Easy Caponata (Sicilian Vegetable Stew)

Caponata is a Sicilian vegetable dish, similar to Ratatouille.

This Caponata recipe, from Jamie Oliver, has a lot less ingredients than many online and much more to my taste ie no raisins nor celery.

Serves 4

2 aubergines

1 red onion, peeled and thinly slice

2 cloves of garlic, peeled and thinly sliced

Olive oil2 tablespoons capers

1 handful of green olives

Tin of cherry tomatoes

½ a bunch fresh flat-leaf parsley (15g)

2 tbsp red wine vinegar

2 tbsps flaked almonds

Cut the aubergine into large chunks and fry in a wide saucepan or sauté pan over a medium high heat in a large glug of olive oil.

While the aubergine is frying, prepare the onion and garlic.

When the aubergine is golden on most sides (about 5 minutes) add the onion and garlic, and fry for a few minutes.

Add the capers and olives. Stir around then add the vinegar.

When the vinegar has almost evaporated away add the tinned cherry tomatoes and simmer gently for 15 minutes.

Stir in the parsley and flaked almonds before serving.  Season to taste.

Caponata can be eaten hot or cold (room temperature).  

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Caramelised Onion Pasta

Social media keeps on pushing caramelised onion spaghetti/linguine recipes my way.  So I gave one a go.

The recipe I roughly followed was a little greasy, not a surprise with all the butter, oil, cream, and cheese, so I added anchovies, chilli flakes, and lemon zest to cut through the richness.  If you don't mind having pasta without much sauce you can omit the cream and add the parmesan and zest after tossing through the cooked onion mixture.

Serves 4

400g spaghetti

4 brown onions, peeled and finely sliced

4 cloves of garlic, peeled and finely sliced

15g butter

1 tbsp olive oil, including anchovy oil using

1 tin anchovies in olive oil, chopped

1/2 tsp chilli flakes

300ml double cream

100g grated parmesan or grana padano

Zest of 1 lemon

Fresh parsley

Fry the sliced onions in the melted butter and olive oil over a medium heat for 20-25 minutes, stirring from time to time, until brown and meltingly soft. 

Stir in the chop anchovies, garlic, and chilli. Fry until the anchovies start to break up.

Pour in the cream, cheese, lemon zest and heat gently whilst you cook the pasta.

Once the pasta is cooked, drain and mix into the creamy sauce.  

Sprinkle with chopped parsley before serving if using.

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Homemade Lemonade

Homemade Lemonade, aka Citron Pressé or Spremuta di Limone is a great quick cooling drink in the height of summer. Depending on whether you have a sweet tooth or not, you may not need any sugar.

Ideally this is make with sugar syrup (a cooled water and sugar solution), but this assumes you want sugar.  With one Type 1 diabetic and now a pre diabetic in our family of five, we don't. Just stir well if you do add sugar.

Makes 500ml 

Juice of 1 lemon

500ml chilled still or sparkling water

Caster sugar to taste

Quite simply, juice half the lemon and add half the water. 

Taste it to see if you want sugar, and if so, how much.  Stir well to dissolve the sugar as best you can.  

Add the other half of the lemon juice and water with the same amount of sugar (if any) that you added to the first half.

Oranges or limes can be used instead of lemon.

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Zoe.com Aubergine Parmigiana

Being gifted some aubergines seemed the ideal opportunity to make an Aubergine Parmigiana, which I had wanted to try for a long time.  This recipe could also be made with courgettes.

I looked at several recipes, including traditional Italian recipes, but settled on @zoe's recipe because I liked the idea of adding lentils to the tomato sauce to make it more filling as a main meal.

