Making fresh pasta – wide ribbons

 

MUNCH RATING: 5/5

 

So far I’ve used my pasta machine to make spaghetti and taglioni (thin ribbon pasta) and ravioli and tortellini (filled pasta) and you can see my efforts here.

 

For my birthday Steve’s sister cooked us a dish of meatballs and pappardelle pasta, which we really enjoyed as it was thick and wide. So we decided to have a go at making something similar using the lasagnette cutter on the pasta machine which is 12mm wide.

 

I made some pasta dough using 200g of ‘00’ flour and 2 large eggs, plus about ½ tablespoon of olive oil. I just mixed it all in a large bowl and then kneaded the dough on a board until it was smooth and elastic. Then I wrapped the dough in cling film and chilled until I was ready to cut the pasta (a couple of hours).

 

Steve helped me to roll the pasta through the machine and cut the pasta:

1. We split the dough into 3 balls.
2. We rolled each ball into a sheet up to the 3rd thinnest setting as we wanted it quite thick.
3. We dusted the sheets with flour on both sides and then left them, covered loosely with a dry cloth, to dry out a little before cutting into ribbons. We’d learned from our previous attempts that you need to dust with flour quite a lot to prevent the pasta from sticking together.
4. We cut the pasta into ribbons and then dusted with a bit more flour before laying them out onto the board, covered loosely with a dry cloth, to dry out before cooking. 

To cook the pasta:

1. Bring a large pan of water to the boil and add salt.
2. Add the fresh pasta and when the water comes back to the boil, put a timer on for 2 minutes.
3. Drain the pasta, reserving some of the cooking water to add to the sauce.

 

Here’s the dish I created using some leftover sauce from a Beef and Ale Stew I’d made and stashed in the freezer. I’m naughty and don’t tend to label what I put in the freezer, so it ends up being “mystery food” and I thought the sauce had some beef left in it but it was just sauce. Luckily Steve’s Mum had got some steak out of the freezer so I used that!

 

Unfortunately I slightly overcooked the steak as I added it back to the pan too early.

 

Here’s what I should have done:

1. Heat a tablespoon of oil in a large pan. Fry the steak on both sides for a couple of minutes until the meat is rare. Remove from the pan and set aside.
2. Add sliced mushrooms to the pan and fry until soft and golden.
3. Add the sauce and a dash of double cream, then add the cooked pasta and blanched sugar snap peas. Mix thoroughly, season with salt and pepper and add any pasta water if necessary to create a nice sauce.
4. Slice the steak and add to the pan just before serving.

 

It was still a really good meal and we really enjoyed our home-made fresh pasta! We’ll definitely be making it again.

 

This amount of pasta made enough for 2 servings plus seconds.

Chicken Cacciatore

MUNCH RATING: 3/5

I was talking to Steve’s sister about this dish as I was disappointed with the Giada De Laurentiis recipe I’d tried. She said she uses a Nigella Lawson recipe which uses pancetta and cannellini beans. I doubt these are traditional ingredients for this Italian dish, but they add good flavour and texture.

CHANGES TO THE RECIPE:
I did adapt Nigella’s recipe by adding more herbs and I just used normal garlic as a substitute for the garlic oil. I also omitted the celery salt as I didn’t have any. I also added some spinach at the last minute for colour and because it needed to be used up!

TASTE TEST:
It’s a nice one-pot dish for an everyday meal, but it’s nothing really special so I will tweak it until I think “Wow!”. I think I will add some chilli next time as I think it would benefit from some heat.

• Serves: 4 (or 2 very greedy people!)

Ingredients:

• 1 tablespoon oil
• 75g pancetta cubes
• 2 cloves garlic, crushed
• 6 spring onions, finely sliced
• 1 teaspoon dried rosemary
• 1 teaspoon dried oregano
• 2 bay leaves
• 450g (approx. 4-5) chicken thighs, skinned, deboned and cut into bite size pieces
• salt and pepper
• ½ cup white wine
• 400g can chopped tomatoes
• ½ - 1 teaspoon sugar (depends on your tomatoes)
• 400g can cannellini beans, drained and rinsed

Directions:

1. Put the oil into a pan with the pancetta, garlic, spring onions and the herbs and fry for a couple of minutes.
2. Add the chicken pieces, stirring well, and season with salt and pepper.
3. Pour in the wine and let it come to a bubble before adding the tomatoes and sugar.
4. Simmer for 10-15 minutes until the chicken is cooked and the sauce has thickened.
5. Add the cannellini beans and when they have warmed through serve immediately.

Making fresh pasta!

The great thing about having a blog that your other half reads is that he/she can really get to know you and what you really enjoy.

Steve must have read my post about how much I enjoyed watching Theo Randall make fresh pasta at the BBC Good Food Show/MasterChef Live London as he bought me a pasta machine for Christmas!

