Another slice of pure joy from Leon 2. This Greek-inspired family recipe is a delight, and I particularly enjoy the use of macaroni as a carb. The tiny pasta tubes bring out the kid in me. The original recipe called for dried mint but I tend not to use it and went for the mostly authentic dried oregano instead. And we haven’t even mentioned the lamb: rich, soft and sweet. Try instead of a roast one week, it’s almost zero maintenance. I served mine with some steamed Savoy cabbage and it was wonderful.
PS. I recommend not falling asleep halfway through cooking – it does need the occasional baste!
Put the onions in a baking tray and mix with the tomatoes. Fill one of the tomato tins with water and slosh that in too. Poke the lamb all over with the tip of a sharp knife. Break the garlic into bits and stuff into the holes, then cram some torn mint on top. Pop this on top of the tomato mix, season like billy-o and slam in the oven.
Cook for about 3 - 4 hours, or until the lamb is tender. Baste frequently to make a lovely cakey crust on the lamb, and you may need to add water from time to time to stop the whole thing drying out.
About 20 mins before the end of cooking, throw in the macaroni and oregano, stir about and put back in the oven. Continue to add water through this cooking time as necessary.
Serve by hacking the lamb into chunks with a big scoop of tomatoey onion pasta.
If you’re a regular reader of this blog you might notice I do a lot of things “from scratch” (I really hate that phrase, like a badge of snobbish one-upmanship), because I enjoy it and I like knowing what goes into my dinner. In my time of course I’ve used pasta sauces and the like, and they range from OK to pretty good to truly vomit-inducing (usually ones that involve mascarpone).
I wouldn’t usually blog about such a jar but I happened to use a Seriously Good pasta sauce. These are Gordon Ramsay-devised with a 10p donation to Comic Relief for each jar sold. And no, Gordon doesn’t get a penny. There’s a bunch of flavours, and the one I used happened to be cherry tomato & balsamic. Peering over the ingredients list on the label is very surprising: you can pronounce everything. And I can buy all of them in any supermarket. That’s very reassuring.
I chucked it in a pasta bake with some chorizo and courgette, and it was lovely. Well worth a try – certainly if you find it on promotion, as it was in my local Sainsbury’s. At least bask in the glow of making a small donation to a good cause 🙂
Seriously good pasta bake (serves 4):
400g fusilli
100g chorizo, roughly diced
2 large courgettes
1 jar Seriously Good cherry tomato and balsamic sauce
Cheddar cheese
Some basil leaves, shredded
Splash of balsamic vinegar
Preheat the oven to 180°C.
Get a pan of salted water on to boil and cook the pasta according to the packet instructions. Get on with the rest of the recipe and when ready, drain until needed.
In a large oven-proof pan, heat a little oil and add the chorizo. Cook briefly until it starts to colour on all sides, then add the courgette.
Continue to fry for 3-4 minutes, tossing frequently so the courgette gets coated in the rich chorizo juices and is starting to turn tender.
Add the sauce, then refill the jar half-full with water. Sloosh it around to gather up the dregs of the sauce and pour into the pan. Bring up to the boil and then add the drained pasta. Make sure everything is well-mixed and pop into an oven for ten minutes, or until the tops of the pasta sticking out are starting to turn dark-brown.
Scatter the basil over the top, grate some cheddar over and sprinkle with balsamic. Grind a little black pepper on top and a swirl of your best extra virgin olive oil, then return to the oven for a further minute or two, until the cheese has melted. Serve piping hot.
Well lookee here, another Ottolenghi recipe. And yes, it’s from Plenty, since you ask. It’s one of those kind of throw-it-in pasta recipes that I like, where the sauce is made in the same time as the pasta boils. In Ottolenghi’s original recipe it’s not explicit but you work out that you need four pans going at once which is a little mean. I’ve simplified mine down so you have a far-more-acceptable 1 frying pan + 1 saucepan combo. The crunch provided by the breadcrumb topping is a winner, I will certainly use it elsewhere.
Tagliatelle with mushrooms and asparagus (serves 2):
Handful of breadcrumbs
Zest of 1 lemon
1 garlic clove, grated
4 tagliatelle nests
Small bundle of asparagus, chopped into pieces
250g chestnut mushrooms, quartered
3 thyme sprigs, leaves picked
100ml white wine
150ml double cream
A tablespoon of chopped parsley
Combine the breadcrumbs, garlic and lemon and fry in a hot, dry pan until the breadcrumbs are browned and toasted. Toss often to ensure they don’t catch on one side. Remove from the pan to one side and wipe it down with kitchen towel.
In the same pan, add a little olive oil and fry the mushrooms and thyme until they start to soften. When tender add the white wine and bubble hard until this reduces by half.
Boil the pasta according to the packet instructions. When there’s 4 minutes to go, chuck in the asparagus pieces. Drain the lot together but reserve a little cooking water.
Back in the pan, add the cream and allow to come to a simmer. Check for seasoning and add a splash of pasta water, then stir the lot together thoroughly so the sauce coats the pasta and asparagus. Chuck on some parsley and serve topped with the crispy breadcrumbs.
I couldn’t quite manage to get the sagnarelli (a flatter, less fluted pasta) but as suggested I hoped farfalle would do the job. Therefore purists may wish to edit the name of this post!
It’s a fairly simple affair – pasta and broad beans in a shallot-infused lemon, wine and pink peppercorn sauce – but there’s a bright summery burst of flavour in every mouthful. Earthy beans, pasta with bite, being zinged with lemon, tempered with salty cheese and as everything fades away you’re left with a gentle tickle of heat from the peppercorns. It was very tasty.
It’s a great starter recipe, though the carnivore in me wanted a little bite of meat every now and then. I’d try it again, definitely, perhaps with a little less parmesan and pop in some diced pancetta instead. I might substitute the broad bean for another bitey veg as well, such as courgette or possibly purple sprouting broccoli. And simply because I love the taste – maybe a blast of garlic too. I enjoyed it a great deal and will give it a whirl another time.
Farfalle with lemon and broad bean (serves 2):
4 shallots, finely diced
25g butter
200ml white wine
250g farfalle pasta
250g broad beans
2 teaspoons pink peppercorns, coarsely crushed
2 tablespoons olive oil
Zest and juice of a lemon
Grated pecorino
Fry the shallots in butter for a few minutes, until browned. Add the wine with a pinch each of sugar, salt and pepper and reduce vigorously until there is about a tablespoon of liquid left in the pan. Take it off the heat and check for seasoning.
Meanwhile cook the pasta as per packet instructions, and cook the broad beans until al dente. Transfer both to the winey liquor along with the olive oil and lemon zest, tossing well. Taste for seasoning and add as much lemon juice and cheese as you think it needs.
