Top Tuscan chefs Giancarlo and Katie Caldesi are passionate about their food. Try these simple recipes and bring a flavour of Italy to your home

Endive salad with Gorgonzola, Pinenuts and Honey Salad

Katie Caldesi says:
This is great served as an appetiser or with drinks. Endives, also known as chicory, has boat-shaped leaves that are easy to pick up and provide the perfect vessel for the cheese and nuts. The sweetness of the honey matches perfectly with the bitterness of the endive.

I'm a bit of a black pepper nut so I like this with a twist of pepper to finish but having travelled a great deal in Italy recently they tend to leave it out of delicate salads like this; but I will leave it up to you to make the choice.

Serves 4

• 2 endives
• 100g Gorgonzola Dolcelatte
• 30g Pinenuts
• 1 1/2 tbsp good quality runny honey
• 1 1/2 tbsp olive oil

Cut the end of both the endives and gently break off all the leaves, one by one, arranging them on a serving dish so that they resemble little boats in which to carry the ingredients. Crumble over the Gorgonzola Dolcelatte making sure each leaf gets an equal helping. Take your honey and, raising the spoon high over the salad, drizzle over the salad creating a lovely cobweb effect over the leaves. Then pour over the olive oil in a similar way. Finally, toast the pinenuts lightly in a saucepan and when done scatter over the endives.

Serve with a chilled glass of Gabbiano Pinot Grigio IGT Delle Venezie

Baked Red Peppers filled with Four-Cheese Souffle

Katie Caldesi says: These make a great lunch or dinner party dish, they are light and colourful and easy to serve with just some dressed salad leaves on the side. Use a different combination of cheeses depending on what you have in your fridge but try to make sure one of them is blue to inject a real punch of flavour. Use either the traditional red peppers that we are familiar with or look out for the Romano variety that are long and thin. If you use these however, the cooking time will be less by around 5 minutes. These peppers can be re-heated later or the following day and the souffles will rise again.

• 4 red Romano or bell peppers
• 150ml milk
Half a small onion, peeled
• 1 bay leaf
• Good pinch of nutmeg
• Salt and pepper
• 25g butter
• 20g plain flour
• 75g Parmesan, finely grated
• 50g ricotta
• 50g Talleggio, cut into small chunks
• 75g gorgonzola, cut into small chunks
• 2 eggs, separated

Preheat the oven to 180C/350F/Gas Mark 4.

Make a bechamel sauce by putting the milk, onion, bay leaf, nutmeg and black pepper and a small pinch of salt into a medium sized saucepan over the heat and bringing to a gentle boil. Meanwhile melt the butter in a small saucepan and stir in the flour. Remove the bay leaves and onion from the milk. Cook for a few minutes over a medium heat and then add the mixture to the milk while whisking furiously. When the mixtures are combined, replace the whisk with a wooden spoon and stir until the cheeses are melted. Pour the mixture into a bowl and leave to cool for a few minutes, covered with cling film pressed on to the surface to stop a skin forming.

Prepare the peppers by cutting them in half lengthways through the stalk as well. Pick out all the seeds and put them on a tray in readiness.

Mix the egg whites in a clean bowl with a whisk or electric beater until the soft peak stage. Beat the egg yolks and then add them to the bechamel. Then fold the egg whites into the rest of the ingredients in the saucepan. Spoon the souffle mixture into the peppers and bake at 180C for 25 minutes or until the souffles have risen and become golden brown.

Serve with a glass of chilled Gabbiano Pinot Grigio IGT Delle Venezie

Beef Ragu with Gabbiano Chianti DOCG

Katie Caldesi says
This is a rich and utterly delicious beef Ragu for pasta. The Gabbiano Chianti DOCG matches perfectly with the beef and flavour from the bacon resulting in a full-bodied and robust sauce.

Serves 6

• 150ml olive oil
• 2 garlic cloves, peeled and lightly crushed
• Pepper and salt
• 1 red onion, finely chopped
• 2 carrots, finely chopped
• 2 large celery sticks, finely chopped
• 2 bay leaves
• 1kg minced beef
• 100g pancetta or unsmoked bacon, chopped
• 3 x 400g tins of tomatoes
• 150ml water
• 300ml Gabbiano Chianti DOCG

Heat the oil in a large saucepan and fry the garlic, pepper and salt for a couple of minutes. Add the carrots, celery, onion and bay leaves and leave to cook for 10 minutes or so until softened. Meanwhile, put the tomatoes into a bowl and break them up a little with your hands, wash out the tins of tomatoes with the water and add this to the bowl.

