One World Kitchen

Italian chef and instructor, Vanessa Gianfrancesco, shares with us how to make some Italian staples, including gnocchi, polenta and pesto. After making the potato gnocchi dough, she serves them up in two different ways. For the first batch, she delicately boils them and then makes a fabulous homemade pesto to toss them in. For the rest, she browns them in a pan and then creates a rich and tangy cream sauce with gorgonzola cheese. Next she makes a creamy polenta that she has two different ideas for. After firming it up, she slices the polenta into pieces and grills them to be served alongside her prosciutto-wrapped shrimp cooked flambé-style in Sambuca. She cuts the rest of the polenta into strips and deep fries them to create polenta frites. This is served alongside one of her favourite dishes, saltimbocca—a veal cutlet lined with prosciutto and spinach, then pan fried with a Marsala wine sauce.