As an extra surprise he’d also requested a signed photograph from Theo Randall with a personal message saying “To Mandy, Good luck with the pasta machine! Best Wishes Theo Randall”.  The signed picture was a great surprise and a lovely touch to my gift – I’m a very lucky girl!

Anyway, enough gushing about my husband-to-be and onto the pasta machine. He bought me the Imperia Italiana Italian Pasta Maker Set from Amazon, plus The Pasta Machine Cookbook: 100 Simple and Successful Home Pasta Making Recipes.

The machine comes with a clamp and detachable handle, a star shaped ravioli tray, small wooden rolling pin and two cutting attachments so you can make ribbon shaped pasta.

On each of the attachments there is a very fine cutter and a wider one. After some research from other sources (the instruction booklet doesn’t really tell you anything about the attachments) I have ascertained the following:

• Spaghetti – the cutter gives rounded strands less than 2mm wide
• Taglioni (referred to as tagliatelle but this is not what I consider tagliatelle) – the cutter gives very narrow flat strands about 2mm wide
• Fettucine – the cutter gives flat ribbons about 6.5mm wide
• Lasagnette – the cutter gives flat ribbons about 12mm wide

The machine is really easy to put together, apart from the clamp can be a bit fiddly, especially if you don’t have a table with a decent overhang to be able to fix it securely. Unfortunately all our tables have an annoying curved edge, so I can’t get the machine to clamp very well and it takes two pairs of hands to roll the pasta whilst holding the machine down. Luckily I had Steve to help me and we had loads of fun making pasta!

I’ve watched Alton Brown’s episode on making fresh pasta and he secures his machine to an ironing board, which is a great idea but the design of the Imperia machine means you can’t do this and I don’t think Steve’s Mum would appreciate me using her ironing board for pasta!

Anyway, I’d read a few recipes on how to make basic fresh pasta, including the Imperia instruction book, the pasta book Steve bought me, Alton Brown and Jamie Oliver (from his first book The Naked Chef) and they are all different. Some use just flour and eggs, whilst others add water/oil and salt. I decided to go very basic and start with just flour and eggs. I went and bought the special type ‘00’ flour as recommended. It’s quite expensive at £1.45 for 500g from Waitrose, but I bought two bags plus some vanilla pods to make more vanilla sugar as I had a £10 John Lewis gift voucher from my Uncle as a Christmas present (I think most women my age would spend it on clothes and make-up, but I would rather spend it on food!).

Pasta Recipe:

The recipe for pasta is a complete doddle, it’s even easier than pastry! Just use 1 egg for every 100g of flour. So I’ve been using 300g of flour, so that’s 3 eggs, and this makes approx 500g of pasta dough. Of course there are special recipes that use tons of eggs, but I’ll stick with the basics for now.

Making The Dough:

The first time I made the dough, I used a food processor as you just need to whizz up the flour and eggs until it forms big lumps and then you need to knead it by hand for a couple of minutes until the dough is smooth, silky and elastic.

The second time I made the dough I did it by hand, as I didn’t want to dirty the food processor for such a simple thing. So I just placed the flour on a board and made a well in the centre, where I put my beaten eggs. I then started to draw the flour in from the sides using a fork, but disaster struck and the wall of my flour volcano collapsed and sent egg running everywhere! (So next time I think I’ll do it in a bowl, but I will still make it by hand as I hate washing up the food processor!). So once you have rescued any escaped egg and you have a semi-soft dough, then you can start using your hands and knead the dough for about 3 minutes or until smooth, silky and elastic.

If your dough isn’t coming together, i.e. there is a lot of dry flour left, then you can add a few drops of water to help bind it together. All flour and eggs are different, so you just need to adjust accordingly.

Whichever method you choose, you will need to wrap your dough well in cling film or in a zip-lock bag and chill in the fridge for at least 1 hour (don’t try and cheat by putting the dough in a bowl covered with a plate as the dough WILL dry out – I did this on my first pasta-making attempt!).

Rolling The Pasta:

1. Take the dough out of the fridge and divide it into 4 pieces, roughly the size of your fist. Recover the other 3 pieces that you’re not using straight away to prevent them from drying out.
2. On a lightly floured surface, flatten the ball of dough you’re working with until it’s about 0.5cm thick so that you can run it through the pasta machine at its widest setting.
3. Fold the sheet of dough into thirds and then turn it 90° (so an unfolded edge goes into the machine) and run it through the machine again at the widest setting. Repeat this about 5 or 6 times. I don’t think there are any hard and fast rules about how you fold the dough, as from my reading there seems to be more ways than you can fold a napkin! What you’re aiming to do at this stage is work the gluten in the flour by using the machine to knead the dough every time you pass it through. Plus by turning the dough 90° each time, you are creating a nice square shape for when you start rolling the dough thinner.
4. Lightly dust both sides of your ‘kneaded’ sheet of dough with flour and then run it through the machine on a thinner setting. Do not fold the sheet. Then turn the machine onto the next setting and run the dough through again, dusting with flour if you think it needs it.

