Lasagne Bolognese

I made my first ever Lasagne only a few months ago, and it was a great success with those who tasted it, although improvements could be made. For one, I think there was too much pasta in the last one. I had some dried Lasagne in the cupboard this time, so decided to give that a try, even though the Lasagne recipe in The Silver Spoon places it firmly in the Fresh Pasta section. The stuff I had claimed that it did not need any pre-preparation, however, this was not the case, and the top layer which was made with this stuff just didn't work properly at all, which was a shame, because the Bechamel topped with a generous amount of Parmesan on the top tasted great. Just slightly spoilt by the hard pieces of pasta underneath.

When talking with friends about making Lasagne over the last week, it seems that everyone has their way of doing it, but you can divide most of them into two camps: those who pre-cook the pasta, then put a layer on the bottom of the dish, and those who don't pre-cook the pasta, and put a layer of Ragu on the bottom. After the way mine went today, I'm definitely going to stick with using Fresh Pasta, slightly pre-cooked and with a layer at the bottom of the dish.

The Ragu was my pretty much standard recipe, i.e. St Paddy's Bolognese but without the Guinness, although the Silver Spoon suggests uses Passata rather than Chopped Tomatoes. I did this last time, but I forgot to get some in this time, so the Chopped Tomatoes had to do. The length of time I cook the Ragu, I doubt it makes much of a difference.

Recipe for the Ragu Alla Bolognese

• 400g Lean Minced Beef
• 200g Pancetta, cubed (Smoked bacon, normal or streaky, can also be used as long as it's cut into small pieces)
• 1-2 tablespoons Olive Oil
• 1 ½ large onions, chopped
• 3 ribs of celery finely diced
• 3 carrots finely diced
• 2 cloves of garlic, crushed
• 1 glass of Red Wine
  
• 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
• 1 x 400g can of Chopped Tomatoes
• 1 tablespoon Concentrated Tomato Puree
• 1 teaspoon Fish Sauce
  
• 1 teaspoon Oregano
• 1 teaspoon Thyme
• ½ teaspoon Hot Chili Powder
• 2 Bay Leaves
• Freshly ground Black Pepper (to taste)

The directions for cooking this are exactly the same as the St Paddy's Bolognese. Like usual, I gave it a good 2 hours of simmering, only because I had to go and get some Milk for the Bechamel Sauce, I did this in my great new combination oven. I also added a little additional Beef Stock so that it wouldn't dry out too much while I was out.

Recipe for the Bechamel Sauce

• 3 Tablespoons Butter
• 3 Tablespoons Plain Flour
• 1.5 Pints of Milk
• Half an Onion
• 6 Black Peppercorns
• Pinch of Freshly Grated Nutmeg
• Salt and Pepper to Taste

First simmer the milk for about 20 minutes with the Onion, Peppercorns and Nutmeg, then strain it through a sieve to remove the bits. Next melt the butter in a pan, add the floor and cook briefly before gradually adding the milk, stirring all the time. Using a whisk later on helps keep the lumps out, but you shouldn't stop stirring until the floor is properly cooked. Add a little Salt and Pepper to taste.


Now, in a greased roasting dish, arrange a layer of Pasta on the bottom of the dish, then spread over a layer of Ragu, more Pasta, layer of Bechamel Sauce with a little Fresh Mozzarella if you wish, then Pasta, Ragu, etc. Keep layering until all the ingredients are used, finishing with a layer of Bechamel Sauce on the top. Next add a good covering of Parmesan Cheese and a little Freshly Ground Black Pepper.

The Lasagne should then be cooked in a pre-heated oven at about 200 degree Celsius for about 30-40 minutes. Let it rest for about 10 minutes before cutting and serving.

