If I have a signature dish, this is it.

My lasagne is never done in a rush, the meat sauce bubbles away for about 2 hours and the milk for bechamel always gets infused before it’s used.

The finest lasagne I’ve had in my life was in Tuscany, when Ken took us to the little village not far from Bagni di Luca, not even to a restaurant, there was no menu,  every plate on the table was from a different set, as was the cutlery, but the lasagne  we were served was melting in the mouth, it tasted like heaven.

I make mine starting from the meat sauce. Onion gets chopped and fried up on the olive oil with some chopped carrots and celery, then I add the minced beef, not necessary lean one, brown it up and then pour some red wine, sweet red wine if I have it, it’s looooovely!. When it’s nearly all sunk in the meat I add a can of chopped tomatoes, lots of oregano, salt, pepper, nutmeg, a bit of sugar and let it all simmer slowly for at least 1,5 hour, stirring every 10-15 minutes. I don’t like my meat sauce to be too thick, otherwise the lasagne is a like  a brick afterwards, sometimes I loosen it up with some chicken stock or more wine.

Them onto the bechamel. I infuse my milk with a shallot, some garlic, peppercorns and a bay leaf and heat it up slowly.

I melt some butter, then add the flour, stirring vigorously, cook it up quickly and then start pouring in the infused milk gradually, having disposed of the infusing bits previously, of course. I like my bechamel quite thick, so in goes some grated parmesan, lots of seasoning and nutmeg.

I use fresh pasta from Waitrose, if it’s Sunday and Florian is in the mood, he might make it from scratch, it is sooooo worth it!

The bottom layer is always meat sauce, then some bechamel, pasta, meat sauce, bechamel, pasta and bechamel on top, finished with some more parmesan.

And into the oven for 30-40 minutes until slightly browned up, bubbly and the smell in the house drives us wild. While it’s baking, I open the wine and enjoy it on its own in anticipation of a feast.

I serve it with some good red wine and a crunchy green salad. I can see myself making it for my grandchildren in 40 years time. 🙂

Thanks to Alice, who gave me 3 older editions of it, I recently subscribed to Good Food magazine. Love it, every single paper is packed with good ideas I’d never have thought of.It came in handy this evening.

I tried out a side dish  tonight, made of courgettes and rice to go with my chicken kievs- a room for improvement here, I must say.

I fried up a couple of onions, thrown in 2 sliced courgettes and 2 handfulls of rice, topped it all with some hot chicken stock and seasoned well. I cooked it for about 5 minutes, added some grated cheddar and a table spoon of creme fraiche, made it all quite watery with the stock and transferred to the casserole dish. Covered with some more grated cheddar – in it went to the oven for about 40 minutes. When I took it out and tasted it, the rice was beautifully cooked with the flavours of the courgettes and chicken stock with a hint of cheese. Loved it!

I served it with an attempt of totally home made chicken kievs. I used to buy them ready from Waitrose, but having recently seen a BBC programme about  mechanically retrieved meat I don’t think I’ll be buying it any time soon again, though I normally trust Waitrose.

I seasoned 2 chicken breasts well, stuffed with some garlic butter- could have been more generous with it- dipped in egg and breadcrumbs, fried and finished off in the oven.

Really liked the courgette thing as an alternative to roasted potatoes or mash.

It looked like that…

We went to see Jimbo and Louise’s new house yesterday. I promised Louise I’d bring a dessert. It was going to be a blueberry cheesecake, I bought all the ingredients and on Saturday morning I spent 20 minutes looking for that recipe. Couldn’t find it. I have to say I have never succeeded in making a nice cold cheesecake, the image in my head was the passion fruit one that I once tried to make  and it poured out of the tin when I tried to serve it…And I hate cooking with gelatine.

This time I got impatient, I decided to get on with it without the recipe, as I had to leave for work shortly and there would be no time for making desserts later. I thought to myself- I am a confident enough cook to come up with a dessert of some sorts.

So I blitzed the digestive biscuits, mixed it with some melted butter and pressed it all gently against the bottom of the tin. I wanted to avoid making it too hard and ending up with a base that wouldn’t come out.

Next I whipped up some double cream with vanilla sugar, added a tub of Philadelphia cheese NOT MEASURING ANYTHING AT ALL, added a juice of a lime and its zest and  nearly 2 packets of blueberries. Folded it all in, placed on the base, smoothed and topped with lots of grated chocolate.