• If you’re making a stuffed pasta, e.g. ravioli or tortellini, then roll your pasta to the thinnest setting. Stuff the pasta straight away.
• If you’re making other types of pasta like spaghetti or fettuccine, then leave the dough a little bit thicker, dust with flour and leave it to dry for about 5 minutes before attempting to cut into shape.

With some of the first pasta dough we made, we used the taglioni setting and we ate it straight away with roasted butternut squash and sweet potato, peas and a bit of cream cheese thrown in to make a sauce. I just boiled the pasta for 2 minutes and finished cooking it in the sauce. We were surprised how good it tasted and it was all the more satisfying because we’d made the pasta! This style of pasta was a lot like egg noodles and we both said we preferred a wider pasta.

With the rest of the pasta dough I made ravioli stuffed with the rest of the roasted butternut squash, sweet potato and cream cheese. I didn’t use the ravioli tray that came with the machine, I just followed the method that Theo Randall used. (I aim to do a step-by-step write up with photos on how to do this). I then put them in an airtight container and put them in the fridge. I should have let them dry a bit first and put non-stick paper between the layers because they had all stuck together when I went to cook them the next day. Luckily Steve managed to save most of them by using a wet palette knife to tease them apart. He’s such a clever boy.

So we boiled the ravioli for a few minutes until they floated to the top of the water. I did add oil to the water to stop them sticking, but a couple stuck to the bottom of the saucepan, so you need to watch out for that. I was surprised that despite some of the ravioli having holes, hardly any of the filling came out into the water.

We then drained the ravioli and then fried them in butter until golden brown. We didn’t have any sage, so just finished them off with some freshly cracked black pepper. Here’s the finished result:

I have to say that they tasted really delicious. The flavour of the filling was able to stand out because the ravioli wasn’t drowned in a sauce. So here’s a rough recipe for the filling:

Peel and chop into 1cm cubes a medium butternut squash and a large sweet potato. Put them into a large bowl and toss with about 1 tsp of cumin seeds, chili powder and dried thyme, some salt and pepper and enough oil to coat. Roast on a baking sheet for about 30 minutes at Gas mark 6/400°F/200°C turning occasionally. When the roasted vegetables are cool mash them up a bit with a fork and mix in a tub of soft cream cheese (I always use the value stuff) and then it’s ready to use.

I made about 15 raviolis and the rest of the filling I used to make tortellini (with another batch of dough), which I have put into the freezer. I laid them out on a tray so that they weren’t touching each other and froze them for about 3 hours until they were rock hard before putting them into a freezer bag.

Here are my frozen tortellinis, ready to be cooked. They look absolutely fine on this side….

….but turning them over reveals how they’ve cracked. When I cooked them they all split and some of the filling came out, but we still ate them and they were nice. I think I should have let them dry first before freezing them, as perhaps the fierce cold was a bit of a shock to them. So next time I will air dry for about 1 hour, then put them in the fridge until they’re cold and then put them in the freezer.

With the rest of the second batch of dough we made spaghetti, which I left spread out on a board to dry and I have stored in an airtight box. I cooked the spaghetti for 3 minutes and then finished off the cooking in a Bolognese sauce I’d made. The spaghetti was nice, but it was almost exactly the same as the taglioni and not really like the dried spaghetti that we’re accustomed to. We think this is because normal spaghetti is extruded through a machine, whereas this was made from a flat sheet of pasta.

It’s been a lot of fun making pasta so far and there is still loads of learn and try out, so I don’t think it will be a gadget that is lost at the back of the cupboard never to be seen again. The Imperia machine is very well made and I would recommend it if you really enjoy cooking as much as I do!

Butternut Squash Risotto

MUNCH RATING: 5/5

Although I discovered the wonders of oven-baking risotto, nothing can really compare to a properly made risotto and all that stirring is really worth it for this risotto!

Half of the butternut squash is cooked in the stock and then mashed into a puree. This makes the rice beautifully creamy. The other half of the squash is roasted and this gives it a wonderful charred flavour and a different texture. I love the smell of roasted squash; it just screams of Autumn.

Unfortunately I didn’t use a home-grown squash as they’re not quite ready yet!

