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Braised cuttlefish, dried porcini, thyme and Marsala with bone marrow bruschetta

Whole salt beef shin, carrots, kohlrabi, potato and pearà (bone marrow and black pepper bread sauce)

Rosemary and gorgonzola dolce farinata with yellow pepper, aubergine and courgette

Lamb, offal, orzo, purple olive and toasted pine nut meatballs with spicy tomato sauce and aubergine

Beef T-bone, wild mushrooms and Marsala with deep-fried polenta and gorgonzola fonduta

Rolled pork loin stuffed with nduja and prunes with chickpeas, red pepper, spinach and rosemary

Since he graduated from the first intake at Jamie Oliver’s Fifteen, Tim Siadatan has become synonymous with bold Italian cooking. Aged twenty-three he became the youngest head chef at Fifteen (and chose to spend his one day off each week training at the iconic St John restaurant). He went on to work at Moro before opening Trullo in 2010, followed by Padella in 2016. His restaurants have garnered huge acclaim and he has notched up two Bib Gourmand awards, as well as the Evening Standard ‘Worth Queuing For’ and Observer Food Monthly ‘Best Cheap Eats’ for Padella.

London restaurant Trullo, and its baby sister, Padella, are taking the food world by storm with modern Italian recipes with a British twist. Whether it’s a simple bowl of pasta or a full roast, chef Tim Siadatan takes the best of Italian cooking and marries it with British produce to create inventive and original dishes.

Since he burst onto the scene as the youngest head chef at Jamie Oliver’s Fifteen, Tim has become synonymous with bold Italian cooking. He doesn’t slavishly recreate traditional dishes so much as cook food ‘that makes you jump up and down in excitement as you smell it coming out of the oven.’

His influences range from his training at St John and Moro restaurants, where he learnt the value of simple, delicious fare, to his childhood as one of six children, when eating is what brought the whole family together.

Whether you want to make something special like rolled pork with nduja and prunes, or you simply want to nail the perfect delicious, silky and unctuous pasta sauce, it is all in Trullo.

There are a lot of people who have helped shape this book in one way or another and I feel blessed to have you all in my life.

I want to thank all my family with whom I’ve spent a lifetime laughing – mostly sat around a kitchen table. Especially Ma and Matt who created a happy nest for us.

All the team at Square Peg for taking a leap of faith with this book in the first place and supporting me throughout the ride; especially Rowan Yapp.

The testers who took the time to trial the recipes at home and gave me crucial feedback, particularly Sarah Rivera.

A huge thank you to Jamie Oliver for giving me a chance many moons ago and for your constant support, especially at different stages on this book.

Thank you Nigel Slater, Sam and Sam Clarke and Anna Jones for saying kind words – it means a lot coming from such talent.

Fergus and Margot Henderson: I love you both so much and I treasure our times together. Fergus, I can’t quite get over your foreword; it’s the best bit of the book!

All the incredible chefs, front of house and booze people of the London restaurant scene who make this city as delicious as it is – it’s a constant treat to dine here.

Thanks to our community in Islington for supporting their neighbourhood restaurant and being a jolly bunch.

All the wonderful team at Trullo past and present, you do a remarkable job and work tirelessly to create a special restaurant. I feel so much gratitude towards you, especially Sam James our superstar general manager.

To the immensely talented Conor Gadd, my dear friend and head chef at Trullo – your support and love is constantly felt.

Thanks to our suppliers who help source us with literally any product we could wish for, care as much as we do and work just as hard.

Sophie Missing, you’re a wonderful human being. Thank you for helping me find the right words and putting them into sentences that made sense! You gave me confidence within myself to write and I’ll be forever grateful for that.

Felicity Blunt – knowing you’re in my corner always gives me reassurance and your positivity is infectious. I love that behind your kind smile is a hard-arse who will always get what’s best for me! I’m glad you’re on my side and look forward to our journey ahead.

Mark Evans. The man whose Jedi design skills bound this whole book together, and the only one of us who keeps his shit together! Thank you for your effort and for making this book so beautiful. You’re a seriously talented man and I’ll be forever grateful to you for your dedication – the force is strong in you!

