come to anything,” the teachers intoned. So the first thing she did when she opened her first restaurant was to go back to her old school and modestly distribute her business cards.

I can see quite a few red-faced teachers lining up to buy her book, and telling each other, “We knew it all along, didn’t we, that she’d do well!”        

Pollo con funghi e pepe nero — chicken with black pepper and mushroom

Ingredients

• 8 chicken breasts without skin l1 clove garlic, minced • 30ml olive oil l500gm mixed mushrooms • 1 handful parsley, chopped l1 medium onion, finely chopped • 100ml chicken or vegetable stock • 75ml red wine • Salt and pepper to season

Method

In a non-stick pan, heat the oil on a very high flame. Brown the chicken breasts on both sides and set aside. In the same pan, sauté the onion and garlic, add the mushrooms, and cook on a high flame for five minutes. Add the wine, stock, salt, pepper and parsley and bring to a boil. Add the browned chicken, cover and cook over slow heat till the sauce reduces and the chicken cooks through, in about 20 minutes. To serve, place a chicken breast on a plate and spoon the mushroom sauce on top. Eat it with loads of sautéed spinach. This is a very healthy and delicious meal.

Risi e bisi — rice and peas

Ingredients

• 500gm Arborio rice l1tbs olive oil • 50gm butter • 1 medium onion, finely chopped • 50gm cooked ham • 1 handful parsley • 1½kg fresh peas • 11 meat stock • Parmesan to garnish lSalt and pepper to taste

Method

Heat the oil and half of the butter together in a pan. Sauté the onions till pink, add ham and parsley. Add the peas and cook for about a minute. Add a ladleful of stock and let it simmer until the peas are almost cooked, for about 10

minutes. Add the rice, cover with stock and cook for 20-25 minutes. Season with salt and pepper and serve hot with a generous sprinkling of Parmesan.

Pesce alla griglia — simple grilled fish

Ingredients

• 600gm fillet of any firm white flesh fish, like red snapper, sole or bekti

Marinade

• 50ml extra virgin olive oil • 2tbs lemon juice • 1 clove garlic, minced • A few sprigs of fresh rosemary or oregano • 1tbs pesto • Salt and pepper to taste

Method

Mix all the ingredients for the marinade in a mixing bowl and give it a good whisk. Add the cleaned fish fillets to the marinade, making sure it is well coated. Cover and keep in the fridge for a couple of hours to let the flavours soak into the fish. In case you are tired and hungry, and want a quick bite, you can safely leave this step out. Grill the fish on medium flame in a

non-stick pan, basting regularly with the marinade. Allow 2-3 minutes for each side, depending on the thickness of the fillet. Eat right away with a squeeze of lime and a big salad.