Pumpkin Macaroni Cheese

After making the pumpkin doughnuts last week I had some pumpkin puree leftover. I ate a bit of it spread on toast (delicious with a pinch of cinnamon) but decided to use the rest to make something warm and comforting for dinner. What could be more warm and comforting than macaroni cheese? Only this macaroni cheese was given an extra autumnal twist from the earthy sweet pumpkin puree.

The sauce became a lovely golden orange colour when I added the pumpkin puree and produced an enticing roasted veg aroma. I grated in some freshly grated nutmeg which seemed to enhance the sweet nuttiness of the pumpkin. The puree itself somehow transformed the sauce from being delicious to something spectacular. It was so rich, creamy and velvety smooth that it tasted as though it had been made with cream, amazing considering the base was mainly vegetable puree.

Some people may be wondering what those little green speckles are in the macaroni cheese… they’re peas. I know adding peas to macaroni cheese is highly unconventional, but I love peas and think having a little freshness and pop from the peas, in contrast to the rich and creamy sauce is a welcome change, plus its colourful too. I’ve just thought, what with the sauce being pumpkin based and the addition of the peas, this macaroni cheese could almost be classed as healthy – not something you usually hear associated with macaroni cheese!

To serve, I spooned the pasta into deep bowls, topped with more cheese and gave them a quick bake in the oven. This created a golden and crisp top which I think is one of the best bits. It also adds another texture against the creamy stodgy (in a good way) sauce and pasta combo. The textures from crisp golden top, thick and creamy sauce and a little pop from the peas is delicious combination. The pumpkin had a wonderful flavour making the whole dish feel warming, autumnal and very comforting. This is perfect meal to enjoy curled up on the sofa as the rain lashes the windows outside.

Pumpkin Macaroni Cheese

Ingredients

20g butter

1 tbsp cornflour

130g pumpkin puree

300ml milk

2 handfuls grated cheddar cheese

100g frozen peas

Salt & pepper

Freshly grated nutmeg

Gluten free macaroni pasta for 2 people

Method

Preheat the oven to 200C

Cook some gluten free macaroni, enough for 2 people, in boiling water until it is al-dente.

Meanwhile, add the butter to a large saucepan and heat until melted. Add the cornflour and whisk until smooth and a paste is starting to form. Add the pumpkin puree and mix to combine.

Slowly whisk in the milk and allow to come to a simmer, stirring occasionally. It should start to thicken into a thick and creamy sauce.

Add a generous grating of fresh nutmeg and some salt and pepper.

Once the sauce is thickened and creamy, stir in the frozen peas and three-quarters of the grated cheese. Stir until combined. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Add the drained gluten free pasta to the sauce and stir to coat.

Spoon into two deep bowls or one larger dish and scatter over the remaining cheese and a little extra nutmeg.

Bake in the oven for 15-20 minutes until lightly golden and crisp on top.

Eat and enjoy.

Heinz Gluten Free Pasta & Pasta Sauces – A Hit & Miss Review

I’m always on the lookout for new gluten free foods, so when Heinz got in contact to say they were about to launch a range of certified gluten free pasta and would I like a sample, I was more than happy to accept.

The new pastas are (to my knowledge) Heinz’s first contributions to the gluten free market, by which I mean specially designed gluten free products rather than their ketchup which is naturally gluten free. They have produced a range of 3 pasta varieties and 3 tomato based pasta sauces. The pastas include penne, spaghetti and macaroni and are apparently made in Italy. I received the macaroni pasta which I was delighted about. I love macaroni and until now there has not been a gluten free equivalent available in the supermarkets.

The 3 pasta sauces come in individual little tetra pack cartons, which I thought was a great idea. They are sturdy enough to take on holiday or carry around with you without being heavy or at risk of shattering like glass would be. The 3 flavours are Tomato Frito, Tomato & Oregano and Tomato & Basil and are produced in Spain to an “authentic recipe.” In my sample box I got the oregano and basil varieties.

The first thing that struck me about the pasta was its use of an unusual ingredient. Along with potato and cornflour it also contained lupin flour. I have heard of lupin, but never seen or eaten it in a product before and was curious to see what it tasted like. Apparently the pastas have been “crafted to ensure ultimate taste and a perfect bite.”