@Zoe's recipe is copied below, with my notes in italics

Serves: 4 (with leftovers)
Preparation Time: 15 minutes
Cook Time: 1 hour
Plant Count: 7
Diet: Vegetarian (Vegan with swaps)
Fibre: 10–15g per serving

3 aubergines, sliced lengthways into 1cm-thick slices (or 5-6 courgettes)
2 tbsp olive oil
1 onion, finely chopped
2 garlic cloves, roughly chopped
1 red chilli, thinly sliced
1 x 400g tin chopped tomatoes (14 oz)
1 x 400g tin black or green lentils, drained (14 oz)
30g basil leaves, torn, plus a few extra for garnish 
125g ball of mozzarella, torn (4.4 oz)
20g finely grated Parmesan cheese (0.7 oz)
Salt and black pepper

Top-ups: Kimchi, Extra basil
Swaps: Black-eyed beans for lentils, Vegan cheese alternative

Preheat the oven to 200°C/180°C fan/400°F/gas 6. Line a large baking tray with baking parchment and lay out the aubergine slices in a single layer. Season with salt and pepper and drizzle 1 tablespoon of the olive oil all over. Bake for 25 minutes until golden and soft. I took the more traditional Italian route and shallow fried my aubergine slices in olive oil until golden brown, but it does use a lot of olive oil.

Meanwhile, place a frying pan over medium heat and sauté the onion in the remaining oil for 3 minutes until softened. Add the garlic and chilli, and cook for 1 minute more. Pour in the chopped tomatoes and lentils, then half-fill the tomato tin with water and add this to the pan. Simmer for 10 minutes until slightly thickened. Add the torn basil leaves and cook for 5 minutes more, then season with salt and pepper.
Spoon a third of the ragu mixture into the base of a 20–23cm (8–9 inch) square ovenproof dish (or similar) and top with a layer of aubergine. Repeat this twice more, then finish with the torn mozzarella and grated Parmesan. I used a 200g ball of mozzarella which covered the top layer of aubergine really well once melted.

Bake for 30 minutes until the cheese is bubbling and golden brown. Serve with some steamed greens or salad on the side.

Tips and Techniques

Cheese alternatives: For a vegan version, swap the mozzarella and parmesan for vegan alternatives.

Meal prep: This dish works great as leftovers. Store in the fridge for up to 3 days, and reheat in the oven or airfryer (180C for 10-15 minutes) to regain the crispy texture.

Customise your veg: Feel free to add more vegetables like spinach, bell peppers, carrots or celery to the ragu to up the plant count.

FAQs

Can I use other types of beans instead of lentils? Absolutely! You can swap lentils for black-eyed beans, chickpeas, or even cannellini beans.

Can I prepare this dish ahead of time? Yes, you can assemble the dish and refrigerate it until you're ready to bake

Can I freeze the leftovers? Yes, you can freeze portions of the cooked aubergine parmigiana in an airtight container for up to 3 months. Reheat in the oven for best results.

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Cheats Nduja (Spicy Italian Pork Paté)

Unusually, I came across a recipe for a vegan nduja and made a meat version, as quite often I find myself making vegan versions of meat recipes.  We're not vegans, but meat has become a weekend treat. So as today is Saturday I made this Nduja pasta sauce.

Nduja is a fiery spreadable salami made with Calabrian chilli peppers.  There weren't any Calabria chills in Asda in Eastleigh in Hampshire, so I used the remnants of some Chipotle paste I had plus some hot chilli flakes.  I think I will stick to hot chilli flakes in future as they are easier to find.

Serves 6 with 500g dried pasta

2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

500g higher welfare pork mince

2 tsp sweet paprika

1 tsp fennel seeds

1 large garlic clove, peeled and roughly chopped

1 tsp red wine vinegar

100g roasted red peppers, keeping the liquid

1-2 tsp chilli powder or flakes, to taste (it is supposed to be fiery!)

In a frying pan, fry the pork mince in the olive oil over a medium high heat until browned.

Stir in the paprika, fennel seeds, and garlic and cook for another couple of minutes.

Add the red wine vinegar, stir around and then the peppers.  Stir then turn off the heat to cool for a 10+ minutes.

When cool enough run through a food processor, adding the reserved roasted pepper liquid if required, to make a spreadable paste.

Serve over pasta (a mug of pasta water helps make the 'nduja into more of a sauce), on toast or canapés.

Keep in the fridge for 3 days, or freeze in portions.

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Sourdough Discard Pizza

I saw couple of reels making sourdough discard pizzas and thought I'd give it a go.  As I don't discard any starter, so I fed my starter more so that I had enough.  This makes a moist, crumpet like pizza base. And for once, no-one left any crusts!

