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Eat
like an Italian - even in a
caravan...
 You’ve probably seen Bruno Borriello hanging
around in the background at agility competitions as he follows his agility mad wife, Jenny around the
Midlands. She fell in love with the sport nearly 15 years ago and since then, the couple have spent a lot of
weekends in fields running their dogs. While Bruno doesn't actually compete, he has
pole picked, scribed, scored and helped run rings in all weather. Last summer he found
himself in between runs, thinking about what to cook for dinner.
And that's how the idea for his new
book Cooking4mugs came about.
I usually
help by holding the dogs while Jenny walks courses and I do a lot of other supportive stuff.
Last summer, however, I found myself spending a lot of time watching the dogs
in day parking while Jenny caught up with all her friends. Being a keen amateur cook of Italian
food, I would spend a lot time thinking about 'what to cook for dinner' when we got home.
I had
always promised my son that I would write down all my favourite recipes for him. When he and
his girlfriend left home last summer, they kept asking for favourite recipes. Word spread among
friends and family, so I decided that I would gather all my best recipes into one easy to
follow book. And
that's how Cooking4mugs - cook like an
Italian came about.
Thus
I started spending my time
'between runs' writing down my recipes for the cookbook. The evenings would be spent cooking and photographing the meal. All three dogs would sit patiently
watching me, slightly puzzled.
In this book, I tried to
capture the essence of Italian-style cooking, adapting traditional Italian recipes with easy to
come by English ingredients to make my own original creations. Many of the recipes are ideal
for camping and caravanning, especially the cook-in-one-pot recipes like minestrone or the
risottos. Here's the basic tomato sauce recipe from the book.
 Salsa
di Pomodoro
(Tomato Sauce)
This red tomato sauce
forms the base sauce of most of my red sauce dishes. In Naples we just called it 'La Salsa'
(The Sauce) in a reverent like way.
Ingredients.
 Method
-
Heat the oil on
a low heat, add the chopped garlic and fry gently for 1 - 2 minutes.
-
Add the tomato
puree and stir fry for a further 1-2 minutes.
-
Add the can of
chopped tomatoes and salt and bring to the boil.
-
Then turn down
the heat and simmer for 15 minutes for a light sauce or a further 10-20 minutes for a richer
sauce.
-
Serve with your
favourite choice of pasta.
Red Sauce with herbs or spices
Add a teaspoon of oregano or a bay leaf when you add the tomatoes for that typical Italian
aroma and taste. If you like spicier sauces add a teaspoon of black pepper (mild) or chilli
pepper (medium) or cayenne pepper (hot.)
 The
theme of the book is to learn how to cook basic sauces, using a mug to measure, and building up to more complex dishes. After working your way through the book, you should
develop the skills to experiment with your own recipes and 'cook like an Italian.' Like
agility, the most important thing is to have fun.
The book can be bought as an e book for just £1.79 or a print book from £9.99.
For a free preview of the book and more details go to
www.cooking4mugs.com
For purchasing details go to my website
www.cooking4mugs.com
and follow the links to My Publisher.
 About the author...
Bruno Borriello
was
born in England. Some of his earliest memories as a 3 - 6 year old living in Naples
including scrumping Finocchi (fennel) with his older brothers and buying water melons from street
traders that were so large they used the pushchair to carry it home in. It was a long walk home
up the slopes of Vesuvius for his baby sister.
Bruno
learnt to cook Italian food from about the age of seven. The family was back in England, and he
used to help his dad prepare the sauces. He fell in love with the smell of garlic being fried
in olive oil. By the age of 15 all his schoolmates would come round his house and Bruno
would cook pasta for them.
Over the years the dishes have acquired English influences, mainly
because Italian ingredients were hard to come by then and we would have to find the next best
thing, so the Borriello version of Italian cooking was invented.
First published 28 October 2014
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