I know from experience that gluten free pasta tends to go from firm to soft and mushy very quickly. I tasted a piece of pasta after only 6 of the 8-9 minutes specified cooking time and found it already very soft, so removed it from the heat immediately. If I had left it cooking for the required time I am fairly sure it would have disintegrated. Given their “perfect bite” statement and the fact it’s been produced in Italy where they are known for their love of al-dente pasta, this surprised me.

I decided to taste some of the pasta plain, to see what the flavour was like. I’m afraid I wasn’t overly impressed. It tasted a little bitter and almost musty, which I can only attribute to the lupin flour. Not a good start. I decided not to judge too harshly at first as not many people would eat completely plain pasta and so I heated up the tomato & oregano pasta sauce and stirred it through.

The sauce smelt lovely and very fresh. I was impressed at its ingredient list too which was simple and free from any strange preservatives. It was perhaps a little smoother than I would normally choose as I like a chunkier tomato sauce, but no different to most shop bought tomato pasta sauces.

Eating both the sauce and pasta together helped mask the strange flavour from the lupin flour, but I did find the pasta sauce itself to be quite sweet. Although, there was no denying its strong tomato and oregano flavour. The herb flavour really shone through and tasted lovely and fresh. However, I’m still not entirely sure I liked the pasta, as the slightly strange flavour still lingered in the background.

I didn’t use the whole pack of my sauce when I made my pasta and used the rest of as the tomato base for a homemade pizza, which worked really well. Later on I tried the tomato and basil sauce and was again impressed with its fresh flavours.

I would certainly recommend and buy the pasta sauces again and at only £0.89 each they are very affordable. The pasta I’m afraid to say probably won’t be making another appearance in my shopping basket. This is a shame as I would have loved to have an easier source of macaroni pasta, rather than having to buy it online as I do now. At £1.80 for a 500g bag it’s also very competitively priced for a gluten free product. For me though, the lupin flour (I assume it’s this as there was nothing else unusual in the ingredient list) just didn’t work for me. Who knows, some people may love it, and maybe covered in a thick cheesy sauce you wouldn’t detect the bitter musty note, or maybe I just got a dud batch, but I’m afraid it wasn’t for me. The pasta sauces get a definite thumbs up though.

Note: This review is purely my own perspective of the product and has not been influenced by anyone else. I received no payment for this review, excluding the free samples mentioned above.

Creamy & Comforting Macaroni Blue Cheese

Ugh! I am so sick and fed up with all the snow! In Sheffield, I live on the top of a hill which I have discovered means you are very open and exposed to the elements, especially snow. Come Monday, I will have been surrounded by snow permanently for 2 whole weeks. Snow lasting that long is not fun and means my dead-end-road estate where I live has turned into an ice rink. Yesterday was the first time in 9 days that I have been able to get my car out of its parking spot. Not only is it a long way down a dead end road (meaning no gritters have been along it and no through traffic) but it’s also on a steep slope. Every time I’ve attempted to move my car it just skidded and wheel spun. It’s not been a matter of driving slowly, I couldn’t actually get up the incline. I was so overjoyed at being able to drive it free yesterday, and not have to use public transport to get to work. My joy didn’t last as I came out of work yesterday evening to find more snow falling – more?!? This morning I woke to find we’d had another 4 inches overnight – ARGH! Thankfully it’s a lot warmer today, a tropical 2C, meaning the snow is beginning to melt – hurrah!

Anyway…all this cold and snowy weather has meant I have been in the mood for comfort food this week. Macaroni cheese is one dish that definitely makes the grade. However, it can sometimes take rather a long time to make, not ideal when you get in cold, tired and soggy. This macaroni cheese takes only minutes to put together, as bypassed making a proper cheesy béchamel sauce and instead used a quick dust with flour, add milk and stir in lots of gooey cheese method.

I discovered an unopened wedge of blue stilton in the fridge and decided to make a blue cheese sauce for my macaroni cheese. Stilton always makes me think of Christmas so I decided to pair it with a few sprouts I had (bought recently, not leftover from Christmas!) and a few other veg. These were simply sautéed in a pan rather than boiling them, which I think gives them a lovely flavour and helps retain some of their freshness and crunch.

