Tagliatelle al ragù di manzo - Shin beef ragù with tagliatelle

An interesting variant on the standard bolognese ragù is this one made with very slow cooked shin of beef.  I had thought long and hard about including a wild boar recipe in the book  but decided against because it is not readily available. This isn’t wild boar but the long cooking with red wine gives a powerful depth of flavour reminiscent of sauces made with game meat. If you have a slow cooker that would be ideal for this.  Cooked on top of the slow there is a danger of the bottom catching and burning. Depending on the size of the chunks of meat, it will need a good six to eight hours of slow cooking. By then, the vegetables, bacon and wine will have combined to make a smooth sauce and the meat will be easily flaked.  If you want to be true to the wild boar tradition, you serve it with pappardelle – broad noodles – but if the key word for you is ragù then it must be tagliatelle.

A word about the pasta: I decided to try the experiment of making it entirely by machine and the result was the best ever. I mixed the dough in a Kenwood, and then used the kneading hook on it for ten minutes. As I watched, I saw the consistency changing and when I removed the pasta dough from the mixer bowl it was dry and elastic. After resting it in the fridge for half an hour, I used a pasta machine to roll it out to the second thinnest setting, making sure that I put it through the two broadest settings four or five times. By then it was sublimely silky and easy to work. And I used the Bolognese recipe: 1 egg per 100grams of flour and nothing else.

To follow, we had a dessert made from chestnut puree accompanied by a deep, dark chocolate ice cream that wouldn’t have been out of place in La Sorbetteria or Gianni in Bologna. More of that later.

This recipe makes enough for six. Or you could double the quantities and make an extra portion for freezing.

Ingredients

for the pasta

6 large eggs

600g OO pasta flour

2 teaspoons salt

for the ragù

2 tablespoons olive oil

150g bacon or pancetta

2 onions

2 carrots

2 sticks celery

3 cloves garlic

500g shin of beef

4 bay leaves

2 tablespoons thyme leaves

200ml red wine

500ml beef stock or beef  stock cube dissolved in hot water

400g tin of chopped tomatoes

salt and pepper to taste

1 large handful of flat leaved parsley

Method

1. Mix the pasta ingredients in a mixer or food processor then knead for 10 minutes. Wrap in cling film and rest in the fridge.

2. Fry the bacon in the olive oil in a large casserole. Remove and set aside.

3. Finely chop the vegetables and fry slowly until soft and beginning to brown. Remove and set aside.

4. Cut the beef into chunks about 3 or 4 cms in size, having removed surplus fat and gristle. Fry rapidly until browned. Add back the bacon and vegetables, then the wine, driving off the alcohol. Then add the bay leaves, thyme and tomatoes.

5. Bring to barely a simmer, and cook slowly for at least six hours until the meat is very tender.

6. Roll out the pasta, and slice it into tagliatelle.

7. Remove the meat carefully with a slotted spoon. Using two forks, shred it finely, taking care to remove pieces of fat and gristle. Replace the meat, check for seasoning, reheat, adding the parsley finely chopped.

8. Put on the pasta to cook in a large pan of boiling, salted water.

9. Drain the pasta when it is cooked and combine with the ragù. Serve with grated parmesan.

Filetto di manzo con cipolline all'aceto balsamico – Sirloin steak with shallots in balsamic vinegar

Deeply flavoured, almost caramelised balsamic sauce

Shallots in a sweet sour sauce made from balsamic vinegar are an ideal accompaniment to a plainly grilled steak and a favourite of many restaurants in Emilia-Romagna. All you need to add is some bread to soak up the sauce, and maybe a bed of spinach for the meat to recline on. I bought the steak from Mr Legge in Bromyard, resisting the other temptations of the finest butcher-deli for a hundred miles around. Don't worry too much about the balsamic - it doesn't need to be 10 years old for this recipe.

Enough for 4. Ready in 30 minutes. Beat that,  Jamie.

