Ruth Rogers: Italian Cooking Made Easy

Ruth Rogers is at it again.

The co-owner and executive chef of London's legendary "River Café" has penned her sixth cookbook with the eatery's other owner, Rose Gray.

"Italian Two Easy" is the second volume of simple and delicious recipes. They mapped out this one last May while they were looking for inspiration in Puglia. It reflects the variety in regional dishes. You can find yourself traveling through the recipes: One minute you're in Verona and the next, you're in southern Tuscany.

The "simple and delicious" theme runs through their other five cookbooks, all best-sellers.

Rogers shared some recipes from "Italian Two Easy" Friday in the final installment of The Early Show's weeklong series, "Culinary Inspirations," in which top chefs have been dishing up mouthwatering meals for summer.

Rogers prepared two easy dishes: spaghetti with raw tomato and a delicious salad using bottarga.

FOOD TERMINOLOGY:

Bottarga originates in countries surrounding the Mediterranean. Sometimes called "the poor man's caviar," bottarga is the roe pouch of either tuna (tonno) or the gray mullet fish (muggine), or sometimes swordfish, which is massaged by hand to eliminate air pockets, then dried and cured in sea salt for a few weeks. Using sea salt, the roe is cured and dried to perfection, then waxed to prevent further drying and exposure to light. Waxing also prevents contact with foreign matter. For the novice, bottarga appears quite unique, odorless, and may look like a flat, waxed sausage. But once the wax is removed, your taste buds will discover one of the most flavorful marine products. Colors naturally vary from golden yellow to darker shades of reddish brown. Slice Bottarga thin, then squeeze lightly to remove the wax.

Mache: The word "mache" is from the French mâcher, "to chew." It is a small-leafed, edible plant. Depending on the variety, it can range from four inches to a foot in height. The leaves may be wide or narrow, round or pointed, and range from light to very dark green. Closely related to valerian — hence, its old French name valérianelle, this Mediterranean annual is also called corn salad, since it tends to grow wild in corn fields, and lamb's lettuce, because it attracts animals. In France it is also referred to as "salade nantaise," because 80 percent of the country's production comes from the Nantes region. The cultivation of mache goes back to the mid 17th century, and its success in the region has to do with the sandy Loire soils, which provide ideal growing conditions. In the old days, it was also sometimes called "priest's salad," since it was a staple of rectory gardens.

RECIPES

Red and yellow peppers, capers

Wash the salt from capers and drain. Grill a red and yellow bell pepper until the skins are blackened. Peel, remove the seeds, and then tear lengthwise into quarters. Toss with olive oil, red wine vinegar, torn basil, capers, and black pepper. Place on a plate with mozzarella.

Spaghetti, raw tomato, arugula

4 plum tomatoes
2 garlic cloves
2 tbsp capers
3 tbsp black olives
3 tbsp arugula leaves
3 tbsp ex. v. olive oil
11 oz spaghetti

Cut the tomatoes in half. Squeeze out excess juice and seeds, and chop the flesh coarsely. Peel the garlic and squash with 1 tsp sea salt. Crumble the chile. Rinse the capers, and pit the olives. Roughly chop the arugula.

Combine the tomatoes, garlic, chile, capers, and olives. Season generously, add the olive oil, and put aside for 30 minutes.

Cook the spaghetti in boiling salted water until al dente. Drain, and stir the pasta into the tomatoes. Add the arugula. Toss to coat each strand. Season with black pepper.

Serve with olive oil.

Note: Plum tomatoes are fleshy and easy to peel and have hardly any juice or seeds, which makes them ideal for rich, thick tomato sauces. This raw sauce should only be made in the summer, when you can buy sun-ripened plum tomatoes that are really sweet.

For many more of Roger's recipes, go to Page 2.Sea bass, potato, tomato

1 lb waxy potatoes
9 oz cherry tomatoes
4 rosemary sprigs
ex. v. olive oil
4 sea bass fillets
8 anchovy fillets
2 cups white wine

Preheat oven to 400*F.

Peel the potatoes. Cut the tomatoes in half and squeeze out the seeds and juice. Wash the rosemary sprigs.

Cook the potatoes in boiling salted water until cooked but still firm, then drain and cool. Cut the potatoes into 1/4-inch-thick slices.

Drizzle a baking pan with olive oil and cover with the potatoes and tomato halves. Place the rosemary on top. Put the bass fillets on top. Put two anchovies on each fillet with some black pepper. Drizzle with olive oil.

Bake in the preheated oven for 6 minutes. Add the wine, return to the oven, and bake for 6 minutes longer.