From start to finish it was only 15 minutes before I was happily tucking in. I ended up making rather a mountain of it with intentions to save a bit back for later, but I devouring the lot. The tang and saltiness from the stilton went so well with the sweet shallots and sautéed sprouts, with everything being coated in the creamy thick tangy sauce. Delicious and just what’s needed on a cold snowy day. I’ve given only a vague recipe below, as it’s more a case of following a general method rather than weighing out ingredients.

Anyone else have any comforting meals they always crave on cold snowy days?

Creamy & Comforting Macaroni Blue Cheese

Ingredients

Gluten free macaroni pasta*

5 sprouts per person

1 tbsp frozen peas or broad beans per person

1 shallot per person (use an onion for more than 3)

2 large florets cauliflower per person

½ tbsp sunflower oil

½ tsp French mustard

2 tsp gluten free flour (cornflour, gf mix, anything goes)

Freshly ground pepper

20g stilton cheese per person

100ml milk per person

Method

Heat a large pan of water and add the macaroni pasta. Stir and cook according to packet instructions (I always give mine a couple of minutes less than stated, especially for gluten free pasta)

Meanwhile, heat a frying pan with the oil.

Roughly dice and shallot and add to the pan to soften.

Remove the outer leaves from the sprouts, if necessary, and then slice into quarters. Cut down through the stalk each time, so that the pieces remain intact.

Add the sprouts to the pan with the shallot.

Chop the cauliflower into small bites size pieces and add to the pan.

Cook until everything is softened and starting to take on a little colour.

Add the peas or broad beans when there is only one minute left on the pasta.

Once the pasta is cooked, drain it, leaving a small amount of the cooking water behind.

Sprinkle the flour over the vegetables in the pan and stir to evenly coat. Add the milk and mustard and stir quickly so the flour combines with the milk to produce a sauce.

Crumble in the blue cheese and stir gently to combine. Allow to simmer for 1 minute until the sauce is thickened.

Season with pepper, you won’t need salt as the cheese is very salty.

Add your cooked pasta to the pan, along with 1 tbsp of the reserved cooking water.

Stir to coat everything evenly and allow to bubble until thickened or add a little extra milk if too thick.

Serve straight away with a little more blue cheese crumbled on top.

Eat and enjoy.

Recipe easily scaled up to feed more people

Note: * I’ve never found gluten free macaroni pasta in the shops, but you can but it online. Otherwise you can use penne or any other shape you like.

Carrot, Courgette & Ricotta Lasagne

This is the time of year when courgettes are in abundance. Courgettes on their own can be quite bland and yet every day blogs are posting new tasty ways of incorporating these vegetables into a variety of muffins, cakes, cookies and other baked goods. However I feel that this humble vegetable should not be completely overlooked in the more conventional savoury dishes too.

This carrot and courgette lasagne allows the courgettes soft texture and subtle sweetness to be the star of the show. All it needs is a little help from some herbs and spices to help bring them alive. It’s also an incredible easy and simple dish to put together and requires very little prep time making it the perfect mid week meal.

The courgettes are grated and paired with carrots which help enhance the courgettes savoury sweetness before being mixed with garlic, thyme and ricotta to produce a flavoursome creamy veg layer for your lasagne without the need for sauce making. This is then layered up with a simple tomato mix that has been spiked with a hint of chilli to give it some warmth and fresh lasagne sheets (shop bought unless your super organised) for a delicious speedy dinner.

I loved how the grated courgette kept its colour, showing flecks of bright green throughout the layers. It made it look very Italian amongst the white pasta and the red sauce. I’ll be making this one again before the courgettes seasons over.

Carrot, Courgette & Ricotta Lasagne
(Recipe adapted from BBC Good Food)

Ingredients
2 courgettes
2 carrots
2 tsp fresh thyme
½ tsp chilli flakes or ground chilli
1 clove garlic
150g ricotta cheese
400g tin chopped tomatoes
150ml passata
1 tbsp olive oil
Salt & pepper and herbs of choice
6 sheets fresh lasagne