Ingredients

4tbl olive oil

4 x250g sirloin steaks about 2.5cms thick

400g shallots

2 cloves of garlic

75ml balsamic vinegar

50ml sweet white or red wine

2tbl brown sugar

salt and pepper

Method

1. Peel the shallots and garlic. Chop the garlic finely.

2. Heat two tablespoons of olive oil in a pan and add the shallots and garlic, letting them brown gently. Then, add the wine, balsamic vinegar and sugar and cook on a steady flame until the sauce is greatly reduced and starts to caramelise. Turn off the gas or electricity.

3. Heat a griddle and oil it using 2 tablespoons of olive oil. Season the steaks on both sides with salt and pepper.

4. When it’s really hot, plonk the steaks on it, standing them up on their fat so that it cooks crisply. Then, griddle the steaks for 4 minutes on each side.

Begin by crisping the fat

5. Remove the steaks and place them on a metal grille over a dish so that any juices can drain into it.

6. Scrape the residue from the griddle into the pan containing the shallots and add any juices from the steaks. Re-heat the shallots, reducing the sauce so that it is thick and beginning to be caramelised.

7. Place each steak on a heated plate and spoon over some of the sauce and the shallots.

Polpette – Meatballs

Polpette - Artusi's simple classic

Spaghetti with meatballs is like chicken chow mein – a dish unknown in its native land, devised by lonesome expatriates to fill their souls and bellies, and those of the people who came to eat in their restaurants. (You can pick up on this tradition at the musically challenged http://www.arkrestaurants.com/polpette.html )  Meatballs can be eaten with pasta but in Bologna they are more likely to be served by themselves, probably in a delicate tomato sauce, as they do at Trattoria Meloncello.

I have failed to persuade the sisters who run Meloncello to part with the recipe for their light as air tasty as anything polpette so I have fallen back on Signor Artusi. His renowned La scienza in cucina e l'arte di mangiare bene (The Science of Cooking and the Art of Eating Well) has the status in Italy that a book written jointly by Elizabeth David, Delia Smith, Nigel Slater and Jamie Oliver with the help of Mrs Beeton might have in England. Although not a Bolognese, Artusi is big on the food traditions of the city and its region, Emilia-Romagna, and true to their spirit. So his polpette recipe is strikingly simple, without the onion, garlic and herbs that you might reach for instinctively.

Garlic, in particular, is used cautiously in Bolognese cookery. ‘Put it in for flavouring and then take it out before you serve’ was the advice I received from one elderly lady as she showed me a recipe for a pasta sauce with prosciutto.

Anyway, here is Artusi’s slightly adapted recipe for polpette which I serve with a tomato sauce and a green vegetable (for colour contrast as much as anything). Polenta would also be good.

Makes more than enough for 4 as a main course.

Ingredients

for the tomato sauce

2tbl olive oil

1 onion, finely chopped

2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped

1 tin chopped tomatoes

1 sprig rosemary, finely chopped

½ tsp sugar

salt and pepper

for the polpette

250g minced pork

250g minced beef

50g breadcrumbs

50g finely grated parmesan

50g finely chopped bacon or pancetta

salt and pepper

½ nutmeg, grated

2 eggs

4tbl olive oil

4tbl finely chopped parsley



Method

1. place the meats, breadcrumbs and parmesan in a food processor. Process until well amalgamated. Add nutmeg, eggs, salt and pepper and process again. Transfer to fridge.

2. Gently fry the onion and garlic in the olive oil until they begin to soften and go brown. Add the remaining ingredients and cook gently for 30 minutes. The sauce should had lost its liquidity and become smooth. If not use a wooden spoon to break down the tomato and cook if for a bit longer until it is drier.

3. Heat the olive oil in a large non-stick frying pan and gently add the mixture formed into balls about 2.5cm in diameter. Fry gently until beginning to brown, for five to eight minutes.

4. Add to the tomato sauce and re-heat together, gently, adding some warm water if the sauce begins to stick. Add the parsley just before serving.

5. Serve either alone with bread or with polenta or some wilted spring greens.

Pollo alla cacciatora – Chicken cacciatora

Pollo alla cacciatora is basically chicken pot roasted in a tomato sauce. Cacciatora hints at an intriguing ancestry, related to hunting, just as carbonara suggests charcoal burners in forest clearings. But try to follow the trial and it peters out. One Bolognese cookery writer sees a connection with the sort of aromatics you might use if you were cooking game but only one of the dozens of recipes I’ve consulted confirms that view. Instead, there are endless variations on the ingredients although the basics are always the meat – and it can be rabbit or wild boar or venison – and the tomato sauce. Anyway, here is my version, the sort of thing you could expect to eat in a Bolognese trattoria. A good accompaniment would be roasted potatoes.

