Absolutely Morish Lasagne

Everyone knows lasagne (or lasagna), almost every family has their own take on it, as well as each restaurant. I have made over a dozen different kinds of 'classic' lasagne. This one is the latest version I have come up with and I think it is one of the best I have ever done. It incorporates all the versions I have done before as well as a few experiments.

Lasagne is actually just the flat, wide pasta sheets but has taken to mean the dish itself. It can be traced back to city of Naples in the 14th Century and is considered one of the oldest types of pasta.

This is a great family dish that can be made in bulk the day before and reheated or even frozen in portions and used for your weekly lunches. It goes great with salad and garlic bread but you can serve it with anything. Most British pubs serve it with some kind of potatoes (carb overload).

Although this is a 'classic' style lasagne, you can produce many different varieties using the same principal.

This will feed up to 10 people:-

700g Beef Mince
1 large onion, finely diced
1 large carrot, grated
2 cloves of garlic, crushed
2 tins (400g) whole tomatoes
250ml water
1 beef stock cube
1 tsp dried basil
1 tsp dried parsley
1 tsp dried oregano
2 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp butter
seasoning
5 Fresh Pasta
1 litre whole milk
1 tbsp nutmeg
150g flour
150ml oil
100g parmesan cheese
200g Edam cheese
100g Swiss cheese

Put the butter and olive oil to a fairly large pan and put over a medium heat. Add the garlic and onion and sauté for 2 minutes. Add the mince and brown off. Now you can put the whole tomatoes, water, stock cube, basil, parsley, oregano and seasoning in. Cover and allow to simmer for an hour.

While your ragu is reducing, time to start the bechamel sauce. In another pan add the milk, nutmeg and some seasoning. Place it over a medium heat and bring slowly up to a simmer. Once it is simmering mix together the oil and flour together and whisk into the milk. It will thicken up quickly and then leave it to cook out for a couple of minutes and take of the heat. Stir in the parmesan and taste.

With your pasta cut it into 10 pieces and roll it out to about 5/6 on your machine. Put the sheets to one side and cover with a slightly damp cloth.

Check your ragu, correct the seasoning if needed. If all good, now we can assemble. Preheat your oven to 175C.

Grease up a pyrex dish and put a layer of your bechamel on the bottom. Add some cheese and then place a sheet of lasagne on top. Spoon some of the ragu on top of the pasta and spread out thinly, put a spoon or two of the bechamel and spread out too. Spread some cheese on top and add another pasta sheet. Repeat until you have 4 layers. For the last layer add the remaining bechamel and cheese.

Place your assembled lasgane into the oven and cook for around 40-45 minutes until it is nicely golden on top.

Serve immediately and watch the dish magically clean itself. This will become a family favourite and you'll never want to use dried pasta sheets again.

Beef Ravioli with Arrabiata sauce

Another ravioli, this one being more 'traditional'. I find the beef ravioli goes well with tomato based sauces like the arrabiata one in this recipe. Arrabiata sauce literally means angry in Italian and it is probably named this because of the heat produced by the chilli peppers used in the production. It is very often served with Penne pasta but works just as well here.

I made this dish with the help of the Sister Missionaries. I had invited them over to be the first guests to eat in our new home (which we moved to in March) as a thank you for their help in the moving. They seemed to enjoy the making of pasta and chowed down hungrily once it was all done.

To make enough for 4 you will need:-

300g Beef mince
1 medium carrot, chopped small
2 cloves of garlic, crushed
1 small onion, finely diced
50g parmesan cheese
50g butter
seasoning
4 Fresh pasta
1x 400g tin peeled plum tomatoes
2 cloves garlic, crushed
1 small onion, finely diced
2 red chillies, deseeded
2 tbsp balsamic vinegar
6 fresh basil leaves, chopped
1 tsp sugar
olive oil

First we'll start on the ravioli filling. Put a frying pan on the stove over a medium heat and add the butter. Add the onions,garlic and carrot to it and sauté for 3 minutes, stirring regularly. Add the mince and brown off. Add the cheese and cook for 10 minutes. Once all is cooked put it in a food processor until fully blended. Put in the fridge to cool down.