Add the mince and the pancetta to the pan and fry until browned breaking it up with a wooden spoon. Any water in the mince should come out at this point so when you see the mince starting to look dry, add the wine and then reduce for a couple of minutes. When you have done this, add the tomatoes and bring the Ragu to the boil then immediately lower it to gentle simmer. Leave for at 30 minutes adding a little more water if the Ragu starts to look dry, this shouldn't be necessary if it is only just simmering. To be traditionally Tuscan, serve tossed with fresh Pappardelle ribbons of pasta.

Pasta with Seafood and Cherry Tomatoes 'Al Cartoccio'

Katie Caldesi says
Literally translated 'al cartoccio' means cooked 'in a parcel'. The incredible flavours of the seafood are kept within the bag resulting in a wonderful aroma when the paper parcel is cut open. This dish is normally cooked with dried pasta but I love this version as the more absorbent fresh pasta really soaks up the juices and enhances the flavour.

Serves 4

• 4 tablespoons of extra-virgin olive oil
• 1 shallot, finely chopped
• Salt and pepper
• 2 whole cloves of garlic, peeled and lightly crushed
• 1 red chilli, deseeded and sliced
• 300g vine cherry tomatoes, halved
• 1 sprig of parsley left whole
• 500g assorted seafood such as tuna, salmon, prawns, monkfish, squid, clams, mussels
• 150ml Gabbiano Pinot Grigio IGT Delle Venezie wine
• 100ml fish stock or water
• 300g pasta such as linguine, fettuccine or tagliatelle
• 4 large sheets of baking parchment

Pre-heat the oven to 200C. Boil a large saucepan of salted water. Meanwhile put a frying pan onto a medium heat and add the olive oil. Add the chilli, shallot, garlic, pepper and salt and fry for 2 minutes.

Then add the seafood to the frying pan and continue cooking for two minutes or until all the shells are open. Discard any that stay closed. Add the cherry tomatoes and parsley and cook for another couple of minutes. Finally add the Gabbiano wine, simmer and reduce briefly. Add the fish stock or the water.

Cook the pasta according to instructions on packet but undercook by a couple of minutes. When the pasta is ready, drain immediately and add to the seafood mixture in the frying pan. Toss the ingredients together.

Spread out four pieces of baking parchment on to a work surface and using a pair of tongs, put four even portions of the pasta onto them. Pour over any juices - they will be absorbed by the pasta during cooking. Wrap up the parcels like presents by pulling the parchment up from the front and back into the middle. Fold the top edges together over and over again leaving the join in the centre. Then turn in the side ends inwards several times to seal in the juices. Put them into the oven for 5 minutes. Remove, unwrap the centre join to let out the steam and bring to the table still in cartoccio.

Pears poached in Gabbiano Chianti DOCG

• 6 fat, ripe pears e.g. Comice
• 6 cloves
• 1 stick cinnamon
• 1 vanilla pod, split in half lengthways
• 1 piece of lemon zest, 5cm long
• 1 piece of orange zest, 5cm long
• 1 bottle Gabbiano Chianti DOCG red wine
• 100g caster sugar
• 75ml mild honey, such as Acacia

Peel the pears and spike each one with one clove on its bottom, near the centre. Put them into a saucepan stems facing upwards. Pour over the Gabbiano wine, add the sugar, honey, vanilla, cinnamon stick and zests.

Bring the wine up to a gentle boil and then turn down to simmer for one hour, uncovered. Turn the pears gently a couple of times. Using a slotted spoon remove the pears to a serving dish. Reduce the wine for around ten minutes and then sieve it into a serving jug. Pour a little over the pears and put the rest of the table.

These make a heavenly combination served with a little piece of rich chocolate cake like the torta caprese and some Amaretto cream.

Rose Wine Jelly

Katie Caldesi says

This is a lovely summer dessert. The raspberries fully complement the red berry fruit flavours of the Gabbiano rose wine. This is great for dinner parties as it can be made in advance and left in the fridge to chill.

Serves 4

• 500ml Gabbiano Rose IGT Toscana
• 100g sugar
• 4 leaves of gelatine
• 200g raspberries

Soak the gelatine leaves in cold water. Pour the Gabbiano rose wine into a medium saucepan and add the sugar. Bring to the boil stirring occasionally. Remove it from heat when boiled. Once it's off the heat take the gelatine and, squeezing out the water, put it into the wine and sugar, taking care that it is mixed in well.

Pour the jelly into a cold jug and leave to cool. Divide the raspberries between four glasses or moulds evenly and when the jelly mixture has cooled (but not set) pour into the glasses or moulds.

NOTE: If you are in a hurry to cool the jelly, pour into a bowl and stand over another bowl 1/3 full of ice and cold water.

Gabbiano Pinot Grigio IGT Delle Venezie, Gabbiano Chianti DOCG and Gabbiano Rose Toscana wines are all available from Asda priced £4.99.

To learn more about Tuscan cookery, join Giancarlo and Katie at their cookery school La Cucina Caldesi