Makes 3 pizzas

150g active sourdough starter

1 cup bread flour

1 cup water

1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

Toppings

Premade tomato sauce

Sliced mozzarella

Other toppings of choice; chorizo, ham, anchovies, olives, capers, pineapple...

Leave your starter out overnight to wake it up.

In the morning, mix in the bread flour and water, cover and leave to ferment for as long as you can.

At dinner time, turn the oven on to 220C to preheat and heat an ovenproof frying pan or shallow casserole dish on the stove.  

When the pan is piping hot add the olive oil and a US cup measurement of sourdough starter.

When bubbles start to burst on the surface of the pizza base spread on the tomato sauce and toppings of your choice.

Place the pan and bake in the hot oven for 10 minutes until the topping is bubbling.

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Caponata, Sicilian Vegetables

Caponata is Ratatouille's Sicilian cousin.  Apart from the aubergine, ingredients seem to vary. Tomatoes, onion, celery, olives, and capers seem common from recipe to recipe. Courgette, pepper, pine nuts, and raisins (should only be in a cake in my opinion) slightly less so.

2 aubergines

1 courgette

1 red pepper

1 onion, peeled

1 stick of celery

2 large cloves of garlic

4 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

1 can cherry or chopped tomatoes

20 unpitted green or black olives, destoned

2 tbsp capers

30g pine nuts

Can of cannellini beans, black beans, or green lentils (optional)

Chop the aubergine, courgette, onion, and celery into chunky bite sized pieces.

Toss in the olive oil, together with the unpeeled garlic cloves and salt, and bake in a high sided baking dish for 40 minutes at 200C, stirring halfway through the cooking time.

At the end of the cooking time, stir in the rest of the ingredients into the hot baking dish to warm up.  There should be enough residual heat in the baking dish to heat the tomatoes enough. If not, pop back in the oven for 10 minutes.

To make this dish a little more filling (and add more carbohydrate, fibre, and protein) add a can of cannellini beans, green lentils, or black beans.

Eat hot or cold. The flavours of this dish will develop if left to cool overnight.

Caponata can be cooked on the stove, frying the vegetables in the olive oil until browned and they adding the remaining ingredients.

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Sausage & Potato Traybake

We make this every time we go to France, currently twice a year, with good quality Toulouse sausage, merquez, or cooking chorizo from local butchers. 

Vegetables like chunks of red peppers and cherry tomatoes could be added when you add the sausages, but my teens would rather a green salad. 

Serves 4

1kg small potatoes, halved 
1kg sausages 
1 tbsp olive oil or butter 

Preheat the oven to 220C.

Toss the potatoes and oil together in a large high side baking dish, or dot with butter if you have no oil (as we did, on arriving for our first night at our Airbnb). 

Bake the potatoes uncovered for 20 minutes. Remove the tray from the oven and stir around the potatoes, then lay on the sausages. Return to the oven for 15 minutes.

After 15 minutes take the dish out the oven again, remove the sausages to a plate and stir around the potatoes, pushing the browner ones to the middle, and the lighter ones to the sides of the dish. Return the sausages to the dish with their paler undersides facing up. Bake for another 15 minutes or until golden brown and the juices run clear (a bit hard to tell with merquez). 

Serve with a green salad or something green.

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Sourdough Pizza

Dad is the pizza baker in our house, and I am the sourdough baker.  He was away for the night, so I thought I'd try making sourdough pizza.  This should, in theory be started the evening before, but I started the morning I was making pizza for dinner and it worked out fine, if lacking a strong sourdough flavour

100g lively sourdough starter
375 g water

10 g salt 

500g bread flour 

Mix sourdough starter, water and salt in a bowl in a large mixing bowl with a strong plastic spatula.  Stir in flour until it forms a sticky dough.

Cover with a plastic bag, shower cap, or tea bowl and leave to rest for 30 minutes. 

After 30 minutes, wet the fingers of one hand and 'stretch and fold' the dough, pushing your fingers down one side of the bowl, lifting and stretching this handful up and folding it down onto the centre like an envelope flap. Do this the oppposite side to where you first folded and then either side.