I chilled it in the fridge and kept my fingers crossed.

We’ve had it after Louise’s pasta with chorizo, it worked nicely, the base was lovely and crunchy, but not too hard, it was a success!!!! I had no camera with me, so couldn’t take a photo of it, but it will be made again. Nice, spontaneous,  improvised and fun to make.

🙂

Not sure, what the Italians would make of it, I think it is pretty good. And quite healthy as well, with all the greens.

I fry  an onion, a carrot,  a celery stick, some garlic, add chicken stock and let it cook slowly. In a separate pan I fry up some pancetta, lovely flavour, like no other bacon, then add it to the soup. Then in go the beans, chopped to the size small enough to fit on the spoon. I use green beans, runner beans and- if I have, broad beans. Some nice spring cabbage adds to the consistency nicely too. I season it all generously and add a handful of tiny pasta and let it simmer for about 10 minutes. The last thing to go in is pesto, doesn’t have to be a homemade one ( however with pesto pasta it is the only option in my kitchen! 🙂  ), a few bits here and there to add to the flavour.

I serve it with lovely crusty bread.

Florian once said  that my cottage pie is the best one he’s ever had. I reckon the one I’ve made tonight was best ever. Someone on telly has given me the idea of a parsnip mash, I’ve done half and half with the potatoes, it made the topping deliciously creamy and… sweet.

My meaty filling varies on whatever I have in the fridge. Today I fried up a red onion, a carrot, a courgette, some cherry tomatoes, green peas,then of course the minced beef ( not from Sainsbury’s, Florian has found a piece of bone in his 🙁  ).I add a generous splash of red wine, some Worcestershire sauce, some beef stock and some ketchup. And I let it all bubble away until the beef is lovely and soft and all has a nice rich texture and colour. Tasting it all the way is essential, it ahs to be nice and rich to be in contrast with the mash.

My mash is a messy one, but well worth the effort. It is all squeezed through the ricer, I add some butter, season with salt and pepper and work it with a wooden spoon until smooth.

All that is left now is transfer the meat mixture into the baking dish, cover with a layer of mash and bake off, until  it begins to brown slightly. You want it slightly crispy on top. I don’t think adding cheese on top is such a good idea, no need, if you make a nice mash.

We’ve managed the whole thing this evening….. 🙂

Now this one is ideal for an evening after work, when one can’t be bothered to spend too much time in the kitchen, but is not in the mood for Pizza Slut.

I boil my spaghetti and prepare the veggies in the big frying pan; I fry a couple of chopped shallots, throw in grated courgette, for 2 portions I would say maybe one and a half, one chopped red chilli, fry it all up, season well and add some chicken  stock for extra flavour. I toast some pine nuts, lovely stuff, only so bloody expensive in this country.

I toss the spaghetti in the courgette mixture, finish it off with some sesame seed oil, throw the toasted nuts on top and finish off with some parmesan. Done within 20 minutes! 🙂

I used to work in a  restaurant last year, that claimed to be making Italian food. What I thought about it was best illustrated by a couple of Italians storming out of there, having been served lasagne…The only two good things I learned in that place, that shares the name with my current boss, was the idea of sweating off the vegetables before blitzing them into a soup, which improves the flavour dramatically ( works with cup mushrooms wonderfully as well) and- Massimo’s meatballs.

I walked into the kitchen at work this morning when Tom was chopping a large amount of mint and I knew exactly what I felt like cooking tonight.

For the meatballs I use the ground beef, preferably not the lean one, it has to be nice and moist. I add a bread roll soaked in water and milk, a generous handful of grated parmesan, an egg, chopped shallot for the bite and 2 garlic cloves. Then comes the mint. Some of my Italian friends reckon it’s got to be parsley, I stick with the mint, ever since I tasted Massimo’s polpettine. It needs to be worked well with your  hands, seasoned generously with salt and pepper and then shaped into small meatballs. I toss them in flour and boil for about 10 minutes in a beef stock, just enough to nearly cover them. That floury stock is later used for the sauce, as all the goodness stays in it.

The tomato sauce is best kept simple, so quickly fried shallot and celery, a couple of cup mushrooms, a can of chopped tomatoes or passata, some fresh herbs, some port or sweet wine, if there happens to be some open(which is not too often as it gets drunk right away 🙂 ), I like it quite sweet. In go the meatballs and all there is left to do is  cooking the spaghetti, setting the table and opening some good red wine.

Serve with extra parmesan and black pepper.