Elevated Home Cooking: Donal Skehan's Neptune Kitchen

Donal's kitchen has been transformed into a culinary haven with state-of-the-art Smeg appliances.

The 90cm Portofino range cooker in Stainless steel takes centre stage, seamlessly integrating into Donal's kitchen aesthetic and delivering professional-level results. Precise-controlled cooking programmes simplify the cooking process, ensuring consistently delicious results and the exclusive triple fan system provides uniform temperatures for even cooking on all five levels, just like in professional kitchens. With a generous 115-litre oven cavity plus six gas burners, the Portofino range cooker provides a versatile cooking space that caters to all of Donal's culinary needs.

Above the cooker, a powerful extractor hood has been fitted to efficiently remove odours and steam, creating a more comfortable and clean cooking environment.

1. First, make the basil oil. Bring a saucepan of water to the boil, then blanch the basil leaves for a few seconds before transferring to a bowl of iced water. Gently squeeze out the water, then whizz in a jug blender with the extra virgin olive oil. Leave to stand for 10 minutes before straining the oil through a fine sieve and setting aside for serving.
2. To make the soup, heat the olive oil in a sauté pan over a low heat and gently fry the onion, garlic, carrot and courgette for 10–15 minutes until softened. Season with salt & pepper and add in the tinned tomatoes, chicken stock, red wine vinegar and bring to the boil, before allowing to simmer for 10 minutes.
3. Add the pasta and cook for 8 minutes until the pasta is just cooked. If you’re making this ahead, wait to add the pasta until you’re ready to eat.
4. While the soup is simmering, prepare the garlic bread. Preheat the oven to 180ºC/ 160ºC fan/350ºF/Gas Mark 4. In a bowl, mix the butter with the garlic, finely chopped basil and some seasoning. Slice the sourdough loaf without slicing all the way through and generously spread the garlic butter between each slice. Wrap with foil and bake in the oven for 15-20 minutes.
5. Whilst the bread is still warm, slice all the way through and serve with the pasta soup, a drizzle of the basil oil, some basil leaves and shavings of Parmesan.