• Serves: 2
• Oven temperature: Gas mark 6/400°F/200°C
• You will need: a roasting tray, a small saucepan, a medium saucepan

Ingredients:

• 1 large butternut squash
• 4 Tablespoons olive oil
• 600ml/1 pint vegetable stock (I used 1 Knorr Stock Pot)
• 25g/1oz unsalted butter
• 1 small onion, finely chopped
• 2 garlic cloves, crushed
• 1 bay leaf
• 1 teaspoon fresh thyme leaves, picked
• 140g/5oz risotto rice (I used Arborio)
• 100ml/3½ fl.oz white wine (I used Sauvignon Blanc)
• 50g/2oz Parmesan (I used Twineham Grange)

Directions:

1. Heat oven to Gas mark 6/400°F/200°C.
2. Peel the squash and separate the bulbous seeded section from the long end. Chop the long end into 2cm cubes, toss in half the oil, season with salt and pepper and roast in the oven, turning occasionally until they are golden brown and tender (should take the same amount of time as to cook the risotto rice, about 30 minutes).
3. Cut the bulbous section in half and remove the seeds with a spoon, then cut into 2cm cubes. Warm the stock in the small saucepan over a low heat and add the squash and allow it to gently poach.
4. Meanwhile, heat the remaining oil and the butter in the medium saucepan, then add the onion, cover and cook for 3 minutes until the onion turns translucent.
5. Add the garlic, herbs and some black pepper. Increase the heat slightly, then add the rice and stir uncovered for about 5 minutes until the rice has turned almost completely translucent.
6. Turn up the heat and add the wine and allow it to bubble away until it has evaporated. Reduce the heat then start adding the stock a ladle at a time, stirring constantly whilst you allow each ladle of stock to be absorbed. It will take between 15-20 minutes for all the stock to be absorbed. Check the rice is cooked (it should be tender but not mushy) and then mash the squash that has been cooking in the stock before adding it to the cooked rice.
7. Turn off the heat, add most of the Parmesan, cover and leave to rest for 2 minutes, then stir and check for seasoning.
8. Spoon the risotto into shallow bowls, sprinkle over the roasted squash and more Parmesan if you like.

Haddock and Chorizo Gnocchi

MUNCH RATING: 4/5

This is my interpretation of a Gregg Wallace recipe from BBC Good Food Magazine. He used potatoes in his dish instead of the gnocchi, but I like the way the gnocchi absorbs some of the sauce, plus it’s quicker to cook!

I added some Parmesan to the dish as I’d just bought some from the Farmer’s Market in Epsom (read more about it here) and it worked well.
This is a really quick and easy recipe and the chorizo gives so much flavour. It’s quick garlicky, so there was no need to add any extra garlic!

• Serves: 2
• You will need: a frying pan with a tight fitting lid

Ingredients:

• 250g potato gnocchi (I used ½ 500g pack of Trattoria Verdi from Tescos)
• 1 Tablespoon olive oil
• 1 small chorizo sausage, thinly sliced (I used Cooking Chorizo from the Tesco Ingredients range)
• good handful cherry tomatoes, halved (home-grown of course!)
• 1 teaspoon Knorr Chicken Stock Granules
• 2 skinless thick haddock fillets (or other white fish)*
• salt and pepper

Directions:

1. Cook the gnocchi as per pack instructions, drain but reserve a couple of Tablespoons of the cooking water and then set aside.
2. Heat a large lidded frying, then add the oil. Add the chorizo and fry for 2 minutes until it starts to release its oil, then add the tomatoes, the reserved cooking water and the chicken stock. Cook until the tomatoes burst, then add the gnocchi and mix in well.
3. Season the fish with salt and pepper. Lay the fish on top of the gnocchi, put the lid on and leave to cook for 5 minutes, or until the fish has turned white and is flaky when prodded in the middle.
4. Sprinkle with a small handle of parmesan cheese.

*Take the fish out of the fridge and allow to come up to room temperature before cooking.

Focaccia with Mozzarella (and pesto)

MUNCH RATING: 3/5

This recipe is from BBC Good Food – I had the mozzarella but I didn’t have the pesto! The bread was easy to make, but it was a bit bland as the cheese didn’t have any flavour and I really wished I’d had the pesto! I should have put some caramelised onions, herbs or roasted cherry tomatoes on top – that’s for next time! This dough would make a good pizza base though as it had a really nice texture.

Ingredients:

• 500g strong white bread flour, plus some for dusting
• 1 ½ tsp salt
• 7g sachet fast-action yeast (I used 1 tsp Doves Farm Quick Yeast)
• 2 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil, plus some for drizzling
• 125g ball mozzarella , drained
• 5 Tbsp pesto

Directions:

1. Put the flour into a bowl and mix in the salt. Mix the yeast into 325ml tepid water. Add the water and oil to the flour, then mix well with a plastic scraper or your hands. When most of the liquid is incorporated, use your hands to bring all the ingredients together into a ball of dough.
2. Tip the dough out onto a worktop lightly dusted with flour and work it by pulling and stretching for at least 10 mins. Try to get as much air into it as possible. Put the ball of worked dough into a well-oiled bowl, cover with a little more oil and a tea towel or cling film. Leave to rest for 1 hr or so in a non-draughty warm spot, until doubled in size.
3. Now stretch the dough out onto a baking sheet until it's about 20 x 30cm. Leave the dough to rise again to about half as high again, about 30-40 mins in a warm draught-free place, loosely covered with a tea towel.
4. Heat oven to 180C/160C fan/gas 4. When the dough has risen, press your fingers into it gently to make some holes. Bake for about 15 mins, then remove from the oven. Tear over the mozzarella, then bake for another 5-10 mins until golden and cooked through. Drizzle over the pesto and scatter with sea salt, if you like. Serve straight away.

