Holly Willoughby has returned to our screens and has swapped the This Morning sofa for a stylish pink-and-white contemporary kitchen setup, which includes a collection of stunning, but undeniably expensive, cookware.
Willoughby hosted ITV’s This Morning for 14 years before stepping down in 2023, several months after her former co-host Phillip Schofield exited the programme following his admission to an “unwise, but not illegal” affair with a younger male colleague.
The debut episode of her new lifestyle YouTube channel, Holly Willoughby Together, went live on Tuesday morning, giving viewers a first glimpse of the sleek kitchen backdrop, complete with a glowing pink branded sign.
Her first guest was American actor and passionate cook Stanley Tucci, who was there to teach Willoughby how to make his viral pasta alla Nerano recipe, a six ingredient Italian courgette pasta dish that he swears by.
Tucci initially featured the dish and called it one of the best things he had ever eaten on his show Stanley Tucci: Searching for Italy, and ever since that aired food creators and home cooks across the world have flooded social-media platforms with videos recreating it.
To help rustle up this simple but delicious meal, Willoughby whips out some gorgeous white pans from the GreenPan x Stanley Tucci collaboration.
This eye-wateringly expensive carrara white 11-piece set – which includes a 20cm frying pan, 1.9-litre saucepan with lid, 26cm saute pan with lid, a 7.5-litre stockpot with insert and lid – would set you back £799 at Fortnum & Mason.
These special pans were launched exclusively in the UK at Fortnum & Mason in 2024 and also come in venetian teal, stainless steel and milano black.
Fortnum & Mason’s website states that the pans’ handles are made from cast stainless-steel and have a PFAS-free ceramic, non-stick coating which is infused with layers of diamonds for “unparalleled heat transfer and durability”.
Together the duo uses this luxurious crockery to fry the courgettes to a perfect crisp and to cook the spaghetti.
Tucci emphasises how using medium Romana courgettes makes all the difference when making this meal.
In the debut episode, Tucci tells Willoughby: “These are the courgettes that you want. Can you see the difference?
“When you usually get them [courgettes] they are a solid green and are big which means when you cut them open it’s all water and pulpy.
“This is [holding the small Romana courgette] what you want. These will taste a thousand times better.”
This is shortly followed by a courgette innuendo.
Admiring the courgettes she is about to chop, Willoughby muses: “I’ve never seen one that looks like this.”
Tucci quips in response: “That’s not what I’ve heard.”
He then spots Willoughby’s TV executive husband Dan Baldwin behind the scenes and says: “Oh hi! And there he is!”
Willoughby adds: “Just as my husband walks into the room. Hello darling!”
Throughout the episode the old friends drink wine and chat about how Tucci’s Italian mother, Joan, has shaped his love for cooking and about how she shares this unwavering passion for food with his wife Felicity Blunt.
During the wooden spoon game segment, Tucci answers some quick-fire foodie questions about his favourite go-to meal and the best way to make a cup of tea.
Critics have drawn comparisons of this new lifestyle channel to Meghan Markle’s Netflix show, With Love, Meghan.
Holly Willoughby Together will release two episodes per week and is available on YouTube, streaming platforms and across social media.
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