Serve each portion with juices from the pan spooned over.

Note: Choose a thin-skinned, yellow, waxy variety of potato that will not break up when cooked a second time.

Roast chicken, Vermentino

1(4 1/2 -lb) organic chicken
2 1/4 lbs waxy potatoes
2 1/2 oz dried porcini
2 garlic cloves
1 rosemary sprig
ex. v. olive oil
1 cup Vermentino

Ask the butcher to cut the chicken into eight pieces. Wipe the pieces clean with paper towels and trim off any fat.

Preheat the oven to 400*F.

Peel the potatoes and slice them in half lengthwise, then in half again. Soak the porcini in 1¾ cups of hot water for 10 minutes; drain, keeping the water, then rinse and roughly chop. Peel and finely slice the garlic. Wash and chop the rosemary.

Heat a medium-sized skillet with 1 tbsp olive oil, add the garlic, and lightly brown. Add the porcini, stir, and cook for 2 minutes. Add a little of the soaking liquid to keep the mushrooms quite wet. Season.

Put the chicken pieces in a roasting pan in one layer. Add the potatoes, rosemary, wine, and 3 tbsp olive oil. Stir in the porcini and season. Roast for 30 minutes. Turn the chicken over and continue cooking for 30 minutes. The chicken and potatoes should be light brown. Serve with the juices from the pan. *Good Vermentino has a zippy, lemony acidity with peachy fruit and a hint of fresh herbs-great with potatoes and porcini

Pork shoulder, slow-cooked

1(4 1/2-lb) pork shoulder
6 garlic cloves
1 lemon
10 tbsp unsalted butter
2 tbsp ex. v. olive oil
2 tbsp sage leaves
1 cup white wine
1 cup milk

Ask your butcher to bone the piece of shoulder and remove any skin. For four people, you would need a half small shoulder.

Peel the garlic and cut each clove in half. Pare the peel from the lemon.

Season the piece of pork generously all over.

Heat half the butter with olive oil in a medium-sized, thick-bottomed pan with a lid, just large enough to hold the pork. Brown the meat on all sides. Drain off excess fat, then add the remaining butter, garlic, sage, and lemon peel. Fry to color the garlic, then add half the wine. Reduce the heat, half cover, and very gently simmer for 3 hours, adding more wine to keep a fraction of liquid in the pan at all times.

Start adding the milk after all the wine has evaporated. The milk should begin to curdle and thicken in the last half hour of cooking. The pork will be cooked when you can break it up with a spoon.

Note: Choose your pork shoulder carefully-it should have a thick layer of fat. The fat renders down in the very slow cooking, keeping the meat moist and tender.

Roast eggplant, tomato

2 Eggplants
8 Plum tomatoes
3 1/2 oz parmesan
2 tbsp basil leaves
ex. v. olive oil

Wash the eggplants, then cut off the stem and the base. Slice into ¾ -inch-thick disks. Place them in a colander and sprinkle with sea salt. Leave for ½ hour, then pat dry.

Preheat the oven to 400*F.
Cut the tomatoes in half, squeeze out the juice, and chop the flesh into small pieces. Grate the Parmesan. Tear the basil into pieces.

Place the tomato in a bowl, add seasoning, and toss with 1 tbsp olive oil, the Parmesan, and basil.

Brush an ovenproof dish with olive oil. Place the eggplant slices in the dish, brush with olive oil, and season. Bake in the preheated oven for 15 minutes. Turn over and spoon the tomato mixture on top. Return to the oven to bake for 5 minutes longer.

Note: Of the many baked eggplant recipes in southern Italian cooking, this one differs in mixing the grated Parmesan and the chopped tomato. The eggplant is best eaten warm.

Tiramisu

1/2 cup instant coffee
1 1/4 cups Brandy
9 oz Savoiardi or ladyfingers
2 organic eggs
2 cups mascarpone
2/3 cup confectioners' sugar
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

Mix the instant coffee with 1 cup of hot water. Mix the coffee with the brandy. Lay the savoiardi or ladyfingers on a flat tray, and soak them in the coffee and brandy.

Separate the eggs. Mix the egg yolks into the mascarpone with the confectioners' sugar. Beat the egg whites to soft peaks, then fold into the mascarpone.

Using an oval, 14 by 10-inch ceramic dish, make a layer of wet savoiardi. Cover with a thick layer of mascarpone. Shake some cocoa powder over, then repeat with another layer of savoiardi and of mascarpone. Shake cocoa powder over and chill for a minimum of 2 hours before serving.

There are endless versions of this modern dessert. Ours is very rich and wet, with lots of alcohol and mascarpone.