New and improved pizza!

MUNCH RATING: 4/5
 
I used a different recipe for the dough and I think it tasted much better than the recipe I tried from BBC Good Food. It’s just as easy to make and I made it quicker by cheating and using a ready made tomato sauce. I also used a different brand of yeast, so the pizza didn’t have the funny aftertaste that I got when I used Tesco’s Fast Action Dried Yeast. I used Doves Farm Quick Yeast, which comes in a packet so you can easily measure out the amount you want, rather than have half used little sachets everywhere.

Although it was much better than my other attempt at pizza, there is still room for improvement! It was crispy around the outside but still a bit stodgy underneath and in the middle, but Steve likes it like that!

I used my new Prestige Baking Sheet, which was the perfect size and it was so easy to clean – even the tomato sauce that got burned onto it. I didn’t bother putting it onto another tray that had heated in the oven (as the BBC Good Food recipe suggests) and I got exactly the same results.

• Makes: 1 large pizza
• Oven temperature: Gas mark 6/400°F/200°C
• You will need: a large bowl, 1 large baking sheets
• Prep Time: 15 mins plus 30 mins to let the dough rise
• Cook Time: 15-20 minutes

Ingredients:
FOR THE DOUGH

• 175g (6oz) strong white flour
• 1 teaspoon dried yeast
• pinch of salt
• ½ teaspoon sugar
• 120ml (4 fl.oz) lukewarm water
• 2 Tablespoon oil

FOR THE TOPPINGS

• Tomato Sauce (I used half a 350g jar of Lloyd Grossman’s Sweet Red Pepper Sauce)
• 125g mozzarella, roughly torn into pieces
• 2 mushrooms, finely sliced
• 1 sweet orange pepper, finely sliced
• 2 slices of bacon, roughly chopped
• 1 clove garlic, crushed or grated
• small handful of mature cheddar cheese or parmesan, grated
• fresh basil leaves

Directions:

1. Sift the flour, dried yeast, salt and sugar into a large bowl.
2. Make a well in the centre and add the water and the oil.
3. Use a round-bladed knife to mix into a ball of dough and then tip out onto a lightly floured board.
4. Knead well for 10 minutes or until the dough is smooth and will spring back when lightly pressed.
5. Place into a lightly oiled bowl, cover with cling film and put in a warm place to prove for about 30 minutes or until the dough has doubled in size (I put mine in the cupboard next to the tumble dryer whilst it was on!)
6. Preheat the oven to Gas mark 6/400°F/200°C.
7. Take the proved dough out of the bowl and carefully place on a lightly greased baking tray. Spread your fingers and gently press the dough down to flatten it (this is knocking back the dough) and create either a circle or square shaped pizza. I made mine into a 10x10 inch square pizza and it was quite thin.
8. Spread the tomato sauce over the pizza, leaving a space around the edge.
9. Carefully arrange your toppings over the tomato sauce – I like to overlap the mushrooms and peppers with the mozzarella cheese and then have the bacon and garlic on top to get crispy. I then finish with the grated cheese and some black pepper.
10. Bake for 15-20 minutes or until the crust is golden brown. I added some fresh basil leaves in the last 5 minutes of cooking.

You might also be interested in:

• Homemade Pizza
• Calzone and Dough Balls

Pasta Bake

MUNCH RATING: 4/5

This is basically like a lasagne, but instead of using lasagne sheets you use cooked tagliatelle, so it is much quicker to cook as it is just flashed under the grill. I’ve made dishes like this before with a mince beef tomato sauce, but the addition of the wine really makes a difference, as do the herbs and nutmeg, so they are well worth buying.