Ingredients (serves 4)

8 skinnned chicken thighs

3tbl olive oil

1 large onion, finely chopped

2 carrots, finely chopped

3 sticks of celery finely chopped

2 cloves of garlic finely chopped

75ml white wine

1 400g tin of chopped tomatoes

2 bay leaves

sprig of thyme, finely chopped

sprig of rosemary, finely chopped

salt and pepper

bunch of parsley, finely chopped

Method

1. Heat the olive oil in a roasting dish with a lid. Add the chicken and gently brown it.

2. Remove the chicken and add the vegetables, frying them until soft with the lid on.

3. Now add the wine on a high temperature to drive off the alcohol, and then the tomatoes and aromatics. Cook the sauce with the lid off until it is reduced and dense.

4. Replace the chicken and put the roasting dish in the oven at 170 degrees C with the lid on for 40 minutes.

5. Test to ensure that the chicken is cooked, then add the chopped parsley, season to taste and serve.

Lombo al latte - Pot-roasted pork in milk

Although common in Bologna, this is a cross-border dish that you might also  find in Lombardy or Tuscany or in the Veneto. It is a simple and irresistible way of pot-roasting pork by immersing it in garlic and sage perfumed milk with a hint of lemon.  Hardly kosher. Sonia, whose Mum was Jewish, from Naples, introduced me to this. Last night I served it with borlotti beans and shredded spring greens. The reserve merlot from Tenuta Bonzara, high up in the Bolognese Hills, would go well with this, gently cutting through the greasy richness of the pork, the sauce and the crackling. Pork loin is very nice but shoulder will do and it’s much cheaper.

Cooking hints: remove the skin from the pork, rub salt all over it and roast it separately.

Ingredients

4 tbl olive oil

1 onion

1 celery stick

1 carrot

4 cloves garlic left whole

1kg pork loin or shoulder, with the skin removed and scored through

1 sprig sage

4 bay leaves

1 litre milk

salt and freshly ground pepper

1/2  lemon

Method

1. Begin with the battuto: fry onion, celery, carrot and garlic in olive oil in a large roasting pan or casserole until they soften and the onion begins to brown.

2. Place the pork in the pan along with a bundle of bay leaves and sage. Add the zest of the lemon.

3. Add enough milk to cover the meat. Bring it to a rapid simmer, then reduce the heat until the milk is barely moving and place it in a slow oven for three hours.

4. Take it out and test the meat for tenderness with a metal skewer. If necessary, return it to the oven.

5. When it is done to your satisfaction, remove the meat from the pan and place it on a carving board, covered with foil to keep it warm.

6. Remove the bundle of herbs, season the pan juices with salt and pepper and a squeeeze of lemon and whiz up them up so that they form a smooth sauce. Re-heat for serving and pour into a jug.

7. Cut the meat into thick slices and arrange on a serving dish together with the crisp roasted skin (if that’s what you’ve done). Hand around the dish and the jug of meat juice.

Salt cod croquettes with roasted red pepper and tomato sauce

For a southern European Christmas eve repast, I have teamed salt cod with prawn tortellini. Home salted cod is not quite the same thing as the real thing but it does produce the same firm fish flakes. It can be deep fried, in a light batter, fried or made into croquettes, as I suggest here. The sauce makes a lovely contrast in terms of flavour, colour and texture.

Ingredients

300g cod

20g sea salt

3 eggs

100g cooked mashed potato

50g parsley

salt and pepper

3 large red peppers

1 red onion

2 cloves of garlic

200g baby or small plum tomatoes

4tbsp olive oil

breadcrumbs or crackers finely crushed in a bag with a rolling pin

100cl sunflower oil

Method

1. The day before, place the cod in a plastic box and sprinkle over the salt. Weigh it down so the salt is pushed into the fish and place in the fridge.