Stretch and fold more times at 30 minute intervals (set a timer as a reminder).  

Cover the stretched dough and leave to prove for 6-12 hours, or until doubled in size.

Tip out onto a floured surface and divide into 4 equal pieces (roughly
246g each). Shape into balls and place into individual covered containers in the fridge for at least 6 hours, and up to 3 days.  Pizza dough can be frozen at this stage, but the longer it is stored in the freezer the less bubbly the cooked base will be.

A hour before cooking, take the dough out of the fridge. Cut greaseproof paper to fit the baking trays or pizza stones you are using, flour lightly, and tip a ball of dough onto each one.  

Turn the oven on to preheat to 250C or as high as it goes, and put the baking trays/stones in.

Carefully stretch the dough out into a round with your hands, trying not to squash all bubbles.

Top as desired.  Ours usually have a homemade tomato sauce, mozzarella and then the children choose toppings such as pepperoni, jalapeños, anchovies, olives, sliced mushrooms, bacon lardons, cooked or cured ham, and my son's favourite - pineapple (pictured).  We have also made non-tomato pizzas with creme fraiche, garlic, mushrooms, and lardons. And a favourite of mine is rocket, goats cheese, pine nuts, and olive oil.

When the pizza is ready, and the oven is up to temperature, take the trays/stones out of the oven one at a time.  Place on a heatproof surface near the prepared pizza and slide the greaseproof paper onto the tray/stone. Place back in the oven and cook 10 minutes or until the edges of the pizza are brown and crispy.  If your oven does not go to 250C your pizzas will take longer to cook.

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Tomato Bruschetta

I know this dish as Pa amb Tomàquet, a Catalan staple of tomato rubbed over toasted or untoasted bread and seasoned with olive oil and garlic. But more people have heard of Tomato Bruschetta.

It's a great way of using tomatoes that are starting to go soft, and stale/hard baguette, sourdough, ciabatta, focaccia etc

100g ripe tomatoes (a handful of cherry tomatoes, or 2 medium sized), roughly chopped
1tbsp extra virgin olive oil

1 small garlic clove, peeled and roughly chopped

Pinch of salt

Stale bread

Whizz up the tomatoes, olive oil, garlic,and salt in a mini food processor.

Slice the bread, place in a shallow dish, and pour over the tomato pulp.

Cover and leave overnight ideally, for the flavours to develop and for the tomatoes to soften the bread. Eat at room temperature for the best flavour 

Pa amb Tomàquet is eaten as breakfast and as a snack/tapas throughout the day in Catalunya.

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Pastina, Simple Italian Vegetable & Pasta Soup

Maybe because I've been under the weather, but a lot of Pastina recipes have popped up on social media over the last week.

Pastina literally means 'tiny pasta', but seems to have come to mean a simple restorative soup of liquidised vegetables with soup pasta. I'm guessing Italian nonnas would have grated or finely diced the vegetables rather than reached for the liquidiser?

Serves 4

1.5L good quality chicken or vegetable stock

1 large onion, peeled and roughly chopped or finely diced

1 large carrot, peeled and roughly chopped or finely diced

1 large stick of celery, roughly chopped or finely diced

100g orzo or soup pasta

Simmer the vegetables in the stock in a covered saucepan for 20 minutes.  

Liquidise the soup and vegetables if this is your preference.  Add the soup pasta and simmer for the cooking time on the packet, until tender.  Stir from time to time to prevent sticking to the bottom of the pan.

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Air Fryer Courgette Scarpaccia (Baked Courgette Pancake)

I have a new (secondhand) small air fryer, and a single courgette harvest from the allotment.  So let's try a air fryer Courgette Scarpaccia (kind of baked courgette pancake) for one.

Serves 1

1 small courgette, very thinly sliced

1/4 of a red onion, finely sliced

50g wheat flour (I used gram flour as I prefer it)

15g parmesan, freshly grated

Olive oil

Salt & pepper

Sprinkle a large pinch of salt over the courgette, mix well, and leave for about 20 minutes.

After 20 minutes, mix courgette, onion, flour, parmesan, lots of black pepper and combine well. The mixture will be more of a paste than a loose batter. 

