Triglia di Scoglio con Zafferano, Porri e Bottarga (Italian Crispy Red Mullet with Saffron, Braised Leeks and Bottarga) This dish has one ambition and everything else serves it: the skin of the red mullet has to shatter. Triglia di scoglio carries a thin, brilliantly coloured skin that crisps better than almost any Mediterranean fish, and it is also the first thing a cook ruins, usually by letting a damp fillet reach the pan. Under that skin sits a very delicate fish. The fle

Petto di Pollo con Nocciole, Porri e Timo (Italian Hazelnut Chicken Breast) This is a Langhe plate in everything but the meat. The hazelnut is the subject: Tonda Gentile, toasted until the skins crack and slip, part of it crushed into the sauce where it thickens and part kept back as coarse granella that goes on last and still crunches at the table. Chicken breasts are seared, leeks are stewed slowly in the same pan until sweet and almost melting, and a little white wine and

Petto di Pollo allo Zafferano con Porri e Vino Bianco (Italian Saffron Chicken Breast) Saffron is the most expensive spice in the world and the easiest one to waste. Drop the threads whole into a hot pan and most of their colour and almost all of their perfume stay locked inside the dried stigma. Bloom them in a little warm liquid and a pinch the size of a fingernail turns a sauce deep amber and fills the kitchen with something between honey, hay and dried orange peel. The re