Try this four-course Italian menu at your next dinner party

Just in time for the height of the British summer, these fresh recipes from Ben Waugh, executive chef at Bancone, Covent Garden – which serves delicious, affordable hand made pasta – will transport you straight to Italy.

Panzanella burrata

Ingredients:

For the toasted focaccia:

500g focaccia

50ml olive oil

10g salt

For the burrata, panzanella:

60g heirloom tomato

4g red onion

1 piece burrata

2g dill

8ml lemon vinaigrette

1g Maldon salt

Method:

1. Make the focaccia. Dice the offcuts of facaccia into 2cm x 2cm cubes.

2. Place onto an oven tray and mix well with olive oil and salt. Bake in the oven on 170C for 12 minutes.

3. Now make the panzanella. Cut the tomato into 2cm x 2cm cubes. Put the tomato and red onion in a bowl and season with salt and lemon vinaigrette.

4. Put the burrata in the middle of the plate and place the tomato onion mixture around it with 5 pieces of foccacia. Garnish with 5 small sprigs of dill.

5. Season the burrata with olive oil, Maldon salt and cracked black pepper, and serve.

Anchovies sourdough

Ingredients:

For the aromatic oil:

100g marjoram

100g thyme

100g rosemary

100g garlic, peeled

5L extra virgin olive oil

For the lemon vinaigrette:

100ml lemon juice

20g dijon mustard

10g lemon zest

5g salt

500ml aromatic extra virgin olive oil (above)

For the shallot rings:

1000g shallot

100ml lemon vinaigrette (above)

For the anchovies, grilled sourdough:

20g anchovies

1 piece sourdough

5 ml extra virgin olive oil

10g parsley

5ml lemon vinaigrette (above)

20g shallot rings (above)

Method:

1. Make the aromatic oil. Pour 1 litre extra virgin olive oil into a pan and cook the garlic until golden brown.

2. Add the marjoram, thyme an drosemary and cook for 1-2 minutes.

3. Add another 4 litres of oil to the pan. Warm until the temperature is 65C and remove from the heat, allowing time to infuse and cool down.

4. Now make the lemon vinaigrette. Mix the lemon juice, dijon mustard, lemon zest and salt in a thermomix bowl.

5. Mix with the aromatic oil batch in a steady stream for 30 seconds on max level to emulsify.

5. For the shallot rings, slice the shallots width-ways to make rings. Pull out the complete pieces and place in a container. Add the lemon vinaigrette and marinate.

6. Cut the sourdoug loaf into 12 slices. Brush the extra virgin olive oil and toast on the grill until marks appear.

7. Lay 4 anchovies on top on the angle (diagonally). On the side of the plate, dress the parsley with lemon vinaigrette and the shallot rings.

Cornish cod tagliatelle

Ingredients:

For the cod sauce:

3kg plum tomato, roughly chopped

500g onion

200g tomato paste

200g olive oil

100g sugar

20g garlic

100g basil

30g chili

300g white wine

2.5kg tinned tomatoes

30g salt

For the cod:

1 fillet cod

500g salt

5L water

10g oil

For the tagliatelle:

100g tagliatelle

65g cod (above)

5g capers

5g olives

80g cod sauce (above)

5g chopped parsley

2g sun-dried tomato powder

Method:

1. In a pan, bring the olive oil up to temperature, add the onion and garlic and cook until soft without colour.

2. Add the chilli and tomato paste and cook for 5 minutes.

3. Add the chopped plum tomatoes and cook for 3 minutes, then add the white wine and reduce by half.

4. Add the tinned tomatoes, sugar, salt and basil, and cook for 1 hour on low heat.

5. Blitz the sauce in a blender and pass through a fine Chinoise, checking to taste the seasoning. This is your cod sauce.

6. Skin the cod fillet and remove any loose parts from the chain side. Trim the tail and barrel the fish so it’s a similar shape from head to tail.

7. Dissole the salt in 1 litre boiling water, then add the other 4 litres of cold water. Let cool.

8. Place the cod in the brine for 20 minutes. Dry well, then roll in cling film into a tight sausage shape. Set in the firdge for minimum 2 hours.

9. Once set, weight the whole piece of fish and figure out how many portions you need. Mark the portions with a knife on the cod, then cut into 60-70g pieces.

10. Sear the cod in a hot non-stick pan on one side, then place in the 50C confit oil.

11. In a pan, warm the tomato sauce, olivers and capers.

12. Blanch the pasta, then add to the sauce and finish with parsley.

13. Drain the cod from the bath. Plate the paste in a ring with the cod on top. Dust with tomato powder, and serve.

Plum and lemon meringue

Ingredients:

For the meringue:

400g caster sugar

400g icing sugar

12 egg whites

For the vanilla custard:

1350ml double cream

1 vanilla pod

240ml liquid egg yolk

100g honey

9g gelatine (3 pieces)

For the lemon confit:

600g caster sugar

1kg lemon (10 pieces)

1L water

For the plum, lemon, meringue:

1 piece meringue (above)

30g vanilla custard (above)

1g basil, fried (1 piece)

15ml lemon confit (above)

¼ plum, sliced (5 slices)

Method:

1. Make the meringue by putting the egg whites in the kitchen aid bowl on max speed. Mix the icing sugar and caster sugar together. Once the egg has structure, add the sugar in 3 stages. Allow to whisk until firm peaks are achieved. Put the meringue into a piping bag.

2. Put the ring (size 5) into a container of hot water. Line a tray with oil spray and parchment paper. Pipe the meringue mix into the ring up to the top. Replace the ring into the hot water to clean. Repeat the piping until the tray is full, leaving space for the meringue to swell/grow.

3. Cook in the oven at 110C/fan 2 for 17 minutes. After the 17 minutes, turn the tray around and cook again for another 17 minutes. Once finished, take out and allow to cool on the tray. Once cooled, place in a container and put in the freezer.

4. Now for the vanilla custard. In the thermomix, put all the ingredients apart from the gelatine and mix on speed 4 on the varoma setting. Allow to cook until 82C, then add the bloomed gelatine and pass through a Chinoise. Allow to cool in a tray. Whisk the mix in a kitchen aid until firm, then put into a piping bag.

5. Cut the lemons with skin on into pieces, removing the heart and seeds. Dissolve the sugar in the water and add the lemon. Warm up and cook on medium heat until lemon is soft and cooked. Strain the lemon from the syrup, but keep the liquid. Chop the lemon into small pieces, put into a mixing bowl and add the syrup back in to make a marmalade consistency.

6. Pipe 30g vanilla custard into the bottom of the meringue. Put a dot of custard in the middle of the sharing plate to secure the meringue. Put 15ml of evenly spread confit lemon on top of the meringue nest. Cut the plum into quarters and remove the stone. Slice the quarters into 5 slices. Lay out the slices on top of the confit lemon and meringue nest. Add a little dot of confit lemon on top of the sliced plum to hold the leaf of fried basil.

Bancone, 39 William IV Street, London, WC2N 4DD | 020 7240 8786 | bancone.co.uk