Grease the air fryer liner (I squished a slightly too big silicone sandwich tin into mine - will be ordering air fryer liners next) with a little olive oil and spread mixture with oiled hands our evenly. Top with a drizzle of oil, a little more grated parmesan, and more black pepper.

Bake at 200C for 10-15 minutes until golden and bubbling.

Eat as a light lunch, snack, or with an aperitivo.

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Cacio e Pepe Pasta

Cacio e Pepe is apparently one of the basic pasta dishes taught to Italian young adults should they dare to leave home.

Serves 2

200g spaghetti

25g butter

2 tsp whole black peppercorns, ground, or 1 tsp freshly ground black pepper

50g pecorino or parmesan, finely grated

Boil the pasta according to the instructions on the packet for al dente pasta.  

While the pasta is cooking melt the butter in small pan, then add the ground black pepper and gently sizzle  in the hot butter for a few minutes.

When the pasta is cooked, drain it, reserving a mug of hot water.  Return the pasta to the pan with the melted butter and half a mug of the reserved water. Toss the pasta in the buttery water then evenly sprinkle over parmesan and toss again quickly to stop the cheese clumping.  Add a little more reserved water if required to loosen the sauce and coat the pasta.  Serve immediately.

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Mexican or Italian Bean Salad

Slowly moving into salad season, so I thought I'd experiment with a bean salad.

Serves 2

1 can beans in water, drained  (black beans, pinto beans, kidney beans)
1/4 cucumber, cubed 

1 beef tomato, diced 

1 red pepper, diced 

1 stick celery, diced 

1 small red onion, peeled & diced

Mexican dressing - small pack of coriander finely chopped, 1/2 tsp ground cumin, 1 small green chilli pepper finely diced, 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil,1 tbsp red wine vinegar, freshly ground pepper & salt

Italian dressing - 2 tbsp finely chopped broad leaf parsely, 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil,1 tbsp red wine vinegar, freshly ground pepper & salt

Mix all the ingredients together with the dressing of your choice. Leave to marinade for 30 minutes if you can.  

Spoon into mini pittas to eat.

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Calzone Pizza, Italian Pasties

I've begun making Calzone as one of my options for my son's packed lunch. I can batch bake them (baked with Baked Chocolate Oats this week), and then not have to flap around getting him something nutritious every morning. 

I've been filling them with chorizo and mozzarella, but you could use any of your favourite pizza toppings. I may even try using a samosa style filling.

Makes 2 large or 4 small calzone

225g white bread flour

130ml water

30ml olive oil

1 tsp quick yeast

1 tsp salt

1/2 tsp sugar

1 ball of mozzarella, cubed

100g diced chorizo or ham

My calzone recipe comes from our Bread Machine book, given to us with our first bread machine 19 years ago, so mixes and kneads the dough on a bread machine dough cycle. But it can be done by hand.

Mix and knead the dough on a dough setting. Ours mixes/kneads for 10 minutes, rests for 10 minutes, kneads for another 5 minutes before resting again for a final 15 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 220C.

When the dough cycle has finished, tip the bread dough out on to a lightly floured surface. Knock it back and divide into 2 or 4 equal sized pieces.  Roll each piece of dough into a flat circle. This is easier than it sounds, as I find yeasted dough springs back.  My solution is to roll the all circles out then go back to the first one and roll/stretch them back out again before filling, and then on to the next.

Divide the filling between the dough circles, placing it on one half of of the circle, and leaving a 1.5cm border at the edge. 

Dampen the border with water. Fold the circle in half over the filling and twist or crimp the edges to seal.

Place on a lined baking sheet, brush with olive oil, and bake for 20 minutes until golden and well risen.

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Christmas Minestrone

Hope it's not too late to save the cooking liquid from your Boxing Day ham? My Christmas Minestrone is made with ham stock (cooking liquid), leftover ham (or turkey, or pigs in blankets), Brussel sprouts (or cabbage).