2. The next day, wash off the salt and replace the cod in the plastic container with fresh water. Rinse the fish under running water after an hour or so. Repeat and drain the fish.

3. Place the red peppers in a roasting pan and place in a hot oven for 30-40 minutes until the peppers are blistering and beginning to turn black in places.

4. Chop the onion and garlic finely and fry until soft.

5. Peel the red peppers when they are cool enough to handle and process with the onion and garlic.

6. Coarsely process the fish, 1 egg, the potato, parsley, salt and pepper.

7. Create croquette shapes 6cms long and 3cms in girth. Beat two of the eggs and place in a bowl.

8. Saute the tomatoes in olive oil and when they are beginning to soften add the red pepper puree. Stop cooking and keep warm while you cook the croquettes.



9. Dip the croquettes in the beaten egg and then in the breadcrumbs or crushed crackers.

10. Deep fry in hot oil. Drain and place on kitchen towel to absorb surplus oil.

11. Place two or three croquettes on each place and alongside them a small pool of the sauce.

Stracotto - Braised beef

If you would like to come home to a delicious winter braise you could cook this all day in a slow cooker, or on a low light in the oven. Stracotto means long cooked and it’s perfect for cuts of beef like brisket. We ate it last night with baked potatoes and whole steamed carrots.

The visitors had arrived late off the London train, eager for a weekend in the country with the prospect of snow. We began with a mozzarella salad and some prosciutto. Typically Italian, you might think, but things were not quite as they appeared. The tomatoes and onions, even the basil, were local but so were the cheese and the ham. The mozzarella, sold in Waitrose, is made in Hampshire at Laverstoke Park Farm (http://www.laverstokepark.co.uk/buffalo-mozzarella-cheese) while the prosciutto was made on a farm near Winchester (cured for 18 months) and comes via Italo, a cute deli-cafe in Vauxhall, London (http://italodeli.co.uk) You can buy both products online but the prosciutto is produced in small quantities and may be rationed or out of stock.

Anyway, back to the stracotto: a kilo of brisket will do nicely for 4 people. Don’t expect any leftovers. You can serve the beef with the accompanying sauce or , as I suggest here, remove the beef once it’s cooked and wrap it in foil while you make a sauce by pureeing the cooking vegetables and adding cream and parsley to finish it. Preparation time: two blinks.

                                         the  essential Battuto - stewing herbs and vegetables

Ingredients

1kg Rolled brisket

200g Pancetta, cut into small dice

2 sticks Celery finely chopped

1 large Onion, finely chopped

2 cloves Garlic

1 sprig Rosemary, finely chopped

Salt and pepper

1 sprig Thyme – leaves only

150ml Red wine

75ml Single or pouring cream

40g Parsley, finely chopped

Method

1. Place the pancetta in a largish casserole and fry over a brisk heat to brown and to release the fat. Remove using a slotted spoon.

2. Brown the beef all over in the pancetta fat. Remove.

3. Fry the vegetables to brown them slightly. Add the herbs then the red wine and cook briskly for 3 minutes. Return the pancetta and beef to the casserole and add a cup of water.

4. Place the casserole in a pre-heated oven, about 170 degrees will take two or three hours or you could cook it all day in a slow cooker or in a very cool oven. You know your oven best. Check that it’s not cooking too fast or too slow by inserting a knife into the beef from time to time.

5. Remove the brisket, remove the string if it’s been rolled and tied, and wrap it in foil to keep it hot.

6. Pour the remaining contents of the casserole into a jug, add the cream and puree with a hand blender. Add finely chopped parsley and season to taste.

7. Slice the beef and place a thick slice on each plate and pour alongside it the sauce. Add vegetables – simply steamed whole carrots finished with a lavish anointment of butter and baked potatoes, also with butter, would do nicely – or just with bread or focaccia.

Scallopine di pollo con pomodori arrostiti e pesto – Chicken escalopes, roasted tomatoes and pesto

If you like Colonel Saunders’, you’ll like this even more. (Please don’t say I’m pandering to my growing American audience.) Crisply fried, breadcrumbed chicken fillets accompanied by a tomato sauce, roasted tomatoes and a spot of pesto. The secret is in the breadcrumbs which are a mixture of whizzed up cheese crackers and grated parmesan. (Thanks, Ruth for that tip.)

