Foodie Profile – Ursula Ferrigno
Ursula Ferrigno is one of Britain’s best-known voices on Italian food. A chef, cookery teacher and prolific cookbook author, she has spent decades writing and teaching about the regional cuisines, ingredients and traditions that define Italy’s food culture.
In this Q&A, we talk about her latest cookbook, Cucina dell’Emilia-Romagna: Recipes from the gastronomic heartland of Italy and its capital Bologna, moving from Italy to the UK in her teens, the dishes she recommends seeking out in the region, the ingredients she couldn’t cook without, her recipe for autumn amaretti and more.
1. Ursula, you’ve worked as a chef, cookery teacher, consultant and cookbook author. How did your interest in cooking begin, and what moments have most shaped your career?
As a farmer’s daughter I always knew the importance of land and seasons. We would celebrate a new crop as if we were welcoming a family member at our dining table, with excitement and relish and anticipation.
My nonna cooked with effortless ease and the flavour of every bite was happiness; that is why I cook and wanted to make my family, sisters and parents happy when we moved (from Italy to England).
I first started to teach after arriving at a WI meeting where I was billed to do a talk about Italian cooking, and in a snowstorm. It was a really horrendous evening, I’d got lost, and I was faced with a room full of rather irate women who were annoyed that I was 40 minutes late. I realised quickly that I had to turn things around and entertain them, and it was the very first time I’d ever actually done a cookery demonstration and a talk. I loved it. I really, really worked hard to engage with each and every person. And after the evening, after quite a lot of applause…I realised that I could teach, and wanted to teach, and I drove home on a tremendous high and realised that, that was the defining moment that I really wanted to communicate my Italian heritage, my food that I loved, and the importance of eating.
2. You were born in Italy and moved to the UK in your teens. How has that experience influenced the way you cook and write about Italian food?
We moved to England because of my father’s business, and his father sort of said, go and expand the business and make people aware of our beautiful lemons and our produce from the farm. And that’s what we did.
I was 12, and my mother always spoke to us in English, so I always knew English. But when I moved I felt to England I felt very, very much an alien. My mum homeschooled the four of us, four girls, and so I’d never really had that sort of thing of going to school. But yes, it was difficult. But I suppose, because I was with my sisters, we all got on with it together. And really, we missed Italy so much. So I then started cooking my nonna’s food, and I’d phone her and say, How did you do this, and how did you do that? And before long I was just cooking and cooking, and we were all happier because we were eating the food that we were used to.
3. You’ve written extensively on Italian food over the past two decades. How many cookbooks have you written to date, and how do you decide what each new book will focus on?
Some of my books have actually been reprinted and retitled. But as far as I am aware, I’ve written 28. Each one has got a special place and a time in my life when I can say, well, I wrote this book when I was new to London, finding my feet, just started to teach at Books for Cooks in Notting Hill. And I really, really have been lucky enough to meet the right people at the right time that offered me the opportunities. So I would say my books are really important. Each one is special. Each one represents a particular time in my life.
4. Your upcoming release is called Cucina dell’Emilia-Romagna: Recipes from the gastronomic heartland of Italy and its capital Bologna. How did you approach what you’d cover in the book, the recipe selection and what drew you to Emilia-Romagna in particular?
For my latest book, Cucina dell’Emilia Romagna, there’s very little written on this subject, and it’s been fascinating to delve into the depths of the country and also to discover things myself, on trips, on talking to family, friends and also colleagues, people that I work with, everybody has got an opinion. Everybody is extremely passionate about this region, and I’ve loved, absolutely loved deep diving, and have found it to be most enlightening, educational, fascinating.
Working with fabulous friends, colleagues, papa and his producers a large number of good reliable relatives. The recipes are not always forthcoming, sometimes they are scribbled on napkins, with missing instructions and ingredients but we always seem to get there in the end.
5. For readers visiting Emilia-Romagna and Bologna, what are the must-try dishes and/or food experiences?
It’s all so magnificent. I mean, I think I was blown away with everything, the prima qualità, the pasta dishes were so simple and so good, and the tortellini in brodo and the bakeries, I just wasn’t there for long enough … really, I would like weeks on end. The meats that were just always hand cut and presented with beautiful bread and cheeses. That is a must because it’s done with such pride. Everything is fresh as can be and as scrumptious as can be, then also the the lasagna Bolognese was unbelievable – light as a feather and beautiful, so beautiful.
I always avoid fancy restaurants. I just go from anywhere that’s the back of beyond off the beaten track, and definitely not necessarily in the tourist books, but somewhere that you kind of stumble across and going to markets as well, that’s where I feel that everything sort of comes alive, and you understand the people through the food and the market.
6. If you could choose only 5 Italian ingredients to cook with, what would they be and why?
Good extra virgin olive oil from a small local farm where the olives are grown on volcanic soil. It’s the oldest food known to man. It’s the historical peer to the grape so oil is ancient food. It was the Egyptians that popularised oil and olives and that spread through the rest of Europe. It (oil) brings my food alive, and I love the different regional varietals.
Glorious lemons – because everything a lemon touches…it improves from the zest to the juice, just even in a glass of water, sparkling water with a slice of lemon right through to dressings over vegetables. I particularly love lemon juice and good extra virgin olive oil with my green vegetables, spinach, chard, all the green vegetables under the sun.
Parmigiano Reggiano or Grana Padano, equally, will enhance any dish and bring that beautiful, salty edge and that wonderful balance of flavour. And it happens to be really good protein and calcium, and again, that link to my ancestors who, as a child, gave me a wheel of cheese which was put away each year.
Mulino Marino 00 flour – double zero Mulino Marino is most definitely the best flour and for a simple pasta, a simple pastry or a sauce, the lightness it brings to a dish, and it is incomparable to any of the other doppio zero flours that I’ve ever, ever used.
Artichokes – I love artichokes. I love those cynarin, that lovely taste it leaves in your mouth, which helps to stimulate your liver, which makes you feel happy.
Broad beans and greens – I love that sort of earthy flavour. And all peas, beans, everything green.
7. What is one of your favourite recipes from Cucina dell’Emilia-Romagna: Recipes from the gastronomic heartland of Italy and its capital Bologna?
The amaretti recipe has been well received, the tagliatelle with sausage and fennel ragù style, tortini di riso, lasagna Bolognese. This is a difficult question to answer, as I’m proud of all the recipes.
8. What are you working on next and what’s currently inspiring you in the kitchen?
Teaching in a castello in Piedmonte this summer, supper club at a beautiful cafe called Elderpress cafe, continuing my teaching at six different cookery schools, reworking my kitchen garden with the help of a designer. I’m always open to exciting challenges.
Instagram: Ursula Ferrigno
Purchase Cucina dell’Emilia Romagna from May 12th: https://geni.us/EmiliaRomagna?
Book launch events:
Divertimenti cookbook demo and signing, Knightsbridge – May 20th
Divertimenti masterclass, Knightsbridge – June 6th
Eataly, London – June 17th
Supper club at Elderpress Cafe, London – June 18th
Toppings, Bath – Wednesday 24th June
Cookery course at Castello di Montalero, Italy – from August 1st