Makes 4 hearty servings

1 large onion, peeled and diced
1 large carrot, peeled and diced 
1 large stick of celery, diced

1 large garlic clove, peeled and crushed 
100g leftover chopped ham, turkey, or pigs in blankets
1 can of tomatoes
1 can of beans (haricot, cannellini, kidney, whatever)
1 litre ham stock or chicken stock
2 heaped handfuls of finely sliced Brussels sprouts, cabbage, spring greens, kale, or spring greens
1 handful small pasta or macaroni
1 tbsp olive oil for frying
2 bay leaves (optional)

Parmesan or extra mature cheddar for serving

Fry the onion, carrot, and celery in the olive oil in a large saucepan over a medium heat. When slightly coloured add the chopped meat.  Stir and put the lid on for a few minutes to let the vegetables sweat. 

Add the rest of the ingredients and bring to the boil. Simmer for 30 minutes with the lid on.  Stir from time to time to ensure the pasta is not sticking to the bottom of the pan

My mum always used to say that this soup was better the day after, as the flavours seemed to develop more, but I am never organised enough to do this nor have enough space in the fridge to keep it cool overnight. 

Serve with a grating of parmesan or extra mature cheddar.

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Slow Cooker Pork Belly & Beans

Cooking pork belly and beans in a slow cooker is a great midweek, or lazy weekend main meal.

I usually cook Boston Baked Beans but thought I'd try a few different flavours, based on BBC Good Food's Braised Pork Belly with Borlotti Beans

Serves 4

400g cubed pork belly, or 4 pork belly strips (skin removed)

1 large onion, peeled and diced

1 large carrot, peeled and diced

1 large stick of celery, diced

1 large clove of garlic, peeled and crushed

2 tbsp vegetable oil

1 tbsp tomato paste

1 tsp fennel seeds

Small sprig of rosemary

1 tin chopped tomatoes

2 cans beans (borlotti, cannellini, pinto beans) and their liquid 

200ml white wine

Recently boiled water

1 chicken stock cube, crumbled

2 tbsp plain flour, or gluten free alternative (I used chickpea flour)

Turn the slow cooker on to warm up.

Fry the cubed pork in the vegetable oil over a medium high heat in a high sided frying pan.

Once it starts to brown, push to one side and add the onion, carrot, celery and garlic.  Stir, and fry for a couple of minutes then stir the tomato paste, fennel and rosemary.

Scrape the contents of the frying pan into the slow cooker, together with the beans and their liquid.  Bring  the wine and crumbled stock cube to the boil in the frying pan then pour over the pork and beans in the slow cooker.  Mix, and top up with recently boiled water so everything is just covered with liquid.

Cook on high for 6-8 hours.  30 minutes before you want to serve, mix a little of the cooking liquor into the flour to form a loose paste.  Stir the flour paste into the stew, squishing any lumps if you see any.  Cover, and stir once before serving.

We served it with roast potatoes and cauliflower, but it works well with mashed potato, rice, pasta...

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Bagna Cauda, Creamy Garlic & Anchovy Dip or Pasta Sauce

Bagna Cauda is a rich, creamy, salty, garlicky dip for raw vegetables (think hummus) that works well as a pasta sauce.

Traditional Piedmont recipes use a lot of butter, and olive oil, and I thought the suggestion in one online recipe of using a litre of milk and discarding half after cooking ridiculous.  So I combined the best frugal bits of several recipes, coming up with a sauce that will serve 4.

Serves 4

300ml whole milk

6 garlic cloves, peeled 

1 tin of anchovies in oil

40g walnuts

120ml olive oil

Simmer the garlic and walnuts in the milk for 10 minutes, taking care it does not boil over.

Ideally, leave the milk to cool for 10 minutes, but this is not necessary (I think it emulsifies better when cooler, but none of the recipes I looked at recommended this).

Pour into the beaker that comes with a stick blender (mine is plastic, which is another reason to wait for the milk to cool a little otherwise it might crack).  Add the anchovies and their oil, the vinegar, and whizz until smooth.

Placing the beaker on a damp cloth to stop it sliding around, whizz the sauce with one hand and dribble in the olive oil with the other hand until incorporated.