Ingredients (serves 4)

for the tomato sauce

250g tomatoes on the vine

1 onion

2 cloves garlic

1 teaspoon sugar

2tbl olive oil

salt and pepper

for the pesto

30g pine nuts or peeled almonds

60g basil

50ml olive oil

30g grated parmesan

for the chicken and roasted tomatoes

2 skinless, chicken breasts

10 cheese biscuits (or matzos or Doriani)

40g grated parmesan

2 eggs

30g butter

2 tbl olive oil

250g tomatoes on the vine

Method

1. Put half the tomatoes into an ovenproof dish, slosh over a couple of tablespoons of olive oil and place at the top of a hot oven for 15 minutes. Set the timer!

2. Finely chop the onion and garlic and fry gently in a couple of tablespoons of olive oil so that it softens and begins to colour. Add the sugar and the roasted tomatoes. Whizz and season to taste.

3. Cut each chicken breast in two, lengthwise. Cover in clingfilm and beat out until uniformly 5mm thick.

4. Whizz up the cheese biscuits and the parmesan to reduce to fine breadcrumbs. Beat the eggs. Place breadcrumbs and beaten egg in wide shallow bowls alongside each other.

5. Immerse each chicken piece in the egg and then in the breadcrumbs, ensuring that they are covered all over. Put in the fridge to chill.

6. Make the pesto by combining all the ingredients except the olive oil, whizzing them up and adding the olive oil bit by bit.

7. Place the remaining tomatoes in an ovenproof dish, slosh over another couple of tablespoons of olive oil and place at the top of a hot oven for 15 minutes. Set the timer again.

8. Heat two tablespoons of olive oil and the butter in a large frying pan. Cook each side of the fillets for 3-4 minutes. You can test that each one is thoroughly cooked through by inserting a sharp knife in one side only.

9. Place a large blob of tomato sauce on each plate, add a smaller blob of pesto, and surmount with the roasted tomatoes. Place the scallopine alongside.

Lasagne verdi al forno

It is the ragù above all that marks this dish out as Bolognese. That plus the sheets of spinach-flavoured egg pasta that provide the platform for the meat sauce and the béchamel.

Lasagne stands on its own. It doesn’t need garlic bread and boring side salads even if these are regarded as essentials in Pizza Hut. Italians might follow it with a simple salad, but not always. Marcella Puppini – more about her next week – fondly remembers Sunday lunch at her nonna’s when lasagne was followed by roast chicken.

Cooking tips: Balance is crucial; ragù, béchamel and pasta have equal billing. So you don’t want to end up with a sloppy mix. And don’t believe those who tell you that the pasta does not need pre-cooking. Since it takes time to make the three separate components you may as well make a job lot and have some in the freezer for another day. I used a baking dish 28cm x 25cm x 5, which contained enough for 4 (massive) -6 (reasonable) portions, and there was still enough left over to make another smaller dish for the freezer.

Preparation and cooking time: set aside 2 ½ hours if you intend to make your own pasta. In fact, set aside 2 ½ hours whatever you do because the ragù needs to cook for two hours, and you’ll need time at the beginning to prepare it and time at the end to assemble the lasagne. Add 30-40 minutes for baking. So call it three hours.

Ingredients

For the ragù

75g butter

50ml olive oil

450g beef coarsely minced

150g unsmoked bacon or pancetta chopped

1 large onion finely chopped

2 carrots finely chopped

3 celery stalks finely chopped

2 cloves garlic

150ml red wine

150ml milk

1 can chopped tomatoes

salt and pepper to taste

For the bechamel

80g butter

80g flour

800ml milk

4 bay leaves

thimblefull nutmeg

75g grated parmesan

For the pasta

400g dried lasagna sheets

or (to make it at home)

400g OO pasta flour

150g Spinach, finely chopped

4 whole eggs


Method

1. Make the ragù by frying the beef on a medium high heat in a third of the butter and a third of the olive oil until it begins to colour. It may be best to do this in two batches because if you crowd the pan, the temperature drops and the meat stews rather than browns.

