Host of new television series Cooked 5: Living free

Your television career started off as a frivolous series involving a tour around SA with a group of friends - and some good food. Your latest series has a more serious side.

It is a more mature me asking the questions that all of us should be asking. Where does my food come from and what's in it? The truth is we don't. In just a few words, I think my new show is food for thought.

What is the Good Food Journey and Farming for the Future?

It's an understanding that depending on how our food is produced or farmed it will have an ecological and ethical effect on the planet - and how to minimise that effect.

You have covered the length and breadth of South Africa (and Namibia). How many food producers did you get to?

Lots. From free-range chicken to lamb - to aquaculture and vegetables, beef and organic wine. Even right down to the humble potato.

The number of farmers in South Africa is dropping dramatically. Do farmers get a raw deal?

Yes. They farm at the whim of nature, consumers and retailers. They are competing in a space where most First World farmers are subsidised.

There must have been many surprises, both good and bad?

The biggest surprise was realising how little I knew about my food. The best and most amazing surprises were the farmers and their families that I met along the way, everyone from Jeanne Groenewald to JP Smit, Greg Stubbes, Flip Nel, Christiaan Poole, John Bergh - every single one of them opened up their hearts and homes to me and the crew.

Do you think that organic farming is the answer?

There are too many people on the planet for us to exist organically. Does that mean you or I shouldn't eat organic food? Certainly not. The irony is that 150 years ago everything we ate or drank was organic. We must try and reverse the clock. Organic shouldn't be a buzz word, it should be the way our food is both farmed and produced.

In a country where so many live below the breadline, does an initiative like the Good Food Journey have relevance?

Good food shouldn't only be available to the rich. The problem has become who is responsible for ensuring that everyone, and not only the rich, have access to good food.

Woolworths has partnered you in this project. Did this inhibit you in any way?

No, in fact it's a great partnership. From the outset I told Woolworths that I can't hide anything - and they were OK with that. With the backing of Woolworths I could go to places that I'd previously been turned away from - everything from chicken houses to abattoirs to an aquaculture venture in Lesotho. It's a great synergy. Woolworths have allowed me to champion their philosophy of Farming for the Future and the Good Food Journey and, in turn, I hope that I can carry this philosophy even further.

I'm sure this trip has changed your outlook on what you eat?

I'm no longer prepared to eat in ignorance. Morally, ethically and biologically, I can no longer eat any meat (beef, chicken or pork) unless I know exactly where it's come from and what's in it. How was it farmed? Was it ethical? Was the animal fed any animal by-products, antibiotics, growth promoters or other stuff. Is it free-range? Organic? And if your favourite restaurant, fast-food joint and/or supermarket can't answer these questions to your satisfaction - don't buy their food. I can't and won't.

What can viewers expect from your new show?

Lots of food for thought. I guess I'm a little bit more mature now than when I filmed the first series of Cooked and in the last couple of years I think I've come of age, and that translates into the new series. My suggestion is just to watch it and draw your own conclusions.

In the Farming for the Future advertising campaign you are partnered with Australian food personality Bill Granger. Is this relevant in the SA context?

Some things are bigger than me. I'm not an advertising executive, just the guy next door. Toyota uses a talking dog to sell their cars!

You have cooked so many exciting dishes on this journey. Which three stand out?

Melkkos in the Namaqualand. Marrow flower stew in Limpopo and my Italian potjie developed during the course of the last couple of episodes - and I share the recipe below.

• Catch Justin Bonello in his new series Cooked 5: Living Free on BBC Lifestyle on Friday November 12 at 8.55pm

THE ITALIAN POTJIE

Potjie:

• 2-3kg lamb knuckles
• 1 onion finely chopped
• 3-4 garlic cloves, chopped
• 2-3 leeks, cut into thin slices

• One can of whole baby peeled tomatoes
• 1 punnet fresh whole baby tomatoes
• Dried sweet basil
• Dried oregano
• Salt and pepper to taste
• 300-500ml strongish organic beef stock
• A handful of fresh basil

• Grated pecorino or Parmesan cheese

Gnocchi:

• 1kg potatoes (Mediterranean are great)
• 300g flour
• 2 egg yolks
• 5ml salt

Method:

Dust the lamb knuckles in seasoned flour (this will help to thicken the sauce later). Seal and brown in round-bottomed, three-legged potjie. Remove from the potjie and put aside. Now add onion, garlic and leeks and fry until soft. Add your meat and all the tomatoes and then add beef stock until liquid covers two-thirds of the meat. Add basil, oregano, salt and pepper to taste. Put on lid and simmer (not boil) until the meat falls off the bones. Taste every now and then and season accordingly.

For the gnocchi, bake the potatoes in their jackets on a bed of coarse sea salt in a preheated oven of 180°C for one hour - or until tender. Scoop out the soft fluffy centres.

You need the potato to be as hot as possible when you do this otherwise the gnocchi may get stringy, so use a cloth.

Next, put the hot potato through a mouli (French rotary grater or a sieve) bearing in mind that the mash must stay hot. Then add the flour, a little at a time with the salt and the egg yolks.

Use your hand like a stiff, rigid claw (think the opposite of bread dough-making) and mix the flour in by jabbing. The trick here is to do this with as little movement as possible. Once mixed, roll into sausage-like shapes about 3cm in diameter and double-wrap with cling film. Make sure it's watertight by tying the ends with string.

Poach in simmering water for 15 minutes (just below boiling point). Shock in abowl of iced waterand then put away until needed.

Unwrap the gnocchi, slice into medallions, slip into the potjie pot and simmer for about 15 minutes before you'd like to eat to allow the gnocchi to suck up all that lovely fatty lamb tomato flavour.

Serve with freshly cracked black pepper, torn leaves of fresh basil and grated Parmesan or pecorino cheese.