I enjoyed an unrestricted, free-range childhood in the tiny village of Minori on the Amalfi coast of southern Italy. The mountains were my back garden and the turquoise sea was my paddling pool. I spent my days fishing, hunting and gathering herbs. It was the perfect apprenticeship for a chef, but school didn't feature much in my life. I came to England in 1969 at the age of 20. By day I was a porter at a hospital but by night I worked in an Italian restaurant in Soho. At the time the only Italian foods people knew were spaghetti bolognese and ice cream... and that upset me. I decided to return to Italy and learn as much as I could about real Italian food. After a year travelling around Italy, I brought my rekindled passion back to England and I worked in the kitchens of Antonio Carluccio's restaurant.

In 1999 I opened my own restaurant, Passione, on Charlotte Street in London. When I started writing this book it brought back many memories, so it seemed fitting to retrace my childhood footsteps along the Amalfi coast and produce the book there.

We cooked and photographed these recipes in the sun, through thunderstorms and into the night with the passions and flavours of my childhood still there, unchanged.

Peperoni ripieni: Stuffed baby peppers

For this recipe, try to use small peppers or the small, sweet, long peppers. If you use the latter, just hem lengthways and remove the seeds, then make the filling as below, except for the provolone which you should slice in strips and place over the top of the peppers. Bake these for 20 minutes. If you can't find either type, use ordinary peppers, and serve one per person.

serves 4

8 red or yellow baby peppers

2 large potatoes, boiled and mashed

75g provolone cheese, cut into very small cubes

4 tablespoons freshly grated Parmesan cheese

1 egg

3 tablespoons finely chopped fresh chives

a little olive oil for drizzling

salt and freshly ground black pepper

Preheat the oven to 200¡C (400¡F, gas mark 6). Remove the stalks from the peppers and set aside. With a small, sharp knife remove the white membrane and seeds from inside the peppers, taking care not to tear the flesh.

Mix together the mashed potatoes, provolone, parmesan, egg, chives and some salt and pepper. Using a teaspoon, fill the peppers three-quarters full with the mixture and then put the stalks back in place, like a stopper. Pack the peppers tightly into an ovenproof dish, drizzle with olive oil and bake for about 30 minutes, until tender. Serve immediately with a good green salad. They are also delicious eaten cold.

Zuppa di borlotti: Fresh borlotti bean soup

If you can find fresh borlotti beans at the market or your greengrocer's in spring, buy them; they taste delicious. The pod is the same shape as a broad bean but the colour is a pretty cream and mottled reddish purple.

If you can't get fresh borlotti, soak the dried variety overnight, drain them and follow the recipe below. You will need to double the cooking time.

serves 4-6

120ml olive oil

1 onion, finely chopped

1 carrot, finely chopped

1 celery stalk, finely chopped

1/2 leek, finely chopped

400g fresh borlotti beans (shelled weight)

a handful of parsley stalks, finely chopped

3 ripe cherry tomatoes, quartered

1 garlic clove, crushed

1.5 litres vegetable stock

a handful of celery leaves

salt and freshly ground black pepper

crostini and extra virgin olive oil, to serve (optional)

Heat the olive oil in a large saucepan, add the onion, carrot, celery and leek and sweat until softened. Stir in the borlotti beans and parsley stalks, then add the tomatoes, garlic and stock and bring to the boil. Reduce the heat, cover the pan and simmer for 50 minutes, until the beans are tender. Stir in the celery leaves, then taste and adjust the seasoning. Serve with crostini and a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil, if desired.

Gamberoni e Granchio con aglio e peperoncino: King prawns and crab with garlic and chilli

Always use fresh seafood for this dish. Prawns and crab make a great combination but if you prefer not to use crab, just substitute extra prawns. If you find it difficult to extract the crab meat from its shell, ask your fishmonger to do it for you.

serves 4

2 large live crabs (see method)

175 ml extra virgin olive oil

12 fresh raw king prawns, shell on

8 garlic cloves, sliced lengthways

2 red chillies, sliced lengthways into strips

2 handfuls of fresh flat-leaf parsley leaves

250 ml white wine

1 lemon, cut into quarters, to serve

salt

Either ask the fishmonger to kill the crabs for you, without boiling them, and reserving their juices, or kill them yourself (if the fishmonger does it, you will have to use them as soon as you get home). To kill them yourself, wrap each crab in clingfilm or fold it up inside a thick plastic bag, then wrap in newspaper. Place on a chopping board and whack as hard as you can with a rolling pin, which should kill the crab instantly. Unwrap the crab (all the juices will be saved in the clingfilm or plastic bag), twist off the tail flap, break up the claws and remove all the flesh, trying to keep it in chunks. Put all the crab meat in a bowl and set aside.