Method
Place the chopped tomatoes, passata, chilli and some herbs of your choice into a pan and bring to the boil. Reduce to a simmer and allow to bubble for 15-20 minutes until slightly thickened. Season with salt and pepper. Set aside until required.
Coarsely grate the carrots and courgettes (there is no need to peel). Heat the oil in a large frying pan and add the grated veg. Cook for 1 minute before crushing the garlic and adding to the pan along with the fresh thyme.
Cook until softened and most of the liquid released from the vegetables has evaporated. Remove from the heat and mix through the ricotta cheese.
Preheat the oven to 190C.
Spread a third of the veg ricotta mixture into the base of a 30cmx20cm ovenproof dish. Spread over a quarter of the tomato and lay 2 sheets of the lasagne on top.
Top with another third of veg, another quarter of tomato and 2 more sheets of lasagne. Repeat for the final layer and then use the leftover tomato sauce to spread on top of the last lasagne sheets. Grate over a little cheese of your choice and bake for 25-30 minutes until the lasagne is bubbling and crisp around the edges.
Allow to cool for 5 minutes before serving with salad.
Serves 3-4

A Fantastico Evening with Gennaro Contaldo & Bertolli Sauces

Tuesday evening found me gathered in the downstairs cookery workshop of London’s L’atelier des Chefs along with a group of 10-12 food bloggers for an evening of Italian food and sauces. The event was being run by Bertolli to showcase their new range of Italian sauces in association with none other than famous Italian chef Gennaro Contaldo! For those of you who don’t know Gennaro the man responsible for inspiring Jamie Oliver’s love of Italian cuisine and has also appeared in a number of his tv programmes.

Walking down the stairs to the cookery workshop I felt like I was entering some secret underground bunker. The walls were lined with cookware while a large professional kitchen was visible through a huge glass wall. The room was dimly lit and a large table filled one end of the room, covered with a red chequered tablecloth and bowls of olives, bread and olive oil and balsamic for dipping.

Over drinks and introductions we waited for Gennaro to arrive. The other bloggers were a lovely bunch and a lot of them seemed to know each other. I had a great chat with Helen of Fuss Free Flavours but I was also pleased when Anne of Anne’s Kitchen turned up, as I’ve met her once before and it was good to catch up. Then all of a sudden Gennaro arrived and everyone became very excited as he took time to chat to us all individually.

We then made our way to the kitchens where we were given aprons and big white floppy chefs hats to wear before being split into tables to work with. Here’s Anne modelling the outfit. I don’t know if the hats were sized, but I think mine must have been a large as at one point in the evening it fell completely over my eyes and nose, making me feel very foolish. Thankfully I think everyone was too absorbed with what they were doing to notice.

Gennaro started by telling us that most Italian sauces start with a Soffritto base. This is a mix of finely diced carrot, onion, celery and garlic with is sweated off before adding tomatoes and any other ingredients. This gives the sauce extra depth of flavour and is the method and base used for all the Bertolli sauces, which are also made using Italian ingredients. Gennaro told us that he wasn’t promoting the sauces to replace normal cooking but more as good staples to have on standby for when you are short of time or come home late and open the fridge to find only some milk and a few bendy carrots for dinner.

The sauces come in a range of flavours and Gennaro demonstrated three different dishes to us using the sauces. He cooked a chunky beef ragu using the bolognaise sauce, some poached mackerel, capers and oregano in the tomato and basil variety and a vegetarian mushroom and courgette bolognaise. The smells coming off the dishes were fantastic and very fresh and authentic. Gennaro is so passionate and enthusiastic about Italian food and cooking that he was constantly jumping around, shouting Italian phrases and making us laugh with stories, all accompanied by big hand gestures and facial expressions. It made a great atmosphere but meant he never stood still long enough for me to get an un-blurred photo of him!

While these dishes were bubbling away we got to make our own Soffritto base to which we added tins of whole Italian tomatoes – which we had to squash using our hands – nice and squishy!

He then demonstrated that by adding a few chopped chillies we could turn our simple sauce into a spicy Arrabbiatta sauce. He said to use 1 or 2 chillies as the small ones he was given were quite hot, but he then got a bit carried away with his story about how not to touch your face or go to the toilet after chopping chillies (see pic below) and ended up chopping about 12 which he divided between our four joint pots – good thing I like my sauce spicy!

We didn’t have time to finish cooking our sauces so we were all provided with our own customised jar and label so we could bring our sauce home and continue cooking with it later. I thought that was a really nice touch.