St. Paddy's Bolognese

I really don't go in for St. Patrick's Day (or St. Guinness' Day as far as most of the World outside Ireland are concerned), even though I do like Guinness. Let's face it, the whole thing has been completely taken over by Irish alcoholic drinks manufacturers, and not being Irish, I think you'd have to drink quite a lot to give the time of day to stories of St. Patrick driving the snakes out of Ireland. At least the stories about St. David are slightly more believable and less mythical sounding, and yet you don't see half the world spending the day eating Leek based dishes or drinking Brains Bitter until they can't stand anymore. Still, I'm not going to stop anyone having a good time and the only people I'm hoping do stop anyone having a good time are the Welsh Rugby team by living up to the expression "you can lose to anyone you want except the English".

It being a long day of Six Nations Rugby ahead, I definitely needed to ensure that I had a good meal before heading to the local to watch the 3 matches, and this blog event definitely caught my attention. But deciding what to cook which both satisfied the requirements of this event, as well as getting me ready for a day in the pub was a little difficult.

So I decided to go for a bit of a combination. St. Paddy's Bolognese is pretty much the Tag Bog (Spag Bog, Spag Bol, Tag Bol) recipe I made before, only using Guinness as well. I did think of adding potatoes, but that's just going too far. However, it still didn't sound particularly Irish, and so to inject some 'green' into it, I decided to serve it with Tagliatelle Verde.

The problem was that it was going to be a fairly early start with the first game kicking off at 1:30pm, and with staying up late to watch the F1 qualifying the night before, I decided to prepare the Ragu while waiting for the qualifying to start. The main difficulty was not eating it before the morning, especially with the gorgeous smell wafting through my flat once all the ingredients were together.

I must say, this post makes me sound like a bit of a sports nut, but I don't think I'm that bad. I do enjoy some motor sport and, being Welsh, I have to watch Rugby (especially when Wales and England are playing each other). But the fact that the first F1 race of the new season and the last matches of the Six Nations are on the same weekend, means that it is probably the most sport I will watch over a weekend until the Rugby World Cup starts in September.

Recipe for St. Paddy's Bolognese

• 400g Lean Minced Beef
• 200g Pancetta, cubed (Smoked bacon, normal or streaky, can also be used as long as it's cut into small pieces)
• 1-2 tablespoons Olive Oil
• 1 ½ large onions, chopped
• 3 ribs of celery finely diced
• 3 carrots finely diced
• 2 cloves of garlic, crushed
• 1 bottle of Guinness
  
• 1 glass of Red Wine
  
• 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
• 1 can of Chopped Tomatoes
• 1 tablespoon Concentrated Tomato Puree
• 1 teaspoon Fish Sauce
  
• 1 teaspoon Oregano
• 1 teaspoon Thyme
• ½ teaspoon Hot Chili Powder
• 2 Bay Leaves
• Freshly ground Black Pepper (to taste)
  

The cooking method was pretty much as before. First frying the Pancetta, then adding the onion, celery and carrot until the onion becomes transparent. Next, the minced beef was added until lightly browned, and then the booze was put in and cooked until reduced by about half (well, there was quite a bit more than last time). Then the rest of the ingredients were added, brought to the boil, then simmered for the next 3 hours.

Pretty much like the last sauce I made except with the addition of Guinness and Fish Sauce instead of Salt. If it's good enough for Heston Blumenthal, it's good enough for me. I was thinking about adding some Star Anise too, but none of my local shops had any, and my local Sainsbury's is truly terrible for buying anything except a few ingredients. They didn't even sell Tagliatelle Verde, so I bought the mixed bag and just pulled out the green stuff for serving (I'll have the normal tagliatelle with the leftovers).

Starting cooking a meal at midnight is definitely a bad move, even if you have a good reason like I did. But the resultant ragu was very good, even though I do say myself. The addition of Guinness, although even less Italian than my last sauce, was definitely a good idea, so it might end up being a permanent fixture in future.

Tagliatelle alla Bolognese (Spag Bog)

This recipe seems to be working well for me, although, one day, I'm going to try the Heston Blumenthal version as that sounds good too. One day, I might try and do it without tomatoes too, as they don't use them in Bologna, but I'd want to use a decent beef stock, rather than stock cubes.