• Serves: 4
• You will need: an ovenproof dish about 9 x 9 inches

Ingredients:

• 225g (8oz) minced beef
• 2 Tablespoons oil
• 50g (2oz) lean bacon, chopped
• 1 small onion, finely chopped
• 1 small carrot, grated
• 2 Tablespoons red or white wine
• 65ml (2½ fl.oz) stock
• salt and pepper
• pinch of nutmeg
• 1 medium tin tomatoes
• 2 teaspoons tomato puree
• 1 clove garlic, crushed
• bay leaf
• 100g (4oz) dried tagliatelle
• 450ml (¾ pint) Béchamel sauce*
• 100g (4oz) grated cheese

Directions:

1. Heat 1 Tablespoon oil in a saucepan, add the bacon and cook until golden brown.
2. Add the onion and carrot and cook slowly until soft and transparent.
3. Stir in the minced beef and cook until the meat changes colour.
4. Add the wine, stock, salt and pepper, nutmeg, tomatoes, tomato puree, garlic and bay leaf. Bring to the boil, reduce the heat and simmer gently for approximately 45 minutes.
5. Cook the tagliatelle in boiling salted water with the remaining Tablespoon of oil. Drain well.
6. Place a layer of meat mixture in an ovenproof dish, cover with a layer of tagliatelle, then a layer of Béchamel sauce and then a layer of grated cheese. Repeat these layers finishing with a layer of cheese.
7. Brown under a hot grill or in the top of a hot oven Gas mark 7/425°F/220°C.

* Make the sauce using 450ml (¾ pint) milk, 40g (1½oz) butter and 40g (1½oz) flour.

Mandy’s ‘Healthy’ Cajun Calzone & Dough Balls

MUNCH RATING: 4/5

I totally made up this recipe for the filling and I’m calling it ‘healthy’ because there’s no fattening cheese. I basically used tomatoes and ½ fat crème fraiche to make a creamy sauce so that the filling ingredients wouldn’t be dry. I have to say that for a total experiment it worked really well! I will definitely make this again as it’s a great way to use up leftovers and it was actually tastier than the pizza.

I made up the dough as per this pizza recipe and I used half the dough for the calzone and the other half I used to make dough balls (like the ones you get from Pizza Express).

• Makes: 1 calzone to serve 2 people and 8 dough balls
• Oven temperature: Gas mark 8/450°F/230°C
• You will need: at least 2 baking trays 

Calzone Filling Ingredients:

• 1 small chorizo sausage, chopped into small pieces
• 4 mushrooms, sliced
• 3 tomatoes, roughly chopped
• handful leftover roasted butternut squash chunks*
• leftover sliced and roasted red onion*
• 2 large handfuls of spinach
• 2 heaped teaspoons Cajun seasoning (I used Bart’s)
• 2 heaped Tablespoons ½ fat crème fraiche 

Calzone Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to Gas mark 8/450°F/230°C and place a baking tray in the oven to get hot (or ideally use a pizza stone!)
2. In a large non-stick pan fry the chorizo (no need to add oil) until crispy and the chorizo has released its oils.
3. Add the mushrooms and fry until soft.
4. Add the tomatoes with a splash of water, cover with a lid and cook for about 10 minutes until they have broken down.
5. Add the butternut squash, onion and spinach (or any other vegetables you want), the Cajun seasoning and the crème fraiche and mix thoroughly. Set to one side to cool whilst you roll the dough.
6. Place the dough on a lightly floured surface and roll out to a 10 inch/25cm circle and so that it is about 3mm thick.
7. Spread the filling onto one half of the circle, brush the edge lightly with water, then fold over the dough and pinch to make a semi-circle pasty shape.
8. Lift the calzone onto a baking tray and place this tray on top of the preheated one in the oven.
9. Bake for 20-25 minutes until golden brown (I spread some leftover garlic butter over the calzone 5 minutes before the end of cooking). 

DOUGH BALLS:

1. Portion the other half of the dough into 8 even sized balls and roll so they have a smooth surface.
2. Place on a baking tray and bake for 10 minutes until golden brown and they sound hollow when tapped on the bottom. Serve with garlic butter (1 clove of crushed garlic mixed with 1 Tablespoon softened butter). 

*To roast the butternut squash and onion I just cut the squash into chunks and the onion into 8 wedges, tossed in a little oil and dried rosemary, then roasted on Gas mark 6/400°F/200°C for 45 minutes, turning occasionally.

You might also be interested in: Homemade Pizza

Oven Baked Risotto

MUNCH RATING: 4/5

Oh. My. God. I can’t believe it’s taken me so long to discover this wonderful method of cooking risotto! OK it’s not got the same exact creaminess of risotto that you’ve spent ages stirring on the stovetop, but the speed and easiness of this method more than makes up for that and the texture of the rice is brilliant. I suppose you could add some cream, but I personally don’t think it needs it or the extra calories!

• Serves: 4
• You will need: an ovenproof dish or pan with a tight fitting lid
• Cooking time: 30-35 minutes
• Oven temperature: Gas mark 6/400°F/200°C 

Ingredients:

• 1 onion, finely chopped
• 1 small chorizo sausage, chopped
• 4 mushrooms, sliced
• 2 sweet orange peppers
• 300g/10oz risotto rice
• ½ glass white wine (optional)
• 700ml/1¼ pint stock
• some leftover roasted butternut squash 

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to Gas mark 6/400°F/200°C.
2. Heat about a tablespoon of oil in your pan and gently fry the onion until soft. Add the chorizo and fry until crispy and it has released its oil.
3. Add the mushrooms and peppers and fry for a few minutes.
4. Add the rice and mix until well coated in the oil. Fry gently until the rice has turned slightly translucent.
5. Pour in the wine if you’re using it, then cook for a couple of minutes until it’s absorbed.
6. Add the butternut squash and the stock and bring to the boil.
7. Then cover with the lid and bake in the oven for 18 minutes.
8. I like to leave the rice to sit on the countertop for about 10 minutes, with the lid still on. This is enough time to crank up the oven to Gas 7/220C/425F and cook some roasted broccoli to serve with it.

