Venison Sausage Ragu.

So it’s been a while but I think I’m now back in the blogosphere for good (well, I can only hope). The last month has been crazy with getting degree results, two weeks of waitressing at Wimbledon Tennis and being in London for a bit. However I’m back in Brighton from next week for my graduation, (yes. GRADUATION. I feel so old. Sob.) so normality should soon resume.

This was a recipe I threw together as a result of getting very overexcited about some venison sausages I found on deal in the supermarket. Needless to say I indulged and inspired by the ‘pregnant Jools pasta’ episode of Jamie’s 30 minute meals I put together this ragu.

It delicious, meaty and rich meaning that the accompanying simply dressed salad is a really lovely addition, you could use any sausages you want really as long as they’re reasonably good quality, I just got very excited as a student with the prospect of venison.

Serves 4

6 sausages

1 large onion, chopped

3 cloves of garlic, chopped

½ red chili, chopped

handful of mushrooms, chopped

1 tin of chopped tomatoes

good glug of red wine

1 tsp sugar

fresh basil, stalks chopped and leaves shredded

enough pasta for 4, cooked to packet instructions with a ½  mug of the starchy pasta water saved

parmesan

bag of salad (I used a watercress and peashoot mix)

olive oil

lemon juice

salt

pepper

In a dry pan on a medium heat, squeeze out the innards of the sausages and break up with a wooden spoon until you have a mince-like-consistancy. When the meat has started to develop caramelized edges, reduce the heat, add a glug of olive oil, the onions and mushrooms.

Once the veggies have sweated down, add the garlic, chilli and basil stalks and sweat until fragrant.

Throw in the tomatoes, sugar, wine and a good tin full of water, season to taste and leave to simmer until the majority of the liquid evaporates.

When your happy with consistency of the ragu add the pasta and the pasta’s cooking water. This will help the sauce take on a velvety-coat-all-the-pasta vibe.

Serve with the salad drizzled with some extra virgin olive oil and lemon juice, scattered with parmesan shavings.

Basil, Mint and Pea Carbonara.

Now we all know I love my carbs. Bar home baked, really good, crusty bread, my favorite has to be pasta.

Fresh, dried, baked however it comes I will consume it by the bucketful. A housemate of mine actually gave up pasta for lent and I just don’t know how she did it (she caved earlier this week in the supermarket when faced with filled tortellini), but the period of time she managed for I must say was commendable, truly! I, on the other hand refused to give anything up for lent. Attempting to cut out anything of my diet would definitely result in my demise. I therefore pre-empted this failure by not bothering at all. Whoops.

This is one of my favorite pasta dishes, I think I originally got it from my Dad, where I get most of my cooking inspiration, who got it from a Jamie Oliver book. Adding chopped basil with the mint was my own prerogative and I think it works well but obviously leave it out if you don’t fancy it.

I’m going to do the lazy thing today and simply provide a link to the recipe on the Jamie Oliver website - my dissertation has literally pushed me to the cusp of insanity and I think staring at a computer screen for any longer may actually send me proper loopy, apologies.

http://www.jamieoliver.com/recipes/pasta-recipes/farfalle-with-carbonara-spring-peas

Enjoy. 

Holly's Bake.

This is one of those recipes that has real a family legacy. Whenever we serve it the story that comes with it is obligatory, so obviously I feel compelled to share it here.

Back in 2000 my dad took a sabbatical off work and as a family we went traveling, the trip culminating in us living in New Zealand for 5 months. My sisters and I went to school there, we rented a house and adopted a full on Kiwi lifestyle for the duration of our stay.

A family favorite was always this bake. It features layers of chicken, mozzarella and grilled vegetables on a bed of homemade tomato sauce. 

One time Elle, my older sister, had a friend called Holly around and my parents served this for dinner. Holly enjoyed it so much she asked for the recipe and attempted to make it at home for her parents.

Before I continuing I should point out that there was not much of a foodie culture out there, not in the way us Brits do it anyway.

One of the most prominent issues I recall having was the fact that they didn’t have Heinz tomato ketchup. Instead, they had this monstrosity of a condiment called ‘Whatties tomato sauce’, the local replacement for my beloved Heinz. Its tag line was ‘you’ll always be a Kiwi if you love our Whattie’s sauce’, needless to say, not being a Kiwi, I was not a fan.

But anyway, back to Holly. It transpires she had later attempted to make this dish but instead of making a tomato sauce with chopped onions, garlic and tinned tomatoes etc, she had simply up-ended several bottles of ‘Whattie’s tomato sauce’ into a baking dish and then layered the chicken, veg and mozzarella on top. Not so yummy me thinks.

So, to honor her valiant effort my family named the dish after her.

Here is my (I promise more yummy than Holly’s) version:

2 tblsp olive oil

2 chicken breasts

2 large courgettes

1 block of mozzarella

1 small bunch of basil, leaves picked and stalks finely chopped

1 tin of chopped tomatoes

1 onion, chopped

2 fat cloves of garlic, chopped

½ a chili, chopped

1 tsp dried oregano

large handful freshly grated parmesan

Salt and Pepper

Pre heat your oven to 200 Degrees.

In a pan sweat the onions in half the oil.

When soft throw in the garlic, chili, oregano and basil stalks. Sweat until fragrant then add the chopped tomatoes and half a tin of water.

Season and leave to simmer until it thickens.

While that simmers slice your courgettes, brush with rest of the olive oil and stick under the grill, turn when golden and remove when soft and golden on both sides.

Meanwhile, slice your chicken breasts lengthways into 4 strips and your mozzarella into slices. 

When everything is ready assemble the bake;

Put the tomato sauce in the base, then in rows layer the courgette, chicken, and mozzarella until the dish is full. Push some basil leaves in between some of the layers and then sprinkle with the parmesan.

Bake until golden on top and bubbling. 

Serve with pasta, crusty bread or whatever you fancy. 

Chorizo, Butternut and Thyme Pasta.

Today was one of those days when I wasn’t looking forward to cooking. I know, a rarity for me, but I didn’t have anything in the fridge, didn’t fancy anything much to eat and had been up since 8am (which is rubbish because it’s a Sunday).  Basically it was one of those days when I wanted my father to cook me something yummy. Alas, he is many miles away in London so I turned to a version of one of his concoctions.

The original version of this uses sage instead of thyme and pasta tubes rather than twirls, parmesan and doesn’t include the spring greens but this evening was an exercise in creating what I could out of a very, very bare fridge so I was rather pleased with the results. The cheese however, was sorely missed so I’ve included it in the recipe.

Serves two, generously.

1tbsp olive oil

½ a small butternut squash, peeled and chopped into small cubes

50g Chorizo, chopped

200g Cherry tomatoes, halved

1 tbsp fresh thyme, chopped

A handful or two spring greens

1 tsp crushed chilli flakes

Enough pasta for two

Two handfuls of grated parmesan

In an oven at about 180 degrees place the squash on a baking tray, tossed in the olive oil and well seasoned.

When that begins to become tender add the chorizo and when that begins to crisp up and is leaking all its smoky, paprika flavored oils add the cherry tomatoes, chili and thyme.

While that has it’s last blast in the oven simmer the pasta in some salted water and when it has a couple minutes to go add the greens.

When everything is cooked, drain the pasta and greens, reserving a small amount of the cooking water and throw everything together, serve up and liberally sprinkle with parmesan.