Recipes: Italian Made Easy

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.

GAME CHANGING SPROUT & BACON PASTA

Yes, yes, yes I know. Sprouts. Please stick with me on this because if you (like I used to) think that pasta comes in red sauce or white sauce this could be a game changer. Everyone knows sprouts and bacon are best friends and in this pasta they really steal the show.

IngredientsServes 2 (with some left for lunch)

150g smoked bacon lardons 200g sprouts 1 small onion 1 red chilli 1/2 leek 2 cloves of garlic, chopped 150ml chicken stock (or 1 chicken stock cube & 100ml of pasta water) 1/2 teaspoon Italian seasoning 200g pasta of your choice, I’ve used some fancy stuff I found on that weird aisle in TK Maxx Black pepper Parmesan

Method

First, prep your vegetables and get a pan of salted water on the boil for your pasta, this whole recipe hangs on everything coming together at the same time. You want to clean your sprouts, get rid of any naff looking outer leaves then shred them as finely as you can, half your leek lengthways and shred that too. Pop them all in a

colander and give a good rinse. Chop up your onion and red chilli, ditching the seeds if you want it less spicy or getting rid of it altogether if you’re a total wimp. Once everything is prepped you’re good to go.

Pop your pasta in the, now boiling, water. Get yourself a big frying pan on a medium heat with a little olive oil in, once it’s good and warm throw in your lardons and keep them moving until nicely crisp, remove the bacon but keep about half of the fat in the pan. Now add in the chilli, garlic and onion. Keep this moving for a few minutes until the onion begins to soften then throw in the sprouts and leeks. Now don’t be tempted to move this about too much, you want to get a little colour on your vegetables, with so few ingredients we need to get the most out of each one. After a few minutes give everything

a good toss about, give it a few turns of a pepper grinder, pour in your stock and chuck the bacon back in.

Keep this moving until your pasta is cooked then drain off the pasta and pour it straight into the pan. Now keep it all moving, combining the pasta with the vegetables and the stock, adding a little more pasta water if you think it’s too dry. Grate over as much parmesan as you’d like, again keep mixing everything together to combine then lovingly turn out into a massive bowl, lash on some more parmesan & black pepper and there you have it! Consider yourself converted!

Top with some freshly torn coriander and a little of your chilli and mango sauce. Cram the lid on and give the whole thing a gentle press, then enjoy, immensely.

MY PERFECT APEROL SPRITZ

Aperol Spritz’s have had a bit of a revival lately, we lost count of how many we dished out last summer and it’s no surprise, this bittersweet neon tipple is the perfect way to kick start your evening!

Method

Any glass works for this but I tend to stick to either a nice tumbler or a decent sized wine glass, half fill your glass with ice, add in 100ml of prosecco first followed by 50ml Aperol, this’ll stop the Aperol sitting on the bottom.

Throw in a wedge of orange and an olive on a stick to nibble then pour in a splash of soda water. Ideally at this point you’d turn your phone off and find a spot of sun in the garden to do very little in for a few drink’s time.