Pasta Grannies: The Secrets of Italy's Best Home Cooks

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After about 10 minutes the meat will browned and will have crispy edges. Remove the pieces from the pan and set aside. Use the lovely fat to sauté your courgettes over a medium heat for 4 minutes or so until the pieces are soft. The layout is very concise, and complemented by beautifully wholesome photos of the nonne in action or of their completed dishes. Pour a slug of olive oil into a large casserole dish. Heat this over a medium heat for a couple of minutes then start browning the beef a few pieces at a time. Once all the beef pieces have a bit of colour, return them to the pan along with the vegetables. Put the clove in a mortar with the pine nuts, then pound with the pestle and grind the two together into a rough paste. Each recipe is also available on the YouTube channel and one can easily find them by scanning the corresponding QR code.

To make the sauce, add a slug of olive oil to a large saute or frypan and place it over a medium heat. Add the onion, carrot and celery and fry gently for 7-10 minutes until soft. Add the garlic and dried red chilli flakes and a pinch of salt and cook for another minute or so, making sure the garlic doesn't brown. Pasta Grannies was the glorious consequence of Bennison’s move to Cingoli, Marche, northeast of Rome, on the Adriatic Sea facing Croatia. Making a home there, amid the mountains and the sea, enabled her to travel around the regional and rural towns to meet with grandmothers and to film them telling their stories and sharing their recipes for Bennison’s YouTube channel. “With Pasta Grannies, we go all over Italy, but we don’t end up in the touristy areas because that’s not where you find old-fashioned cooking,” she explains. Bring a saucepan of salted water to the boil and cook the tagliatelle for a minute or two; you want it to be al dente. Use a spider to scoop it out and dump it into the sauce. Saute everything for another minute, and ladle in a bit of pasta water into the pan if the mixture looks a bit dry.Wash and dry the basil leaves thoroughly. Add a handful at a time to the mortar, with a pinch of salt, then pound and grind the leaves into the paste. The nonne featured in Bennison’s book Pasta Grannies: Comfort Food represent the many places and traditions that she and her team discovered as they trekked through Italy. Bennison credits her “granny finder” of six years, chef Livia De Giovanni, with discovering their talent. De Giovanni partners with Bennison in approaching mayors and community organizations in regional areas, then discusses the book and YouTube concept with families to ensure that there is agreement from all about the nonne taking part in filming. It’s a team of four, including cameramen Andrea and Luis. Add the pasta to the sauté pan. Toss the pasta with the courgette and 1 tablespoon of the mint and sauté the mixture for a minute or so. If you feel the pasta is drying out too much, add a bit of pasta water.

Please be aware that the delivery time frame may vary according to the area of delivery - the approximate delivery time is usually between 1-2 business days.Featuring easy and accessible recipes from all over Italy, you will be transported into the very heart of the Italian home to learn how to make great-tasting Italian food. Pasta styles range from pici – a type of hand-rolled spaghetti that is simple to make – to lumachelle della duchessa – tiny, ridged, cinnamon-scented tubes that take patience and dexterity.