2. Remove the meat using a straining spoon and then add and fry the bacon or pancetta.

3. Remove the bacon and add the onion, celery, carrot and garlic plus the remainder of the olive oil, put the lid on and gently cook until the vegetables are soft – about 15 minutes.

4. Add the wine and cook on a high heat without the lid for five minutes.

5. Return the meats to the pan and reheat.

6. Add the milk and cook until it has been absorbed.

7. Add the tomatoes, season with salt and pepper.

8. Make the béchamel by melting one third of the butter in a saucepan and then adding the flour gradually to form a smooth paste.

9. Heat the milk in the microwave or in another pan and gradually add it to the flour to form a smooth emulsion. Use a wooden spoon to work any bits of flour into the sauce. Add the bay leaves.

10. Cook the sauce on a gentle heat for 10 minutes, taking care to stir it constantly.

11. When it is ready grate in the nutmeg and season to taste.

12. If you are using bought dried or fresh pasta, cook in plenty of boiling water for the time specified by the manufacturer.

13. If you decide to make your own pasta, begin by cooking the spinach in nearly all the remaining butter until it is reduced to a dry mass. Squeeze any moisture out of the spinach and food process so that it is a smooth puree.

14. Mix 4 whole eggs with 400g of OO pasta flour plus a pinch of salt. Add the spinach to the dough and thoroughly amalgamate. Knead the dough until it is smooth and springy. Cover in cling film and set aside somewhere cool for half an hour then roll it out into transparent sheets. Cut these into rectangles 8cm x 12cm. and cook in plenty of gently boiling water for 3-4 minutes. Strain and lay flat on a teacloth.

15. Butter an oven dish and arrange sheets of pasta so that they cover the bottom and hang over the sides (these overhanging bits will eventually form a crusty top of the lasagne).

16. Cover with a thin layer of ragù and béchamel and sprinkle on some parmesan.

17. Repeat with another layer of pasta – without the overhangs – and the two sauces and the cheese.

18. Finally, fold over the overhangs and cover with a layer of béchamel and the rest of the cheese.

19. Bake in an oven at 170 degrees Celsius for 45 minutes with the lasagne covered with a piece of foil for the first 20 minutes. The lasagne should be brown and bubbling.

20. Serve by itself. Nothing else is needed.

Involtini di pollo - Stuffed chicken breasts

Involtini – or saltimbocca (jump into the mouth) – are a quick and delicious answer to the question: what else can I do with chicken breasts? Besides chicken, involtini can be made with other meats such as veal and pork or with a white fish such as plaice or even red mullet. You will also need some slices of prosciutto and perhaps another filling such as mushrooms.

The big question is, do you wrap the chicken in the prosciutto or the other way around? My answer is the prosciutto is wrapped in the chicken because this way you can add flavour by browning the chicken. I recognise that this is a minority view but it produces superior results.

What to serve the involtini with is almost as big a question. Tiny roast potatoes are one solution. In the photo you can see I’ve gone for another: the involtini rests on a mound of chard and alongside are a couple of slices of grilled polenta.

Ingredients (enough for 4)

150g mushrooms (you choose the type), finely chopped

1 medium onion, finely chopped

2 garlic cloves, finely chopped

olive oil for frying

salt and pepper

a small bunch of thyme

4 chicken breasts

8 slices of prosciutto

4 tablespoons plain flour

125mls white wine

100mls chicken stock (you can use half a stock cube dissolved in boiling water or part of a tub of stock)

75mls of double cream or crème fraiche

250gm polenta

400gm chard (or spinach if you prefer)

50gr butter

Method

1. First make the mushroom filling by frying together finely chopped mushroom, onion and garlic until they are soft.

2. Slice each chicken breast lengthways to produce 8 pieces.

3. Wrap each one in cling film and using a rolling pin or a mallet beat them out until they are very thin, perhaps ½ cm. thick.

4. Place each piece on a chopping board and place on top a slice of prosciutto.

5. Place a level tablespoon of the mushroom filling on the prosciutto plus some thyme, season and carefully roll up the involtini so that the filling is not extruded. Roll each involtini in flour.

6. Now heat a couple of tablespoons of olive oil in a casserole dish large enough to hold the involtini and then carefully insert the involtini so that the join is on the bottom out of sight.