Then it was time to eat. We all sat around the big table sipping Prosecco and nibbling on the bread and olives while the dishes were plated up.

Gennaro asked if there were any Vegetarians and of course, up went my hand rather sheepishly. It was the only hand… but Gennaro proclaimed loudly that he loved Vegetarians and that some of his favourite recipes were Vegetarian and gave me a huge portion of the Veggie ragu on tagliatelle while the others sampled the mackerel followed by the ragu (modelled here by Josh of Cooking The Books).

The veggie ragu was delicious and had a wonderfully deep tomato flavour. Being Italian the pasta was of course served al dente, just as I like it. By the appreciative sounds coming from the other diners I think the other dishes were very good too.

At the end of the evening we were all presented with a selection of the Bertolli sauces, recipe cards and recipe book for us to take away and experiment with ourselves. I was also delighted to be given a signed copy of Gennaro’s cookery book, complete with lots of delicious sounding dishes. I came away full, happy and inspired to get cooking Italian food. Thanks to everyone at Wildcard and Bertolli for organising it and to Gennaro for being so enthusiastic and friendly. It was a fantastico way to spend an evening!

Daring Bakers March 2009 Challenge: Homemade Spinach Pasta, Béchamel & Ragu Lasagne

What a fun and tasty challenge this month’s recipe was. It really pushed me outside my comfort zone – I have never made my own lasagne sheets before, let alone ones containing spinach! But to me that just made the challenge all the more exciting – who doesn’t enjoy giving their skills and technical ability a little work out in the kitchen? The main part of this challenge was making our own spinach pasta lasagne sheets which we then had to layer with a white sauce (Bechamel) and ragu of our choice to create a lasagne. We were provided with recipes but I made my own Vegetarian style ragu in place of the meat one provided. I have however, also included the meaty ragu recipe below, in case you want to give it a go. All the recipes below (apart from the Vegetarian Ragu) are from The Splendid Table: Recipes from Emilia-Romagna, the Heartland of Northern Italian Food by Lynne Rossetto Kasper.

Not having a pasta machine I made my lasagne sheets by hand. I real work out for your arm muscles! The dough starts off hard and tough but the longer you knead it the softer and more pliable it becomes. Thankfully I made it one weekend while I was home and my mum and I took turns at working the dough. It was worth the effort though and produced a silky, springy dough that was a lovely shade of green. The next challenge was rolling out the dough thin enough to cut into sheets. This was a little more tricky with just a rolling pin, but I found by only using a quarter of the dough at a time it was manageable.
For my Vegetarian ragu I decided to go with mushrooms and aubergine for their slightly meaty texture and ability to add a rich deep flavour. Along with other assorted veg I also included a tin of brown lentils which helped enhance the brown meaty appearance of the ragu. I’m not saying I wanted my ragu to taste like meat, but I did want to create a ragu that resulted in a traditional looking lasagne when layered with all the other components.

Once layered and baked it had a lovely golden surface and smelt wonderful. It sliced beautifully too, the individual layers all showing up well. Looking at them made all the hard work worth while and the colours were almost like the Italian flag of green, white and red (well reddy brown). My spinach lasagne sheets seemed to have swollen slightly during baking and were a little on the thick side, but still perfectly acceptable, and the veggie ragu was full of flavour with the Béchamel sauce keeping everything soft and creamy. All in all I was happy with my lasagne and my family seemed to enjoy it too. Well worth pushing the boundaries of my comfort zone and I may even attempt fresh pasta again now.

The March 2009 challenge is hosted by Mary of Beans and Caviar, Melinda of Melbourne Larder and Enza of Io Da Grande. They have chosen Lasagne of Emilia-Romagna from The Splendid Table by Lynne Rossetto Kasper as the challenge. Thanks for choosing such a fun and challenging recipe guys – it was great to attempt something so outside my comfort zone. Don’t forget to check out the Blogroll.

Lasagne of Emilia-Romagna (Lasagne Verdi al Forno)

9 litres salted water

1 recipe Spinach Pasta (recipe follows)

1 recipe Bechamel Sauce (recipe follows)

1 recipe Country Style Ragu or Vegetarian Ragu (recipes follow)

125g freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano or other cheese

Working Ahead

The ragu and the béchamel sauce can be made up to three days ahead. The ragu can also be frozen for up to one month. The pasta can be rolled out, cut and dried up to 24 hours before cooking.

