ITALIAN M
Tom McNeeney, Head Chef of The Ox
Sometimes when it comes to pastas I find myself stuck in a rut, making same. So with that in mind, I decided a few fresh ideas were in order - s some lighter, fresher, brighter pastas that make for cheap and deliciou whole party to feed! Enjoy! You can find loads more
SMOKEY SAUSAGE RAGU This is one of those recipes that I’m thrilled to have up my sleeve when I know I’ve got lots of mouths to feed. It’s smokey, rich and peppery without being too busy - a proper, pocket friendly crowdpleaser. Ingredients: (serves 4) 3 good quality sausages, casings removed 200g smoked ham or smoked sausage, finely chopped 1 tin of whole plum tomatoes 300ml chicken stock 2 tomatoes, roughly chopped 2 ribs of celery, chopped 1 large carrot, chopped 1 large onion, chopped 5 cloves of garlic, chopped small glass of nice red wine 1 bay leaf a few sprigs of thyme, good handful of basil leaves, roughly chopped plenty of black pepper floured muffin
Method So you want to get a good sized pan that can go in the oven and whack it on a medium heat, give it a good splash of olive oil. Once the oil is good and warm, throw in the onion, celery and carrot, give this a few good stirs over five minutes till the onions start to soften, then add in you garlic, give that a minute or two longer. Now it’s time to add your sausages, I’ve just used a good seasoned sausage from our butcher, Chadwick’s, something with a bit of spice will go a long way here so if you’ve opted for a more peppery sausage hold back on the seasoning. Add the sausage meat to the pan and break it up as you stir it in, once it’s had a few minutes add in your smoked ham or sausage (at this point if you’ve got any old chorizo or bacon you want to chop up and lash in go right ahead) give it all a good stir again and chuck in a nice glass of red wine, throw one down yourself while you’re at it.
Once the wine is in, give the bottom of the pan a good scrape and turn the heat down a little, whack the oven on while you’re at it, about 170ºC. Pop your tomatoes into the pan and give a few minutes before following them up with the tinned tomatoes, bay leaf, a few sprigs of thyme (just the leaves, throw away the stems) and the stock, let it come to a gentle simmer then cover and pop into the oven for about an hour. After an hour, carefully take it out of the oven and give the whole thing a good stir to bring it all together - if it’s too thin at this point you can leave the lid off for the last half hour, if it’s too thick add in a little extra stock. Season generously with lots of black pepper, chuck in the basil leaves, give it another stir then pop the lid on for half an hour more and bellissimo! We served ours tossed in some chunky pasta with heaps of parmesan on top but this ragu would work wonders on spaghetti, be lovely on lasagne or make possibly the world’s best cheese on toast! Think about having another nap.
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