Elena Heatherwick, what a beautiful soul you have. It’s been memorising at times to see how you capture the world through your lens. What an honour to have you photograph my book, you’ve done such an exquisite job. Thank you for holding my hand every step of the way. You and your family always have a table at Timmy’s kitchen.

Gemma Bell and your tribe, thank you for spreading the word and bigging us up in all the right areas to all the right people. If you’re after restaurant PR, there is no one better.

Lisa Helmanis and Dada Stileman, thank for giving our restaurant spaces character and making them so beautiful.

Daisy Bird, thank you for putting up with me. You’ve been so supportive, encouraging and God damn useful on this book! Love you.

Jonny and Av’s, thank for your incredible support and advice on so many levels. Your love and general loveliness is always felt. Also, thank you for letting me use your home to capture those wonderful images.

Teddy and Isabella, you’ve brought so much love and light to my life and so many people’s lives at Trullo. Thank you for being little rays of sunshine.

Alanna, you believed in Trullo before it was born! You’re an integral part of the success of Trullo and without you none of this would have been possible. Aside from that, you’re family to me and I love you.

And finally Jordy. Standing shoulder to shoulder with you over the years has been one of the greatest rides of my life, thank you for all of it. You’re a constant source of inspiration and vision for us, and man you make me laugh! I feel very lucky to have such a brilliant business partner who I also have as a best friend. What an adventure it’s been!

Recipe List

Pot-roast Brussels sprouts, crispy pancetta, chestnut and gorgonzola fonduta

Seared chicken liver, raspberry, frisée and chive salad with mustard dressing

Sea bass carpaccio with blood orange and fennel

Steamed asparagus with chopped egg yolk, cornichon, caper, tarragon and chervil

Burrata with smashed broad beans, anchovy and chilli

Baccalà and green tomato with oregano and Cabernet Sauvignon vinegar dressing

Grilled ox heart, baked borlotti beans and salsa rossa

Roast sticky salsify, glazed cipollini onion and gorgonzola fonduta

Bocconcini with grilled marinated radicchio

Castelfranco, blood orange, pomegranate, mint and ubriaco salad

Pink grapefruit, lamb’s lettuce and salted ricotta

Agretti, new season olive oil and lemon

Bruschetta

Braised cuttlefish, dried porcini, thyme and Marsala with bone marrow bruschetta

Burrata and anchovy

Rabbit offal

Sardine, nduja, Datterini tomato, oregano and lemon

Mushyish peas

Quail, sweet onion, cherry and almond on chopped chicken liver bruschetta

Mussel fritti

Rabbit with rosemary and orange salt

Pig ear with anchovy

Shallot with gorgonzola fonduta

Squash, chilli and taleggio

Fontina cheese, sweet onion, sourdough, golden garlic and Marsala

Borlotti bean, pancetta, Treviso and new season olive oil

Chilled almond and Charentais melon

Fish and bean soup

Tripe, pig trotter, nduja, chickpea and cime di rapa

Antipasti

When I was a kid, my gorgeous Ma first introduced me to the idea of antipasti, except that, being English, she called them ‘snackettes’. Whether we were on holiday or on weekends, or just after hours of running around playing, she would often produce a tray of pit-stop goodies to refuel us until supper.

When, years later, I first started eating in Italy, I soon realised that seasonal antipasti is pretty much everywhere there. Go to a hole in the wall for a spritz and you get served a mixed plate of olives, breadsticks and cured meats. Hang out in a trattoria, order from the counter and get a selection of crostinis, marinated anchovies and arancini. Eat at an agriturismo and an Italian mamma will bring out a selection of seasonal home-grown wilted greens tossed in olive oil from their grove, chopped chicken liver and fresh focaccia and, if you’re lucky, fresh cheese made from their goats. Basically, antipasti is a style of grazing that can be the start of a big feast (and the catalyst to good times) or simply something to fill rumbling tummies between meals while having a glass or two.

At Trullo, we always recommend the idea of sharing antipasti but in England people often have it as an individual starter or singularly as a light lunch – do whatever floats your boat.

Pot-roast Brussels sprouts, crispy pancetta, chestnut and gorgonzola fonduta

Brussels sprouts have a bad rep in the UK, as we tend only to cook them as part of Christmas dinner where they’re often neglected and become a nostalgic nuisance. But, while this recipe uses traditional sprout-friendly ingredients like pancetta and chestnuts, it brings the misunderstood dwarf cabbage to the fore and allows it to have centre stage.