Spinach Egg Pasta (Pasta Verde)

Makes enough for equivalent to 1 pound (450g) dried boxed pasta.

2 large eggs

300g fresh spinach, rinsed dry, and finely chopped; or 170g frozen chopped spinach, defrosted and squeezed dry

400g plain flour (double zero or pasta flour preferred)

Method – By Hand

Mixing the dough:

Mound the flour in the center of your work surface and make a well in the middle. Add the eggs and spinach. Use a wooden spoon to beat together the eggs and spinach. Then gradually start incorporating shallow scrapings of flour from the sides of the well into the liquid. As you work more and more flour into the liquid, the well’s sides may collapse. Use a pastry scraper to keep the liquids from running off and to incorporate the last bits of flour into the dough. Don’t worry if it looks like a hopelessly rough and messy lump.

Kneading:

With the aid of the scraper to scoop up unruly pieces, start kneading the dough. Once it becomes a cohesive mass, use the scraper to remove any bits of hard flour on the work surface – these will make the dough lumpy. Knead the dough for about 3 minutes. Its consistency should be elastic and a little sticky. If it is too sticky to move easily, knead in a few more tablespoons of flour. Continue kneading about 10 minutes, or until the dough has become satiny, smooth, and very elastic. It will feel alive under your hands. Do not shortcut this step. Wrap the dough in plastic wrap, and let it relax at room temperature 30 minutes to 3 hours.

Stretching and Thinning:

If using an extra-long rolling pin work with half the dough at a time. With a regular-length rolling pin, roll out a quarter of the dough at a time and keep the rest of the dough wrapped. Lightly sprinkle a large work surface with flour. The idea is to stretch the dough rather than press down and push it. Shape it into a ball and begin rolling out to form a circle, frequently turning the disc of dough a quarter turn. As it thins outs, start rolling the disc back on the pin a quarter of the way toward the center and stretching it gently sideways by running the palms of your hands over the rolled-up dough from the center of the pin outward. Unroll, turn the disc a quarter turn, and repeat. Do twice more.Stretch and even out the center of the disc by rolling the dough a quarter of the way back on the pin. Then gently push the rolling pin away from you with one hand while holding the sheet in place on the work surface with the other hand. Repeat three more times, turning the dough a quarter turn each time.Repeat the two processes as the disc becomes larger and thinner. The goal is a sheet of even thickness. For lasagne, the sheet should be so thin that you can clearly see your hand through it and see colours. Cut into rectangles about 4 by 8 inches (10 x 20 cm). Dry the pasta at room temperature and store in a sealed container or bag if not using straight away. Hand rolling is not necessary if you have a pasta machine.

Bechamel Sauce

60g unsalted butter

60g plain flour

approx 570ml milk

Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste

Freshly grated nutmeg to taste

Method

Using a medium-sized saucepan, melt the butter over low to medium heat. Sift over the flour, whisk until smooth, and then stir (without stopping) for about 3 minutes. Whisk in the milk a little at a time and keep the mixture smooth. Bring to a slow simmer, and cook, stirring, for about 5 minutes, until the sauce thickens. Season with salt, pepper, and a hint of nutmeg.

Country Style Meat Ragu’ (Ragu alla Contadina)

Makes enough sauce for 1 recipe fresh pasta or 1 pound/450g dried pasta

3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

60g pancetta, finely chopped

1 medium onion, minced

1 medium stalk celery with leaves, minced

1 small carrot, minced

125g boneless veal shoulder or round125g pork loin, trimmed of fat, or 125g mild Italian sausage

250g beef skirt steak, hanging tender, or boneless chuck blade or chuck center cut

