By Christine Salins.
Silvia Colloca returns to SBS Food this week with a third season of Cook Like An Italian.
The opera singer turned television presenter, who hails from Milan but now lives in Sydney, has authored five cookbooks, Silvia’s Cucina, Made in Italy, La Dolce Vita, Love, Laugh, Bake! and her latest book, released in February 2021, Simple Italian.
In 2020, her television series Wok Vs Pot, with friend and celebrated cook, Marion Grasby, premiered on SBS Food. The series is currently being sold around the world.
Colloca hosted the SBS show Made In Italy with Silvia Colloca, shot on location in Le Marche and Abruzzo regions, which garnered a worldwide following of passionate food lovers. She also hosted Silvia’s Italian Table on the ABC.
In this latest series, which premieres on SBS Food on Tuesday (May 17) at 8pm, Colloca lifts the pot lid on timeless Italian food rituals like passata and salami making days, where all the generations gather to make a year’s supply of their favourite ingredients.
For Aussie Italians, these annual backyard family food rituals are essential, because they form a passionate nexus where culture, food, history, tradition, family and recipes all meet and are passed on to younger generations.
Over the 10-episode series, Colloca will be dishing up the Italian passion for simple, home cooked Italian meals and homemade ingredients.
As well as signature dishes, there’ll be some contemporary takes, including zero waste, gluten free and meal prep recipes. All of which will surely earn Nonna’s tick of approval. Mangiamo and enjoy this recipe from the forthcoming series.
Spaghettini Al Cartoccio (Seafood Spaghettini Cooked In A Bag)
3 tablespoons olive oil, plus extra to drizzle
2 tablespoons finely chopped flat-leaf parsley stalks
1 small red chilli, finely chopped
400g chopped cherry tomatoes
1 garlic clove, minced
12 green prawns, peeled (tails intact), deveined
500g pot-ready clams (vongole)
500g pot-ready mussels
12 scallops
2 small calamari tubes, thinly sliced
125 ml of dry white wine
400gr spaghettini
Preheat your oven to 200 deg C.
Heat the oil in a large frypan with a lid over medium-high heat. Add parsley stalks, chilli, tomatoes and garlic, and cook for 1 to 2 minutes until fragrant.
Add the prawns, calamari and scallops, and cook for 1 minute each side or until just cooked. Remove from pan and set aside to rest.
Add clams, mussels and wine to pan, cover with a lid and cook, shaking pan, for 3 to 4 minutes until mussels and clams have opened. Add prawns, calamari and scallops back to the pan and set aside.
In the meantime, bring a large pot of salted water to the boil. Drop in the spaghettini and cook for 3 to 4 minutes, until not yet al dente.
Toss the pasta in the seafood to combine.
Place 4 40×40 squares of baking paper over 4 bowls. Divide the spaghettini and sauce into the baking paper draped bowls (do this one at time: bundle up the paper to enclose the pasta and seafood, close the top to make sure no steam can escape).
Place the bundles onto an oven tray and bake for 10 minutes. This will allow the pasta to cook through.
Take the tray out of the oven and serve the bundles into bowls, allowing your guests to open them, to release the steam.
Have some chopped parsley and chilli oil at the ready on your table, for your guests to adorn their cartoccio.