Serves 4

2–3 rashers pancetta

2–3 cooked chestnuts

20g unsalted butter

a splash of olive oil

880g Brussels sprouts (220g per person), washed and roots trimmed

a good glug of Marsala

450ml chicken stock (see here)

3 heaped tablespoons gorgonzola dolce

1 tablespoon crème fraîche

a small handful of chopped parsley

salt and black pepper

Heat your grill to high, or put a frying pan on a medium to high heat. Grill or fry the pancetta until crisp then remove and leave on a metal rack to cool and crisp further. Break up into small sprinkly bits.

Coarsely chop the chestnuts into little pieces and fry in butter on a low heat until crispy. Drain on kitchen paper.

Heat a splash of olive oil in a pan on a medium to low heat and fry the Brussels sprouts until golden. Add some Marsala and reduce for a minute. Add enough chicken stock to cover the Brussels by three-quarters, and season with salt and pepper. Cover with a lid and cook on a low to medium heat for about 12 minutes; you want the sprouts to be soft but not squidgy.

While the sprouts are cooking, heat the gorgonzola dolce and crème fraîche together in a pan over a very low heat, stirring occasionally, until the gorgonzola melts and they become one in a smooth, creamy fonduta.

Place the Brussels sprouts on hot plates and gloss with the cooking liquid; pour the fonduta all over and sprinkle over the chestnuts, pancetta and parsley.

Seared chicken liver, raspberry, frisée and chive salad with mustard dressing

This makes a perfect starter or light lunch on a warm summer’s day when raspberries are in season and singing.

The recipe makes a large quantity of dressing, but you can keep it in the fridge for five days. Use it on salad, or get more creative and mix it through mashed potato, stir it through chopped leeks to make leeks vinaigrette, or spoon it over chicken before roasting for a nice mustardy crust.

Serves 2

1 whole frisée, washed

16 fresh raspberries

1 tablespoon finely chopped chives

a splash of olive oil

10 chicken livers (ask your butcher to remove any sinew)

For the dressing (makes about 450ml)

2 tablespoons Dijon mustard

300ml olive oil

½ tablespoon red wine vinegar

¼ garlic clove, minced

salt and pepper

First make the dressing. Put the Dijon mustard in a mixing bowl and slowly whisk in the olive oil until it emulsifies. Add the vinegar and garlic and season with salt and pepper to taste.

Heat a frying pan on a medium heat.

Tear the frisée into roughly 4cm strips and put in a separate mixing bowl along with the raspberries and chives.

Add a touch of olive oil to the hot frying pan, followed by the livers. Sear them on one side for 1½ minutes, then turn over and sear the other side for 1 minute. Remove from the pan to a plate and leave to stand for 60 seconds, then slice each liver into three pieces.

Mix the salad with the warm livers and some dressing. Serve immediately.

Sea bass carpaccio with blood orange and fennel

Clean, healthy, tasty and so pretty!

Serves 2

1 blood orange

100g super-fresh sea bass (ideally wild), filleted and pin-boned

a glug of olive oil

4 sprigs of fennel tops, picked (alternatively, a small sprinkle of toasted and pounded fennel seeds would work)

salt

You will need to prepare 8 segments of orange. Top and tail the orange on a chopping board. Sit it on its tail and, with a sharp knife, cut off the rind and pith. You will see the natural divides of the segments. Working over a bowl in order to catch the juice, cut in between these divides: what will slot out will be little wedges of orange.

Slice the sea bass fillets on an angle so that you end up with pieces of sea bass around 4cm long and 1cm thick. Lay them out on a plate and sprinkle with salt. Leave for a couple of minutes for the salt to react with the fish – as in curing, the salt reacts with the protein and starts to take the moisture out, tenderising the flesh, making the texture a little smoother and giving you better flavour.

Fill in the gaps on the plate with orange segments. Pour any orange juice from the bowl on the fish and drizzle the whole dish with olive oil. Garnish with fennel tops.