 Put some olive oil in a pan and sweat the onions and garlic together for about 3 minutes, stirring continuously. Then add the chillies and cook for another minute. Add the tomatoes, balsamic vinegar, sugar and a little water and cook for 30 minutes. When finished cooking add the basil leaves.

While the sauce is cooking out let's roll of the pasta. Cut your pasta block into four pieces and then roll each piece out flat. Cut in half place one half in a greased ravioli tray (if you don't have one don't worry, I will get to that in a bit). Place a teaspoon of your mince mixture into each ravioli well, once all done place the other half on top and roll a pin over the top to cut them. Repeat with the other pieces.

Bring a pot of salted water to boil.  Now it is time to add your ravioli to the boiling water, place in the pan and cook for 2-3 minutes, take out and serve straight away with your arrabiata sauce and grated parmesan.

Salmon Ravioli with a Thyme brown butter sauce

This week I want to look at ravioli. Ravioli is a stuffing mix between two thin layers of pasta dough, it is normally served with a sauce or in a broth. They were made popular throughout the world due to the Italian Army tinning them in tomato sauce during WW1 which then was picked up by the Heinz company.

Ravioli can be as simple or as complex as one desires but I think simple works better as it involves less time and experimentation. The one here is a case of using some leftover ingredients with a simple sauce.

To make enough for four people you will need:-

200g roasted salmon
150g mash potato
1 red onion, finely diced
1 clove garlic, finely diced
4 Fresh pasta
150g butter
seasoning
1tbsp fresh thyme leave
100g parmesan cheese

You want to start by sweating the onion and garlic in a pan with some olive oil, this will take about 5 minutes. Put your sweated onions in a bowl and add the salmon, mash potato and some seasoning into it. Mix together until well mixed, put to one side.

Cut your pasta block into four pieces and then roll each piece out flat. Cut in half place one half in a greased ravioli tray (if you don't have one don't worry, I will get to that in a bit). Place a teaspoon of your salmon mixture into each ravioli well, once all done place the other half on top and roll a pin over the top to cut them. Repeat with the other pieces.

Bring a pot of salted water to boil. While this is happening put your butter in a small pan over a medium heat. Stir the melting butter until it browns, about 5 minutes, then take off the heat. Stir in some seasoning and fresh thyme leaves. Now it is time to add your ravioli to the boiling water, place in the pan and cook for 2-3 minutes, take out and serve straight away with your butter sauce and grated parmesan.

This is a great lunch meal.

Fettuccine Alfredo

Our first dish using the fresh pasta recipe is Fettuccine Alfredo.

This is one of the simplest and oldest forms of pasta, dating back to the 15th century. It was written in a book called Libro de arte coquinaria by Martino da Como and it was called 'Maccheroni romaneschi' or Maccheroni the Roman way. The name today comes from Italian Restauranteur, Alfredo Di Leilo I, who opened many restaurants in the Rome throughout the early 20th century.

It is only Fettuccine tossed with butter and Parmesan cheese, which, as the cheese melts, forms a smooth rich coating on the pasta. It is really that simple, just three ingredients. It has become very popular in America where it has evolved to use eggs as a thickener (like Carbonara), broccoli, seafood, chicken and garlic as additions.

So to make this, you will need per person:-

1  serving of Fresh Pasta cut into Fettuccine ribbons
50g Parmesan Cheese
50g  Salted Butter, diced

Start by boiling your pasta.While it is cooking, place the butter into the bottom of a bowl and once the pasta is done drain and add to it. Now sprinkle the Parmesan on top and toss it all together. Once it has all formed together just serve.

You can add some salt and pepper if you feel like it.