Homemade Pizza

MUNCH RATING: 3/5

It’s been a while since my last attempt at cooking with dough (Chelsea Buns in March) and I thought I’d try something a bit simpler, so I found this pizza recipe on the BBC Good Food website.

The dough was incredibly easy to make and had a really good texture, so I’ll definitely be making it again. I imagine these would taste even better if cooked on a pizza stone!

This might seem like a really long recipe, but so many things can be prepared in advance and apparently the dough can be frozen.

The original recipe called for passata for the sauce, but I didn’t have any and we had some tomatoes that had gone soft, so I used those instead to make my own sauce. Unfortunately my basil hasn’t grown big enough otherwise I would have added some! I would of also added garlic, but I’d run out! Plus I was making this pizza with Steve’s mum in mind and as she doesn’t like garlic I was trying to make it as plain as possible. She doesn’t normally like pizza as she doesn’t like the tomato sauce, but she tried some of my sauce and said it was very nice! I had some sauce leftover and this was great mixed with some creme fraiche to make a sauce for pasta.

I also added lots of extra topping ingredients as I find margherita a bit boring!

• Makes: 2 pizzas
• Oven temperature: Gas mark 8/450°F/230°C
• You will need: a large bowl, 2 baking sheets plus 1 in the oven
• Prep Time: 25 mins plus time if you let the dough rise
• Cook Time: 10-15 mins per pizza

Ingredients For The Base:

• 300g strong bread flour
• 1 tsp instant yeast (I used Tesco’s Fast Action Dried Yeast)
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 200ml warm water

Ingredients For My Sauce:

• 2 handfuls of cherry tomatoes
• 3 large tomatoes, quartered
• 1 teaspoon dried oregano
• 100ml vegetable stock
• 1 Tablespoon tomato ketchup
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• Black pepper to season

Ingredients For The Topping:

• 125g ball mozzarella, chopped into small pieces
• 100g mature cheddar cheese, grated
• 4 mushrooms, sliced
• 2 sweet orange peppers, sliced
• cooked Cajun chicken, chopped into small pieces*

Directions:
1. Make The Dough: Put the flour into a large bowl, then stir in the yeast and salt. Make a well, pour in 200ml warm water and the olive oil and bring together with a wooden spoon until you have a soft, fairly wet dough. Turn onto a lightly floured surface and knead for 5 mins until smooth. Lightly oil the bowl before you put the dough back into it, then cover with a tea towel and set aside. You can leave the dough to rise if you like, but it's not essential for a thin crust. (I left my dough to rise and the middle photo shows it after 1 hour and the photo on the right is after 2.5 hours).

2. Make the sauce: Put all the sauce ingredients into a saucepan and simmer for 15-20 minutes until the tomatoes have broken down and the stock has reduced and you have a nice thick sauce. Pass through a sieve to strain out the tomato skins. Leave to stand at room temperature whilst you make the base.
3. Roll out the dough: If you've let the dough rise, give it a quick knead, then split into two balls. On a floured surface, roll out the dough into large rounds, about 25cm across, using a rolling pin. The dough needs to be very thin as it will rise in the oven. Lift the rounds onto two floured baking sheets.
4. Top and bake: Heat oven to Gas mark 8/450°F/230°C. Put another baking sheet or an upturned baking tray in the oven on the top shelf. Smooth sauce over bases with the back of a spoon. Scatter with your toppings (drizzle with olive oil and season). Put one pizza, still on its baking sheet, on top of the preheated sheet or tray. Bake for 8-10 mins until crisp (mine took between 10-15 mins as I made my bases quite thick). Repeat step for remaining pizza.
* To make the Cajun chicken I took the skin off and deboned 2 small chicken thighs and marinated in 1 Tablespoon olive oil and 1 Tablespoon of Cajun seasoning (I used Bart’s). Then I cooked in a George Foreman grill for about 5 minutes so it was crispy and charred as if it had been on the BBQ!
You might also be interested in:

• Calzone and Dough Balls
• New and improved pizza!

Gnocchi with Chorizo and Butternut Squash

MUNCH RATING: 5/5

I love the flavour and the great meaty texture that chorizo gives to a dish and the sweetness of the butternut squash gives an excellent balance.
This is by no means a healthy dish with the chorizo, 2 types of cheese and cream, but I have added lots of vegetables and this isn’t a dish I would eat all the time so I think it’s OK!