Sea bass carpaccio with blood orange and fennel

Steamed asparagus with chopped egg yolk, cornichon, caper, tarragon and chervil

Asparagus comes back into our lives around late spring, and at Trullo we tend to have a variety of asparagus recipes on the menu. We gorge on the fat, juicy emerald spears for the six or so weeks they’re around and then leave them be until next year. If asparagus isn’t in season you could use leeks here instead.

Do buy salt-packed capers: the brined ones taste too vinegary. To desalinate, simply rinse the capers and leave them in a bowl of water for an hour or two, changing the water a couple of times. Moscatel vinegar is sweet and quite subtle, it works well as a gentle acid background – I find other vinegars too strong for this dish.

Serves 2

2 large free-range or organic eggs (at room temperature)

1 tablespoon finely chopped tarragon leaves

1 tablespoon finely chopped flat-leaf parsley leaves

8 sprigs of chervil, picked

1 teaspoon capers, desalinated and finely chopped

1 tablespoon cornichons, roughly chopped

a splash of Moscatel vinegar

a glug of olive oil

14 asparagus spears, or 10 baby leeks or 2 leeks

salt and black pepper

Boil the eggs for 9 minutes, then leave to cool and peel. Cut each in half and discard half of the egg white. Roughly chop the yolks with the remaining whites, and put in a bowl. Add the herbs, capers, cornichons, vinegar and olive oil. Mix thoroughly and season with salt and pepper.

Trim the asparagus and discard any woody stalks. Boil in lightly salted water for 3 minutes and drain.

Line the asparagus on a plate like soldiers and spoon the egg mixture in a thick line across the middle.

Steamed asparagus with chopped egg yolk, cornichon, caper, tarragon and chervil

Burrata with smashed broad beans, anchovy and chilli

Simple and sexy, this is best when made with the smaller broad beans you get at the beginning of summer.

It’s important to use really good-quality salted anchovies – I like the Ortiz brand. If you want to, use whole anchovies; to debone them, first pull off the head, then hold on to the spine and in one motion pull the bone away.

Serves 2

100g broad beans, podded

4 anchovy fillets, or 2 salted whole anchovies

100ml olive oil

½ teaspoon finely chopped deseeded dried chilli

1 teaspoon finely grated lemon zest

juice of ¼ lemon

2 x 120g burrata (you could also use good-quality buffalo mozzarella)

salt

Boil the broad beans in lightly salted water for 1 minute, then drain and put in iced water to stop the cooking process, then drain immediately.

Slice the anchovy fillets into whiskers.

With a pestle and mortar, smash the broad beans with a tiny sprinkle of salt so they break up coarsely. Add the olive oil, chilli, lemon zest, juice and the anchovy whiskers, and stir together. Leave for 10 minutes to macerate.

Tear the burrata on to plates and spoon the broad bean mix over the top.

Baccalà and green tomato with oregano and Cabernet Sauvignon vinegar dressing

The sweetness of this dressing against the sharp tomato and creamy salt cod is a frisky combination.

The baccalà (dried, salted cod) lasts for 3–5 days in the fridge and is good to have around, so I recommend making a slightly bigger batch than required. I like any leftovers on hot toast, stirred into pasta, mixed into beans with a splash of water then blitzed slightly to make soup, packed into courgette flowers and steamed, spread in a sandwich with sliced soft boiled egg and watercress, or with crispy pancetta for a breakfast sandwich… The possibilities are endless!

Serves 2

a drizzle of olive oil

1 teaspoon Cabernet Sauvignon vinegar

a sprinkle of dried oregano

2 tomatoes, ideally green for a sharper flavour

For the baccalà

300ml olive oil

300g desalinated salt cod

4 bay leaves

3 garlic cloves, roughly chopped

juice of ½ lemon

salt and black pepper

First make the baccalà. In a saucepan large enough to hold the salt cod, heat the olive oil on a low heat. Add the bay leaves and chopped garlic, and fry for 20 minutes until soft. Discard the bay leaves, turn the heat to medium, add the salt cod and cook for 5 minutes more until the cod breaks up.

Strain the cod through a sieve or colander with a bowl underneath to catch the cod-infused oil. Transfer the cod to a food processor and whizz for a minute. Start to incorporate the cod-infused oil in a steady thin stream until the cod becomes a thick paste (not runny). Add the lemon juice, and a good grind of black pepper and salt to taste (how much you need will depend on how salty your cod is).