Cooking with Gennaro

Gennaro Contaldo has teamed up with Bertolli to create some incredibly delicious dishes

Pasta cones with seafood and courgettes 

Courgettes and seafood go really well together and are often added to pasta and risotto dishes in Italy. Use ready-cooked and peeled prawns for speed. The combination of olive oil and the rich buttery taste of Bertolli with Butter is perfect for both sauce and pasta shape. The ridges on the cone shapes hold the sauce perfectly and the flat surfaces show the shine of the pasta.

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Ingredients (6 x servings)
• 400 gr small pasta cones (white)
• 400 gr courgettes
• 60 gr Bertolli with Butter
• 4 x garlic cloves, finely sliced
• 1 x red chilli (optional)
• 300 gr ready-peeled prawns
• 200 gr squid, thinly sliced
• 200 gr fresh baby plum tomatoes, sliced
• 100 ml white wine
• handful of basil, sliced
• 4 x courgette flowers, roughly torn (optional)

Method
Place a large saucepan of slightly salted water on the heat and bring to the boil to cook the pasta which will take 2 – 3 minutes.

Meanwhile, melt Bertolli with Butter in a large frying pan and over a medium heat sweat garlic and chilli, if using.

Increase the heat, add squid and stir-fry for about 30 seconds, add half of the white wine and allow evaporating.

Lower the heat, add tomatoes and cook for a minute. Add prawns and cook for a further 1 minute. Increase the heat, add remaining wine and allow evaporating. Lower the heat, stir in grated courgettes, a little salt, basil and a ladle of hot water (you can take this from the cooking pasta water) and cook for about 2 – 3 minutes.

Drain the pasta, add to the sauce and toss well with a knob of Bertolli with Butter continuing to cook for a minute or so. Remove from the heat and serve immediately with torn courgette flowers.

Baked pasta cones filled with ricotta, mozzarella & basil with tomato sauce

This cone-shaped pasta is perfect filled and baked – an unusual and pretty alternative to cannelloni. Bertolli with Butter's olive oil goodness is ideal for making the soffritto for the tomato sauce as well as perfect to dot all over the top to keep the dish moist and shiny during cooking. The simple but delicious and filling dish combines perfectly all 3 pasta flavours.

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Ingredients (6 x servings)
• 20 x large multi-coloured pasta Cones
• for the sauce:
• 30 gr Bertolli with Butter & extra for dotting
• 1 x small onion, finely chopped
• 1 x garlic clove, finely chopped
• ½ x celery stalk, finely chopped
• 2 x 400 gr tins of chopped plum tomatoes
• handful of basil, finely chopped

For the filling
• 200 gr ricotta
• 150 gr mozzarella finely chopped
• 20 gr grated parmesan & extra for topping
• handful basil leaves, finely chopped
• a little salt & pepper

Method
Preheat the oven to 180 degrees centigrade (fan oven).

First make the sauce. Melt Bertolli with Butter in a pan and sweat onion, garlic and celery on a medium heat for about a minute. Add tomatoes with a little water (I usually rinse out the tomato cans – here I put ½ a can of water).
Add basil, a little salt, cover with a lid and leave to simmer gently for about 20 minutes.

Meanwhile, make the filling. Combine all filling ingredients, season with a little salt and pepper. Place in a piping bag and fill each pasta cone.

Line an ovenproof dish (large enough to fit the cones) with about half of the tomato sauce. Arrange filled pasta cones over and spoon remaining tomato sauce on top and some grated parmesan, dot with Bertolli with Butter.

Cover with foil and bake in the oven for 20 minutes. Remove the foil and continue to bake for a further 7 minutes.

Remove from the oven, leave to rest for a couple of minutes, then serve.

Vegetarian multi-coloured and multi-veggie pasta

This quick and simple pasta dish is full of veggie goodness! Make sure you prepare all the vegetables first and chop into small diced pieces before you begin. The deliciousness of olive oil in Bertolli with Butter is perfect for sweating all the vegetables and its creaminess is ideal at the end to bind the dish together as well as adding shine to the flat surfaces of the superb pasta cone shapes which combine really well with all the lovely fresh summery vegetables.

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Ingredients (6 x servings)
• 400 gr multi-coloured small cone-shaped pasta
• 120 gr Bertolli with Butter & extra knob
• 60 gr red onion, finely chopped
• ½ red chilli, finely chopped (optional)
• 60 gr celery, finely chopped
• 60 gr carrot, finely chopped
• 60 gr fennel, finely chopped
• 60 gr fresh peas (podded weight)
• 60 gr red pepper, finely chopped
• 60 gr courgette, finely chopped
• 60 gr asparagus tips, finely chopped
• 2 x artichoke hearts, finely chopped
• 60 gr beef tomato, deseeded & finely chopped
• 30 ml white wine
• A little salt
• handful fresh mint, finely chopped
• handful fresh basil, finely chopped
• juice of 1 x lemon
• grated parmesan, to serve

Method
Place a large saucepan of slightly salted water on the heat, bring to boil and cook the pasta for 2 – 3 minutes until "al dente."

Meanwhile, melt Bertolli with Butter in a large frying pan on a medium heat, add onion, chilli, celery, carrot, fennel, peas and sweat for a minute. Add peppers, courgettes, asparagus & artichokes and continue to sweat for a further minute.

Stir in a little salt.

Add wine and a ladleful of hot water (you can use the cooking pasta water) and continue to cook for a couple of minutes. Drain the pasta, add to the vegetables, and stir in chopped tomato, mint & basil.

Add lemon juice and a knob of Bertolli with Butter and toss well together.

Remove from the heat and serve with some grated parmesan if desired.

Pasta with broccoli and crispy pancetta

This simple, delicious recipe is my daughter, Chloe's, favourite pasta dish. Pancetta adds a nice flavour to the broccoli but you can omit if you prefer or if cooking for vegetarians. For an extra kick, add some freshly chopped red chilli with the garlic. Bertolli with Butter is perfect for sweating as well as adding creaminess to the sauce. The ridges of the cone-shaped pasta perfectly hold the creamy sauce and the butter adds shines to the flat surfaces.

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Ingredients (6 x servings)
• 6 x slices pancetta, left whole
• 60 gr Bertolli with Butter
• 80 gr pancetta, finely chopped
• 2 x garlic cloves, finely chopped
• 400 gr broccoli florets
• A little salt
• 400 gr small pasta cones
• grated parmesan, to serve

Method
Grill or oven-bake the pancetta slices until crispy but not burnt and set aside.

Cook the broccoli florets until tender. Drain and set aside. Melt Bertolli with Butter in large frying pan and on a medium heat sweat chopped pancetta for a minute, add garlic and sweat for a further minute. Add the broccoli with a couple of ladles of the cooking water and cook for a couple of minutes to allow the flavours to infuse.

Remove from the heat and blend to a smooth consistency adding a little salt to taste.

In the meantime, cook the pasta in boiling slightly salted water until "al dente."

Return the blended broccoli sauce to the frying pan, drain the pasta and over a low heat toss well together with a little cooking water and a knob of Bertolli with Butter to add shine. Serve immediately topped with crispy pancetta and grated parmesan.