It’s an easy one-pot meal, but if you don’t have an oven-proof pan then just cook it in a normal pan and then transfer to an oven-proof dish.

• Serves 4 (or 2 greedy people!)
• You will need: oven-proof pan and a large saucepan
• Oven temperature: Gas mark 5/375°F/190°C 

Ingredients:

• 3-4 shallots, peeled and finely chopped
• ½ chorizo sausage (I used Revilla Chorizo Pueblo from Sainsburys)
• 1 butternut squash, peeled and chopped into 1cm cubes
• 1 teaspoon dried oregano
• Handful of mushrooms, sliced
• Some leftover cooked peas and sweetcorn
• 1-2 tablespoons double cream
• 2x 150g packs mozzarella (I used Sainsburys Italian mozzarella)
• 1x 400g pack of dried gnocchi, cut into chunks (I used Italfresco Gnocchi from Sainsburys)
• Handful of mature cheddar cheese, grated (optional) 

Directions:

1. Heat a tablespoon of oil and gently sweat the shallots until softened and slightly brown.
2. Add the chorizo and fry until nice and crispy.
3. Add the dried oregano.
4. Add the butternut squash and fry for about 10-15 minutes until soft and tender (adding a tablespoon of water and covering with a lid will speed things along).
5. Add the mushrooms and any other veggies to the pan.
6. Meanwhile, bring a large pan of water to the boil and cook the gnocchi for a few minutes or until they rise to the surface of the water. Drain and reserve some of the cooking liquid.
7. Add the gnocchi to the pan, with the double cream and the mozzarella and mix thoroughly. Add a couple of tablespoons of the cooking liquid so you get a nice sauce.
8. Sprinkle the cheddar cheese on top, then put the pan in the oven and cook for 10-15 minutes or until the cheese is starting to brown.

Arancini (Rice Balls)

MUNCH RATING: 4/5

I used proper risotto rice for this attempt at Arancini and I'm really pleased with the result. I decided on the conical shape after watching a video on Youtube of someone making arancini and I thought it looked more appealing than just a round ball. I also found that when it came to cooking them, I had more control to get them evenly brown on all sides, rather than them rolling around in the oil.
Making arancini from scratch takes some time and preparation, but it is ideal if you have leftover risotto, which means you can pick up this recipe from step 3.
This amount makes 8 Arancini Balls, so perfect to serve as a starter with a Roasted Red Pepper sauce (recipe to follow). I managed to eat 2 with my dinner, but Steve ate 5 so you may need to double the quantity if you're cooking for people with healthy appetites!
Next time I want to try stuffing them with meaty bolognese - yum!

You will need:

• Saucepan to cook the risotto
• 1 small bowl for the beaten egg
• 1 medium bowl for the breadcrumbs
• Medium saucepan with about 2 inches of hot oil
• 1 baking sheet to keep cooked arancini warm in the oven

Ingredients:

• 1.5 cups risotto rice, e.g. arborio
• 3 cups hot stock (you may need an additional 1 cup stock)
• 8 mini mozzarella balls or chunks cut about 2cm cube
• 1 egg, beaten
• About 1 cup panko breadcrumbs (or normal breadcrumbs)
• For added flavour you can add 1/2 cup parmesan to the breadcrumbs

Directions:

1. Cook the risotto rice until it is nice and tender, but not mushy. I used a Mushroom and Herb flavoured risotto to give it more flavour.
2. Allow the risotto to completely cool and then put it in the fridge.
3. When you're ready to make your arancini, remove the cooked rice from the fridge. Preheat the oven to Gas Mark 4/180°C/350°F.
4. Heat the oil in the saucepan until a few breadcrumbs dropped in the oil sizzle and go brown within a few seconds.
5. Have the beaten egg ready in a small bowl and the breadcrumbs ready in a medium bowl.
6. Divide the risotto into 8 portions. Wet your hands and take 1 portion and shape it with both hands into a hollow cone with the pointed end at the bottom. Place a piece of mozzarella in the middle and then seal the hole with the rice, creating a flat bottom. Put your arancini on a plate whilst you shape the rest of the rice.
7. One by one, dip the arancini into the egg and then the breadcrumbs, making sure they are well coated. I like to put a small amount of breadcrumbs in the bowl and then add more as I complete each arancini. This prevents all your breadcrumbs becoming all glued together as they come into contact with the egg.
8. When the oil is ready, carefully place 2 to 3 arancini into the oil and cook for about 4-5 minutes, turning so that they are nicely golden brown on all sides.
9. When they are ready, place them on a baking sheet and pop them into the preheated oven to keep warm whilst you cook the rest.
10. When ready to serve, rest them on paper towels to soak up any excess oil before plating up.