Recipe for the Sauce (serves 4)

• 500g lean mince beef
• 300g Pancetta, cubed (Smoked bacon, normal or streaky, can also be used as long as it's cut into small pieces)
• 1-2 tablespoons Olive Oil
• 1 ½ large onions, chopped
• 3 ribs of celery finely diced
• 3 carrots finely diced
• 2 cloves of garlic, crushed
• 1 large glass of Red Wine (White Wine can also be used apparently, but I've never tried myself)
• 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
• 1 can of Chopped Tomatoes
• 2 tablespoons Concentrated Tomato Puree
• 1 teaspoon Oregano
• 1 teaspoon Thyme
• ½ teaspoon Hot Chili Powder
• 2 Bay Leaves
• Salt and Pepper (freshly ground in both cases)
  

When making this, I first chop up the Onion, Carrot and Celery for the Soffritto. Personally, I like this to be equal portions of the ingredients once chopped up, so the quantities above may vary depending on the size of the vegetables.

Using a heavy pan, heat up the olive oil and when hot, but not smoking, add in the pancetta and cook for a few minutes. Then add the soffritto and cook, stirring regularly, until the onion becomes slightly transparent.
Next the mince beef goes in and is cooked until slightly brown. Then in goes a large glass of wine which should reduce by a third until the rest of the ingredients are added.

The sauce should then be left to simmer for at least 2 hours. You can get away with less time, but it is very much better the longer it is left.

You can serve it with almost any type of pasta, but tagliatelle is the more traditional one to serve, even though in the UK we tend to use spaghetti, hence the Spag Bog nickname. My friend Brett would also add some fresh coriander, and if I'd have had some, I may well have tried that myself as his sauce was always good.

This sauce definitely scored pretty high with my friends who tried it, even though Ejaz's scores always tend to be one point lower than anyone else's. Maybe he's just trying to encourage me to improve more, or otherwise he's been spoilt by his Mum's cooking. Still... scores between 7 and 9 out of 10 will do me. Not sure what, if anything I will do next time I make it. I liked it, and with clean plates and no leftovers, it couldn't have been bad.

Tagliatelle alla Bolognese

Yeah, well, maybe it wasn't a totally authentic ragù, but it was closer than the last one I made. With more time, and one or two different ingredients, I think I could get it closer. I watched Heston Blumenthal searching for perfection with Spaghetti Bolognese the other day, and decided to try and improve on the recipe which I'd previously come up with, and serve with the more authentic tagliatelle instead of spaghetti.

The main difference was that I tried to do better with the Soffritto, so that it was a more proportional mix of onion, celery and carrot, and properly chopped. While I was cooking it, it even looked better. Although I still use a tin of chopped tomatoes instead of a stock before leaving it simmering for a couple of hours. I might try with just some puree and stock next time, although it wont be home-made stock, so I'm not sure it's worth it.

For only the second attempt at making this meal, I was really pleased. Really no need to buy a jar of sauce and cheat. Dave came around the next day and ate the last of it cold without any pasta and it still tasted good.

Macaroni Cheese with Bacon and Leek

This didn't come out as well as I'd hoped. I don't have a cheese grater, and didn't have any pre-grated cheese, so the top didn't really come out as neat and golden brown as I'd have liked. Plus I didn't get the bacon as well done as I'd have liked, and overdid the leek. Still, my sister apparently hated it when my mum put bacon in Macaroni cheese when we were kids, and when she had the left-overs of this a couple of days later, said it was actually much nicer than she remembered.

Very easy to make though. Just pre-cook the bacon and the pasta. The leek doesn't really need cooking beforehand, just mix it with the bacon and pasta once they're done. Then make a couple of pints of cheese sauce and poor over the lot in the casserole. Then sprinkle with more grated cheddar, parmesan and black pepper and cook for about 40 minutes, grilling for the last bit if not crisping a little on the top.