7. Fry the involtini until you can see that the bottom join has sealed and that the bottom is beginning to brown, then turn them so that they brown slightly on every side.

8. Add the wine to the casserole and turn up the heat to burn off the alcohol.

9. Add the stock and the cream, put the lid on and place in a medium oven for 30 minutes.

10. Make the polenta by stirring the powder into a pan of simmering water and following the maker’s instructions. Once it has cooked through – this will take about five minutes depending on the fineness of the polenta – empty the polenta into a greased shallow metal dish and let it cool.

11. Wash the chard and chop it finely, then fry in a pan with butter until it becomes a soft mass. Just before serving turn up the heat to drive off any surplus liquid and season.

12. When the polenta is cold and solid, slice it into 8 10cm lengths by 4 cms wide.

13. Five minutes before serving, heat a griddle or heavy frying pan, lightly coat it in olive oil. Griddle the polenta gently so that it does not burn.

14. Meanwhile, remove the involtini from the casserole and place it on top of the stove on a fairly high flame so that the sauce is reduced if it is too liquid.

15. Place a flat mound of chard on each plate and then two involtini on top. Pour around some of the sauce, then place two slices of polenta alongside.

Lasagnette di zucchini - Courgette lasagne

Like many simple dishes, courgette lasagne can be tricky to do well. What you are aiming for is a balance between the pasta, the béchamel sauce and the courgette. So, do

1. ensure that you use egg pasta and that you parboil it for four minutes

2. ensure that the flour is cooked out of the béchamel and that it has the consistency of thick pouring cream

3. grill the courgette until it is soft and caramelised. The photo below shows how it should look.

I’ve found that a lower layer of leek and spinach adds variety to the dish but be careful not to brown the leek so that its flavour drowns out the more delicate courgette. To assemble it, I start with a layer of pasta which I leave to overhang the dish on all sides. Then there’s the leek and spinach on a bed of sauce, followed by more sauce, another layer of pasta and the courgette. Finally, fold the overhanging bits in, fill in any gaps with more lasagne sheets and finish off with a thick layer of béchamel. This last is vital to ensure that the pasta cooks well so reserve 40% of the sauce for this last bit.

Crumbs, that sounds a bit complicated. Once you get going, it’s anything but and you get a cheap, appetising dish that feeds four well. If it’s a primi, it could be followed by a piece of grilled meat or fish. If it’s a secondi, it could be preceded by a salad. Or you could do it English caff style, with garlic bread and chips. (A joke.)

I used a well greased dish approximately 24cms x 28 cms.

4 medium Courgettes

130g Butter

100g Plain flour

1 l. Milk

100g Parmesan grated

To taste Salt and pepper

Grated to taste Nutmeg

2 Leeks

200g Spinach

12 sheets Egg pasta lasagna



1. First, slice and grill the courgettes. Cut each one into two or three tubes and then slice each one lengthwise into 40mm. thick strips. Heat and oil a griddle and grill the strips on each side until they are soft and brown.

2. Make the béchamel by melting the butter in a large saucepan, stirring in the flour and cooking them into a smooth paste – or roux - over a low light. Then heat the milk and gradually add it to the roux, stirring it all the time with a wooden spoon while the sauce thickens. Bring it to a slow simmer, stirring around the bottom of the pan to prevent it sticking, and cook it for four minutes. Stir in the parmesan and season with salt and black pepper and a good grating of nutmeg, to your taste. Taste to ensure that the sauce is well cooked. It may need another minute or two.

3. Clean the leeks and spinach thoroughly. Chop the spinach roughly. Slice the white and light green part of the leeks across into 50mm. chunks. Fry them in 30g of butter. When they are soft add the spinach and cook until it too is soft, ensuring that there is no liquid in the bottom of the pan.

4. Boil a large saucepan of water, and parboil the pasta six sheets at a time. When it is ready, lift it out with a draining spoon and drop it into a bowl of cold water. Lift it out and leave it to drain on a teacloth.

5. Grease an ovenproof dish with butter, then lay two sheets on each side of it so that they overhang the side, meeting in the middle of the bottom of the dish. Place a sheet lengthwise at each end of the dish so that there is a complete layer of pasta on the bottom of the dish.