This is a great lunch/snack dish that takes so little time to do.

Fresh Pasta

Fresh pasta is so easy to make. It doesn't take a whole list of skills or equipment. It is a great learner, I learn every time I make it.

Once you have started making pasta, you will be reluctant to use shop bought dried pasta (not that there isn't anything wrong with it).

To make one serving of pasta (for yourself) you will need (just add more for each person you want to make for) :-

100g Durum Flour (or Soft flour)
1 egg
pinch of salt
1/4 tsp extra virgin olive oil
maybe some water

Put your flour on a clean side or in a bowl and make a well in the centre of it. Place your egg, salt and olive oil into the well. Beat the eggs with a fork until smooth and then start incorporating the flour into it. Using a little at a time until all is mixed. Now use your hands and start kneading, with some time it will form a nice smooth dough. This is also the secret to why Italian mamas have huge arms and can intimidate the Mafia. If the dough is a little dry, add a small amount of water.

Kneading is simple, just beat it, roll it and pull it until it starts feeling smooth.

Cover your smooth dough with cling film and put into the fridge for at least half an hour. Make sure you wrap it up well.

To roll it out you can use a pasta machine, which is really simple. Press your dough out and set the machine to the biggest setting (normally 0). Roll it through a few times, folding in half each time. It will become really silky smooth. Now time to start rolling thinner. Roll it through, increasing the number until the desired thinness. If making lasagne or ravioli then cut into size, if making into tagliatelle or other strand pasta roll through the desired shaper.

If you have no roller, don't despair, many Italian grandmas use just a rolling pin. First make a smaller ball, about 50g and then flatten with your hand. Sprinkle some flour onto a surface and onto the pasta and start rolling. With effort and patience you will get a nice thin piece of pasta. To turn into strand pasta, roll up and slice with a knife.

If you want to dry it, then place on a pasta rack or lay out flat on the side and leave for an hour or two before packing in a box. If wanting to make straight away then have a pan of salted boiling water and place into it for a couple of minutes until al dente.

It is that simple.

Pasta Month

So for the whole of April I have declared pasta month. I will show how easy it is to make at home, give some delicious recipes and end with the unveiling of my Finnish inspired pasta dish.

A Venetian Pasta Shop.
source: Wikipedia 

Pasta originates in Italy and is a staple in the Italian diet. Traditionally it is just durum wheat flour mixed with water and then formed into the desired shape. Durum wheat is a hard wheat (Durum is latin for hard) and high in gluten. It is milled into semolina, a coarser type of flour. Today fresh eggs are the main liquid component and other flours can be used.

There is 310 specific forms of pasta known by over 1300 names. These names are usually regional. I am focusing on Italian style pasta as pasta is made throughout the world in some form or other. A similar version to Tagliatelle is made in many European countries and filled pastas similar to Tortellini are popular in Eastern Europe.

Fresh pasta drying out

A popular myth is that 14th century Venetian explorer, Marco Polo, brought pasta into Italy from China. However, the first known reference to Italy based pasta can be traced to Sicily in 1154, from a geographical text by Muhammad al-Idrisi for the Norman King of Sicily, Roger II. In his text, Muhammad describes how itriyya was manufactured in Sicily and exported throughout the known world.

Pasta has become such a popular product that it is seen throughout the world. Finns love to use macaroni for simple meat based dishes like Macaroni Casserole. Britain loves its Lasagne and often a Pub wouldn't be seen without this on its menu. It is a great, easy fast food with so many variations that no one can every become bored of it.

Pasta dishes are generally simple in execution. There is a general rule in choosing your pasta dish, simple sauces like pesto, butter etc. are great for long, thin pastas while heavier sauces like tomato are ideal for thicker strands of pasta.Thicker, chunkier sauces are better for pastas with holes, tubes or twists as it clings into the shape. Another important rule is not to be too excessive with the sauce as you need to taste the pasta.