30g thinly sliced Prosciutto di Parma

160ml dry red wine

375ml chicken or beef stock

500ml milk

3 plum tomatoes from a can, drained

Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

Method

Heat the olive oil in a 12 inch (30cm) skillet (frying pan) over medium-high heat. Have a large saucepan handy to use once browning is complete. Add the pancetta and minced vegetables and sauté, stirring frequently with a wooden spoon, 10 minutes, or until the onions barely begin to color. Coarsely grind all the meats together, including the prosciutto, in a food processor or meat grinder. Stir into the pan and slowly brown over medium heat. First the meats will give off a liquid and turn dull grey but, as the liquid evaporates, browning will begin. Stir often, scooping under the meats with the wooden spatula. Protect the brown glaze forming on the bottom of the pan by turning the heat down. Cook 15 minutes, or until the meats are a deep brown. Turn the contents of the skillet into a strainer and shake out the fat. Turn them into the saucepan and set over medium heat.Reducing and Simmering: Add the wine to the skillet, lowering the heat so the sauce bubbles quietly. Stir occasionally until the wine has reduced by half, about 3 minutes. Scrape up the brown glaze as the wine bubbles. Then pour the reduced wine into the saucepan and set the skillet aside.Stir ½ cup stock into the saucepan and let it bubble slowly, 10 minutes, or until totally evaporated. Repeat with another ½ cup stock. Stir in the last 1/2 cup stock along with the milk. Adjust heat so the liquid bubbles very slowly. Partially cover the pot, and cook 1 hour. Stir frequently to check for sticking.Add the tomatoes, crushing them as they go into the pot. Cook uncovered, at a very slow bubble for another 45 minutes, or until the sauce resembles a thick, meaty stew. Season with salt and pepper.

Vegetarian Lentil, Mushroom and Mixed Veg Ragu
400g tin green or brown lentils, drained
200g chestnut mushrooms
400g tin chopped tomatoes
1 onion
2 carrots
½ large aubergine
2 cloves garlic
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp tomato puree
6 fresh basil leaves
1tsp dried mixed herbs
350ml vegetable stock

Method
Peel and finely dice the onion and carrots, about 1cm dice. Heat the oil in a large saucepan and add the onion and carrot. Cover with a lid and leave to sweat for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.
Meanwhile, crush the garlic and finely dice the mushrooms and aubergine. Once the onions have softened, remove the lid and add the mushrooms, aubergine and garlic.
Allow to cook for 10 minutes before stirring in the chopped tomatoes, tomato puree, stock and herbs.
Cook on a gently heat for 10 minutes before stirring in the lentils. Allow to cook, uncovered, for around 15-20 minutes until the veg is soft and the sauce slightly reduced and thickened. Season to taste.
Allow to cool to room temperature before using.


Assembling the Ingredients Have all the sauces, rewarmed gently over a medium heat, and the pasta at hand. Have a large perforated skimmer and a large bowl of cold water next to the stove. Spread a double thickness of paper towels over a large counter space. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius. Have an approx 3 litre shallow baking dish at the ready.

Cooking the Pasta

Bring a large pan of salted water to a boil. Drop about four pieces of pasta in the water at a time. Cook about 2 minutes. If you are using dried pasta, cook about 4 minutes, taste, and cook longer if necessary. The pasta will continue cooking during baking, so make sure it is only barely tender. Lift the lasagne from the water with a skimmer, drain, and then slip into the bowl of cold water to stop cooking. When cool, lift out and dry on the paper towels. Repeat until all the pasta is cooked.

Assembling the Lasagne

Spread a thin layer of béchamel over the bottom of the baking dish. Arrange a layer of about four overlapping sheets of pasta over the béchamel. Spread a thin layer of béchamel (about 3 or 4 spoonfuls) over the pasta, and then an equally thin layer of the ragu. Sprinkle with about one and a half tablespoons of the béchamel. Repeat the layers until all ingredients are used, finishing with béchamel sauce. Top with a generous covering of freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano or other cheese (I used cheddar). The assembled lasagne can wait at room temperature, 20 degrees Celsius, for about 1 hour before baking. Do not refrigerate it before baking, as the topping of béchamel and cheese will overcook by the time the center is hot.

Baking and Serving the Lasagne

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius. Cover the baking dish lightly with foil, taking care not to let it touch the top of the lasagne. Bake 40 minutes, or until almost heated through. Remove the foil and bake another 10 minutes, or until hot in the centre (test by inserting a knife – if it comes out hot, the dish is ready). If you like a browned top then do not bother with the foil. Turn off the oven, leave the door ajar and let the lasagne rest for about 10 minutes. Then serve.
Serves 6 to 8 as a main meal.

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