6. Spread a layer of sauce over the pasta, then cover this with a layer of leek and spinach.

7. Lay three sheets of pasta across the dish, then add the layer of the griddled courgette.

8. Fold over the overhanging pasta and complete the pasta layer with one or two sheets of lasagne.

9. Finish with a smooth layer of the sauce.

10. Bake in an oven pre-heated to 160 degrees for 30 minutes or until it starts to go brown and crispy.

Tuna with roasted red peppers and tomatoes

Spezzatini di Tonno con Pomodorini e Pepperoni

This dish requires a minimum of fuss and preparation. The quality of the ingredients should shine through, especially the freshness of the tuna.

Spezzatini is the term usually used for cubes of beef slow braised in wine. In this recipe the key to success is very rapid deep frying of the tuna so that it retains pinkness inside while the outside begins to brown. You may want to test temperatures and timings with a cube or two of tuna first.

2 Red peppers

9 Small vine tomatoes

500mls Ground nut oil

600g Tuna – fresh not tinned!

2 table spoons flour

2 table spoons Olive oil

1 table spoon Balsamic vinegar

To taste Salt and pepper



1. Put the red peppers in a hot oven to roast for 40 minutes. Remove and skin the peppers.

2. Put the tomatoes whole to roast in an all metal frying pan or a small roasting dish in a hot oven for 20 minutes. Remove and leave to cool.

3. Cut the tuna into 2-3 cm cubes. Dust with flour all over.

4. Heat a deep fat fryer to 190 degrees C. Carefully insert some of the tuna cubes so that they are free to move and cook for 30 seconds so that are beginning to brown on the outside but remain pink inside. Strain.

5. Put a half of roasted red pepper on each plate. Place alongside it a couple of roasted tomatoes.

6. In the pan that the tomatoes were cooked in add some olive oil and balsamic vinegar, salt and pepper and place on a gentle heat for a minute to combine the flavours. Spoon the sauce so created over the tomatoes on each plate. Add the strained fried tuna. That’s it.

Vitello tonnato

Recipe from Anna Maria’s

Vitello tonnato is a delicious combination of pot roasted lean veal and a tuna and anchovy mayonnaise. Is it Bolognese? More likely from Piedmont in the North West, but Anna Maria has it on her very select menu so that’s probably good enough. Since we are not great veal eaters, you may prefer to make it with a tasty free range chicken or turkey. Either way, it is a great dish for a hot summer’s day, perhaps served with salad and plainly boiled potatoes, or as a grand antipasto. I think it is best prepared the day before, to allow the flavours to develop and mingle.

I asked her chef, Simonetta Cesari, for the recipe and this is what she said.

Ingredients (for 4)

1 tin of tuna (drained)
250g onions
2 medium sized anchovies
100g capers
50g mayonnaise
450g veal (or chicken or turkey breast)
2 tablespoons olive oil
salt and pepper


Method

1. If you are using veal, brown it lightly in the oil, then add the onions finely chopped and enough water to cover and roast in a medium oven with a lid on the pot for one hour.
2. If you are using chicken or turkey breasts, poach them whole in a covered pan with the onions quartered on a medium heat for 30 minutes, inserting a knife at the end to ensure that there is no pinkness and that they are cooked through.
3. Once the meat is cool, drain it, reserving the cooking liquor.
4. Meanwhile make the sauce: mix or process the drained tuna, anchovies, capers and mayonnaise, adding a spot of the meat cooking liquor if it needs thinning. You want to end up with a creamy sauce that is easy to spread.
5. Season to taste with salt and pepper if it needs it.
6. Finely slice the meat and lay it on a plate. Pour some of the tuna mayonnaise on top or dribble fashionably around the plate and serve with the remainder of the sauce in a jug for guests to help themselves to.

Since this can be a very beige dish, I like to add finely chopped herbs such as parsley and chives to the mayonnaise for colour and flavour. You might also like to decorate the plate with finely sliced anchovy and capers.

Trattoria Anna Maria
Via delle Belle Arti, 17
40126 Bologna
051 266894‎

Closed Mondays