A flavour of Italy from a true Englishman

Happy with the result, the broad-shouldered former Wasps and England rugby union captain, who retired in 2008, proceeds to attack his lunch with zest.

“Because my dad was in the hotel business, I was always waiting in the restaurant. I built up some expensive tastes,” the 38-year-old chuckles. “Hotel food can be a little bit samey. While on tour I would always try and find the restaurants where the locals would eat, so you know you’ll get good food.”

These days he has had to cut down on the calories.

“I have to be mindful as I’m not doing as much exercise as I was. The 12-pack is slowly shrinking, and the hair’s already gone.”

Dallaglio, has just launched his first cookbook, My Italian Family.

“I have been very involved with food and everything to do with food all my life, being Italian,” he explains.

“Food was a celebration of our life and that passion for food is something that I have taken on. And it came in quite handy as a rugby player as well, with all the training.”

For Lawrence, born Lorenzo, this project is the culmination of a lifelong journey.

Three years ago, his mother Eileen died from cancer and in the same year Dallaglio began working on a cooking project with his Italian father Vincenzo, 76, the man who taught him to appreciate food. They started to develop a range of pasta sauces for Sacla and put the cookery book together.

“It happened just at the time when we lost my mother. My father always said it would be lovely to do something with our family recipes.

“The process helped bring my father and I closer together after the death of my mother,” he says. “The recipes were still very hard to prise away from him, though. You know Italians.”

Vincenzo moved to London after the Second World War and married Eileen, an Irish immigrant living in the East End. Summer holidays for Lawrence and his sister Francesca, who died at 19 when the Marchioness riverboat sank on the Thames in 1989, were spent in Turin, where his grandparents ran a fruit stall.

Growing up, meal times were very important. Despite his parents working multiple shifts in order to send him and Francesca to the best schools they could afford, there were “no TV dinners”. He attended fee-paying King’s House School in Richmond and then Ampleforth College boarding school in North Yorkshire.

“I’ve always been portrayed as the very essence of Englishness as captain of the England rugby team, but really you can’t get more Italian than Dallaglio.

“I was given an award the other day called the True Englishman of the Year and I pointed out that it was surprising I qualified, with a name like Lorenzo Nero Bruno Dallaglio.

“I reckon an Italian father and an Irish mother makes me a very dangerous Englishman indeed.”

While he admits the cookbook, which centres around three generations of Dallagio men cooking (Vincenzo, Lorenzo and his son Enzo) was a “slightly selfish legacy”, the result is still touching.

It includes pictures of Dallaglio’s wife, Alice, his mother, and daughter Ella. Perhaps the most touching is one of Dallaglio and his sister Francesca, taken years before the tragic event that led his mother to campaign for justice throughout her life, and inspired Dallaglio to start his own charitable foundation.

“Life is about shared experiences and I have always been a team player,” he says.

“Mum would be very proud of this book. She had a wonderful life of great food, being looked after by a man who could cook – although she would think of a way to say that she was responsible for teaching us!”

Sea bass roasted with potatoes, tomatoes and olives

Serves 4

800g potatoes, peeled and sliced, 1 large onion, peeled and finely sliced, 3tbsp olive oil, 300ml hot fish stock, salt and freshly ground black pepper, 2 large sea bass or bream, 4 plum tomatoes, halved, handful of black olives, 2tbsp capers, sprigs of fresh basil.

Preheat the oven to 200C/Gas Mark 6. Put the potatoes and onion in a large roasting tin. Drizzle with 2 tbsp of the oil and pour over the hot stock. Season well. Roast in the oven for 40 minutes.

Slash the fish two or three times on each side, then place on top of the potatoes. Season again. Add the tomatoes, drizzle over the remaining oil and roast for a further 20 minutes. Add the olives and capers for the last 5 minutes of cooking. The dish is ready when the fish is opaque.

Take out of the oven, sprinkle with the basil and serve immediately.

Hunter’s chicken

Serves 4-6

1-2 tbsp olive oil, 1 onion, peeled and chopped, 200g chestnut mushrooms, halved if large, 1 garlic clove, peeled and crushed, 4 chicken thighs, 4 chicken drumsticks, salt and freshly ground black pepper, 400g can chopped tomatoes, 125ml white wine, few sprigs of oregano, 1tbsp freshly chopped parsley.

Heat the oil in a large sauté pan and fry the onion for about 10 minutes until softened. Add the mushrooms and garlic, and cook until golden. Set aside on a plate.

Add another drizzle of oil, if necessary, and brown the chicken pieces in the pan, seasoning as you go. Return the onion mixture to the pan and pour over the tomatoes, wine and 150ml boiling water. Add the oregano. Cover and simmer for 20 minutes until the chicken is cooked. Sprinkle with parsley before serving. Serve with tagliatelle, polenta or boiled potatoes.

My Italian Family Cookbook by Lawrence Dallaglio is published in hardback by Simon & Schuster, priced £18.99. To order a copy from the Yorkshire Post Bookshop call free on 0800 0153232 or go online at www.yorkshirepostbookshop. co.uk. Postage and packing is £2.75.