Serve with raw vegetables (carrots, celery, beetroot, cauliflower, fennel, endive) as a dipping sauce, pour over roasted vegetables (we had ours over roasted cauliflower and leek, with extra sunflower seeds), or as a pasta sauce.

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Pasta e Fagioli, Veg Rich Pasta & Beans

Once a poor man’s meal, padding out a meagre bean harvest with pasta, Pasta e Fagioli is now an Italian comfort food with lots of regional and household variations.

At its simplest it is just pasta and beans, with meat and/or vegetables if available. I make it like I make Minestrone, but with more pasta and less tomato.  I use ham or bacon in my Minestrone, but ingredients can simply be left out or swapped to make a vegetarian or vegan meal.

Serves 4

1 onion, peeled and finely diced

1 large garlic clove, peeled and crushed

1/2 tsp chill flakes

1 tbsp olive oil

500g diced vegetables, including 1 stick of celery and 1 carrot. I topped up with homegrown courgette as I like to add something green. You could add cabbage, kale, leek, peas, green beans, fennel, sweet potato, potato... There are no set ingredients!

100g smoked ham/bacon (optional)

400g tin borlotti, pinto, or cannellini beans

200g macaroni 

1 litre chicken or vegetable stock 

1 medium tomato, finely diced

50g parmesan, or extra mature cheddar in our house

Fry the onion, garlic and chilli gently in a pan big enough to take a litre of stock + veg.

When the onion is translucent and soft, add the diced vegetables, cover and fry/soften for 5-10 minutes checking from time to time that they are not catching on the bottom of the pan.

When the vegetables are beginning to look soft and slightly brown, add the meat if using. Stir the meat around for a minute or so then add the stock, pasta, and beans including any liquid from the can. 

Bring the stock to the boil then turn down to a simmer, cover, and cook for 20-25 minutes until the pasta is  soft (it takes longer in stock than it says on the packet). Whilst waiting, finely chop the tomato and mix in the grated cheese. I blitzed the tomato in a mini food processor as I have a child who does not like discernible bits of tomato.

When the pasta is soft, turn off the heat, stir though the tomato and cheese mixture, cover and leave standing for 5 minutes for the pasta to absorb a little more of the stock and cool a little. 

Serve, with extra cheese and chilli oil if desired.

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Courgette & Feta Lasagne

Great vegetarian lasagne recipe for using up a courgette glut.

This recipe is based on BBC Good Food's Creamy Courgette Lasagne, but I decided I had the time a fuller flavoured tomato sauce, not pre cook the lasagne first, and used whipped feta rather than ricotta. 

Serves 4

800g courgette, grated

3 tbsp olive oil

1 onion, finely chopped

2 garlic cloves, crushed

8 dried lasagne sheets

200g feta

4 tbsp greek yoghurt

50g cheddar

500g passata

Heat 1 tbsp oil in a sauté pan over a medium heat, adding each courgette to the pan as you grate it. The more courgette you add, they will begin to sweat and release water rather than fry. Don't worry.  Stir from time to time as you get on with the tomato sauce and whipped feta, and the liquid will evaporate.

In a separate sauce pan, fry the onion and 1 clove of garlic over a medium heat 1 tbsp of olive oil until they start to brown. Add the passata, and about 100ml of water to rinse the carton out. Simmer gently whilst you make the whipped feta.

Blend the feta, yoghurt, 1 garlic clove, and 1 tbsp of olive oil in a food processor. If you haven't got a food processor you could mash the feta and whisk in the rest of the ingredients.

Add 2/3rds of the whipped feta to the softened courgette and turn off the heat under the courgettes and tomato sauce.

Turn the oven on to the temperature specified on the lasagne packet. Mine was 200C (Fan 180C).

In a lasagne/baking dish large enough to fit 4 lasagne sheets side by side, start to layer up the lasagne, starting with half the cheesy courgette, then a layer of pasta, then half the tomato sauce. Repeat, adding the remaining whipped feta in blobs in the top layer of tomato sauce, and finish with an even layer of grated cheddar cheese.

Bake according to the instructions on the lasagne packet.  My packet said 30 minutes, but I found it took 40 minutes.  45 minutes is pretty standard.

Serve with a chilli oil, and a green salad.

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