Heat the olive oil in a large frying pan, add the prawns and cook for 1 minute over a high heat. Turn them over and cook the other side for another minute. Add the garlic, chillies and crab chunks, season with salt, then reduce the heat and cook for a couple of minutes with the lid on. Add the parsley, increase the heat and add the wine and the reserved juices from the crab. Bubble until evaporated, then serve immediately, with lemon quarters and lots of bread to mop up the juices.

Antipasto di pesche e prosciutto crudo di Parma: Antipasto of fresh peaches and Parma ham

Parma ham with melon, Parma ham with figs...both wonderful combinations, but in the middle of a warm summer why not with peaches? It makes a lovely and refreshing starter, but you must use ripe peaches. The small organic ones are delicious if you can find them.

per person

1 ripe peach

a few slices of Parma ham, very thinly and freshly cut

a handful of rocket

extra virgin olive oil

freshly ground black pepper

Remove the skin from the peach (immerse the peach in boiling water for a minute, then it will come off easily). Cut the peach in half and discard the stone. Arrange on a plate with the Parma ham and rocket. Drizzle with olive oil and grind over some black pepper.

Sarago in aqua pazza: Whole sea bream cooked with cherry tomatoes

This dish is very typical of all southern Italian coastal regions. Freshly caught sea bream, fresh tomatoes, basil, extra virgin olive oil and garlic - it encompasses the taste of the sea and the flavours of the South. It is an extremely simple dish to prepare and, provided you have the freshest ingredients and good-quality extra virgin olive oil, you can't go wrong. Even if you live in the city and make this dish on a miserable, grey day, it will give you the feeling of being by the sea in the sunshine.

serves 4

175ml extra virgin olive oil

2 sea bream, weighing about 500g each, cleaned and scaled

4 garlic cloves, roughly chopped

20 cherry tomatoes, quartered

a handful of fresh basil leaves, roughly torn

400 ml water

1 small red chilli, finely chopped

salt

Heat the olive oil in a large, heavy-based frying pan over a fairly high heat. Add the bream, followed by the garlic, tomatoes, basil and some salt. Pour in the water, turn the heat down slightly and cook the fish for seven minutes on each side. When you flip the fish over, you will know that it is done if the eye has turned white.

Remove the fish from the pan and place on a large serving dish. Raise the heat, cook the sauce for 30 seconds to concentrate the flavours slightly and then pour it over the fish. Serve with lots of bread to mop up the delicious sauce.

Schiacciata della vendemia: Sweet tart with harvest grapes

At harvest time in Italy it is traditional to put aside some grapes to eat at Christmas. They become deliciously sweet and squashy and make a perfect filling for a pie. My family always preserved grapes on the vine and would use them with leftover bread dough to make this tart. I am not suggesting you should preserve grapes, as nowadays you find them all year round. Use the sweet varieties, such as Muscatel, and don't be alarmed by the large quantity of cinnamon!

serves 4-6

20g fresh yeast

165 ml lukewarm water

300g Italian 'OO' flour

1 teaspoon salt

dried breadcrumbs, coarse polenta or semolina for sprinkling

450g white or black grapes

5 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

65g caster sugar

1 tablespoon ground cinnamon

1 branch of fresh rosemary, plus a few sprigs to decorate

icing sugar for dusting Dissolve the yeast in the lukewarm water and set aside. Sift the flour into a large bowl, mix in the salt and make a well in the centre. Gradually pour in the yeast mixture, mixing it with the flour to make a soft but not sticky dough. Turn out and knead on a lightly floured surface for about 10 minutes, until smooth and elastic. Divide the dough into two balls, cover with a tea towel and leave to rest for five minutes.

Preheat the oven to 200¡C (400¡F, gas mark 6). Roll out one of the balls of dough into a round about 2 mm thick and 15 cm in diameter. Sprinkle a large baking tray with breadcrumbs or semolina and carefully lift the dough on to it. Set aside a small bunch of 8-10 grapes and arrange the rest (left whole) over the dough, leaving a border of about 2.5 cm all around. Drizzle with 3 tablespoons of the olive oil, sprinkle over 50g of the sugar and all the cinnamon. Then sprinkle over the rosemary needles.

Roll out the other half of dough to the same size and place this over the filling, pressing down the edges well. Trim away any excess and crimp the edges with your fingers so that the pie is well sealed. Drizzle the remaining olive oil over the top and sprinkle with the remaining sugar. Place in the oven and bake for 10 minutes, then place the reserved grapes on top with a few sprigs of rosemary. Bake for a further 10 minutes until pale gold and lightly caramelised. Dust with icing sugar, and serve warm.

· To order a copy of Passione by Gennaro Contaldo, for £22 plus p&p (rrp £25), call the Observer book service on 0870 066 7989. Published by Headline on 7 April