WHEN growing up in northern Italy, station master's son Antonio Carluccio was more interested in wild rocket than rockets. He would be sent out to gather wild vegetables and fruit for the main family meal of the day: always a pleasure, never a chore for the nascent cook.

"My childhood was spent in Piedmont, where, amongst the vineyards and farmers' fields, there were still tracts of uncultivated land or woods, where the ground cover and trees were still completely natural and you could collect all sorts of wild foods," recalls Antonio.

"As a boy of ten or 11, I would go and find something useful for the meal, and I never tired of doing that because it contributed to being part of the family."

That spirit of adventure in the country has inspired Antonio's latest book, Antonio Carluccio Goes Wild, in which the maestro of Italian cuisine in Britain takes cooking back to the essentials of good food: fruits, berries and nuts, game and fungi, even dandelions and thistles.

Antonio has fashioned 120 recipes from the natural bounty of hedgerow and wood, sea and sky, none of it cultivated by man. Should the urban reader be feeling alienated by this frenzy of fresh air and fresh food, here is the good news: Antonio promises that those ingredients are as readily available to the townie as they are to the country dweller, be they stinging nettles or truffles, crab apples or samphire (a sea-cliff plant).

While he champions the rise in farmers' markets and specialist food shops, Antonio acknowledges that both the countryside and food production has changed, inevitably since his Italian youth and, of greater concern, since his definitive book on wild mushrooms, Antonio Carlucccio's Passion For Mushrooms, 15 years ago.

The spectre of BSE, foot and mouth disease, lysteria, genetically-modified crops and superpower supermarkets looms large, yet time spent in the company of Antonio Carluccio - even down the phone line - provides an infusion of wild enthusiasm. It would not have been too surprising to find mushrooms and blackberry bushes growing out of the handset by the interview's conclusion, and certainly the ancient food-hunting instinct was re-activated.

"In our time of genetically-modified food, it's time that people thought about the origins of food. I want to remind everyone what nature is about," he says.

There is hope rather than despair in his naturally operatic voice as he paints a romantic picture of the joys of wild food. "There are many people who think food grows in plastic bags but I want people to go into the country and smell it, really appreciate it... and it's a fantastic feeling to be a hunter," he says.

"You shouldn't rip off the entire countryside but many of the things in my book are plentiful and you can take just a little bit and make a wonderful dish."

Such as? "Nettles. You can use them in many ways, not just nettle soup. Or hop tops. Go into the country and they grow usually by the side of the road - but don't do it in Kent, where the hops are needed!"

Antonio is as wild about cooking as ever. "We don't want everything to be in pill form," he says. "Most people think food is just to keep us alive but in Italy and France, we get together to have pleasure in food.

"I've been a cook for 40 years, and I'm a cook, not a chef. A chef prepares food in schools and does administration but a cook is liberated and more inventive because of the pleasure involved. Being a chef is a job; a cook always cooks for love."

How do you become confident in the kitchen, Antonio? "Confidence comes from having a good, big dustbin by your side!" he says.

So, dustbins at the ready...

How did Charles get on trying to make Antonio's recipe?

Ingredients: Wild food, from hedgerow, wood, sea, sky or local specialist shop. Anyone for Judas Ear mushroom risotto? Dandelion pie? Grouse with chanterelles? Nettle gnocchi with Dolcelatte sauce? Elderberry elixir?

Recipe chosen: Clafutis di Lamponi e More, Raspberry and Blackberry Clafoutis. Reason: Village hedgerows brimful of blackberries this week; home raspberries ripe too

Ready, steady, cook: Serving only four, halved ingredients. Old Mother Hutchinson and the ghost of Mrs Beeton challenged kitchen colossus Carluccio on his mixing order. Old Mother's method: sugar and butter first, then flour and beaten eggs. Decided to stick with Antonio. Perhaps paid penalty. Rather than a light sponge, there was a rubbery variation, particularly reluctant to part company with edges. One solution: spread fruit more evenly next time, or maybe acknowledge Old Mother knows best. Another solution: use one fewer egg. One other worry: cake centre was still runny after 30 minutes although top was ready. Keep a constant eye on progress.

Taste test: Never mind the rubber, experience the flavour, and go wild for the double berry combination. Needs cream.

Verdict: Cookbook better than this country-living reporter's wildly approximate cooking. As to be expected, mushroom dishes are the stand-out. Food for A Midsummer Night's Dream party in the forest with Bottom and Titania. HHHH

Charles Hutchinson

Raspberry and Blackberry Clafoutis

Serves 8

Ingredients:

200g (7oz) raspberries

600g (1lb 5oz) ripe blackberries (cleaned weight)

8 medium eggs

300g (10 oz) caster sugar

150g (5 oz) plain flour

200g (7oz) unsalted butter, softened

tsp baking powder or 1 sachet Lievito Bertolini Vanigliato (Italian version)

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 200C/400F/Gas 6. Hull berries; briefly wash them.

Either mix sponge ingredients in a bowl or food processor, which takes half the time. Beat eggs first, then stir in sugar, flour, butter. Mix well; thoroughly beat in baking powder.

Grease baking tin of 30 x 25cm (12 x 10in) and 5cm (2in) deep with a little extra butter. Pour mixture into tin; add blackberries, then raspberries. Bake in pre-heated oven for 30 minutes, or until centre is solid, not runny. Serve cake warm or cold, sprinkled with sugar.

Fact File:

Name: Antonio Carluccio

Occupation: Italian cook, restaurateur. His speciality, wild food

Born: Vietri Sul Mare on Amalfi coast. Second youngest of six children. Father was a station master, and family moved to Castel Nuovo Belbo in Alessandria, Piedmont, then Borgofranco d'ivrea in Turin

Lives in: London and Hampshire

Austrian education: At 20, studied in Vienna

German experience: Lived in Germany for ten years, working in wine trade and developing cookery skills

England bound: Moved to London in 1975; married Priscilla Conran in 1981. Began to run Neal Street Restaurant in Covent Garden, subsequently buying it from brother-in-law; restaurant celebrated 30th birthday last month

Food shop: In 1990, Antonio and Priscilla opened Carluccio's shop, next to Neal Street Restaurant, selling regional Italian food imported directly from suppliers in Italy

Caffe culture: Opened first in series of Carluccio's Caffes, near Oxford Circus, London in November 1999. Two more now running in London; last month, first one outside London opened in Kingston, Surrey

Product placement: Carluccio's products are on sale in nearly 100 outlets nation-wide, Paris and Australia

Italian 'knighthood': In 1999, received Italy's highest honour, the Commendatore Omri

Television series: Antonio Carluccio's Northern Italian Feast, Antonio Carluccio's Southern Italian Feast; regular guest on BBC2's Food And Drink

Books: Antonio Carluccio's Passion For Mushrooms; Passion For Pasta; An Invitation To Italian Cooking; Carluccio's Complete Italian Food; Antonio Carluccio's Vegetables

Latest book: Antonio Carluccio Goes Wild, published by Headline