Tagliatelle with a ragu of tiny meatballs

As Jamie says in his book Cook with Jamie, "this is a fantastic, classic, easy-pleaser of a dish." Mind you, by the time I had finished cooking the kitchen looked like a bomb had gone off - there were dishes, cooking utensils and various foodstuffs everywhere. Thanks goodness for dishwashers! Also, I decided to forgo making the pasta: I thought that might be just pushing things a bit too far. To complicate matters I also decided to make Garlic Toasts - from the book Everyday by Bill Granger.

Tagliatelle with a ragu of tiny meatballs
Serves 4-6

• 600g good-quality dried tagliatelle (tho' I used a 250g packet; realising too late that I hadn't bought enough but actually this was plenty)
• knob of butter
• handful of freshly grated Parmesan cheese

for the meatballs:

• 450g good-quality coarse minced beef
• 1-2 dried chillies (I used minced chillies)
• pinch cinnamon
• pinch nutmeg (the recipe says 1/2 nutmeg grated - but where do you buy these?)
• 3 cloves garlic, peeled and finely chopped
• sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 1 large egg
• handful of freshly grated Parmesan cheese, plus extra for serving
• zest of 1 lemon

for the tomato sauce:

• olive oil
• 2-3 cloves garlic, peeled and chopped
• bunch of fresh basil, leaves picked, stalks chopped
• 1 fresh red chilli, pierced with the tip of a knife
• 2 x 400g tomatoes
• little swig of red wine vinegar
• sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

Meatballs: mix and scrunch together all the meatball ingredients in your hands and shape into marble-sized balls. When rolling the meatballs, run your hands under cold water every now and then - it will help to make them dense and hold their shape better. Place them on a tray and put in the fridge while you make your tomato sauce.

Tomato sauce: Get a pan on the heat and add a glug of olive oil [what exactly is a glug?!] Gently fry the garlic, basil stalks [?!] and the whole chilli, then add the tomatoes and red wine vinegar. Season with salt and pepper then gently simmer for half an hour.

Putting it all together: heat up a little oil in a frying pan and throw in your meatballs. Cook until they've got a really good colour on them, then add them to your tomato sauce. Remove the chilli from the sauce and check for seasoning. Continue to simmer for 10 - 15mins [I probably didn't do this for as long as suggested - the meatballs could have been more cooked inside but no-one picked up on it!]. Bring a large pan of salted water to the boil and cook according to the packet instructions. Drain the tagliatelle then toss it in the meatball sauce. Add the knob of butter, the Parmesan and tear over half the basil leaves [this would be interesting as none of the boys including DH are really into herbs!]. Toss around to coat the pasta. Add a little water to loosen the sauce if needed [it was needed - it was a bit thick and gluggy]. Serve on a big platter, scatter with the rest of the basil leaves [skipped this], grate over some Parmesan and serve as soon as possible.

The verdict: it went down well. As mentioned, the meatballs needed to be simmered for longer in the tomato sauce but otherwise it was fairly straightforward. How the kitchen ended up resembling a war zone is anyone's guess. Maybe I'm just a messy cook! Anyway, I served the pasta with Garlic Toasts.

Garlic Toasts (from Every Day - Bill Granger)
Serves 4

• 6 garlic cloves, peeled
• 2 Tbs olive oil
• sea salt & freshly ground black pepper
• 2 Tbs butter
• 1 Tbs chopped fresh flat leaf (Italian) parsley
• 8 slices crostini or baguette

Preheat the oven to 180*c. Put the garlic and olive oil in a small roasting tin and season with salt and pepper. Cover with foil and roast for 20mins. Remove from the oven and leave to cool slightly, then put the garlic in a bowl and mash with a fork. Add the butter and parsley and mash together. Put the bread on a baking tray, spread with the garlic butter and bake for 5-10mins, or until crisp.

Verdict: I overcooked the garlic so it was partly crispy. Next time I won't have the oven as hot. Also I was making this for 5 people so I increased the number of baguette slices but didn't think of increasing the amount of garlic butter. Even so, they turned out well and went well with the pasta.

Other things we did today - checked out jones the grocer in Manuka and all the gourmet goodies they sell. So when a recipe calls for pomegranate molasses I'll know where to go! However we were more interested in getting a coffee but it seemed like everyone else in Canberra had that very same idea so we ventured a bit further down the road and stopped in at Verve cafe instead. I have arranged to have lunch in Manuka with a good friend when I get back from the Gold Coast and then we can shop to our hearts content without anyone following behind getting increasingly frustrated and bored!

Green eggs and ham?!

As a family we are not great ham lovers and yet DH receives a leg of ham every year from his workplace. Usually we give at least half of it away but we never actually got around to doing that this year. So, out came some cookbooks as I searched for recipes that involved ham. Donna Hay came to the rescue with several recipes and I tried the following recipe last night (and no, it wasn't green eggs and ham!):




Chorizo, Ham and Haloumi Oven Omelette
Serves 4

• 6 eggs


• 2 Tbs sour cream


• 6 spring onions, chopped


• sea salt and cracked black pepper


• 1 Tbs olive oil


• 1 sm brown onion, sliced


• 1 chorizo sausage, sliced


• 100g haloumi cheese, chopped


• 1 zucchini, sliced


• 150g leg ham, chopped

Preheat the oven to 180*c. Place the eggs, sour cream, spring onions, salt and pepper in a bowl and whisk to combine. Set aside.

Heat a medium non-stick ovenproof frying pan over high heat. Add the oil, onion, chorizo and haloumi and cook for 3-4mins or until the spring onions are soft and the chorizo is golden. Add the zucchini and cook for a further 3mins or until just soft. Stir in the ham and add the egg mixture. Place the pan in the oven and cook for 15mins or until the egg is set and the top is golden.

The verdict: it was easy to make and it was tasty. All the boys ate it and had seconds so that says something. I think the comment was also made that maybe I should cook more often! Hmmm...... Son #3, who gave me the Cook with Jamie recipe book for Xmas, suggested that I should cook something from the book before he goes back to the Gold Coast - a week away.

Xmas Day and toooo much food!

It was a late night (mainly surfing the net) and by the time I got to bed it was well after midnight. So consequently I really didn't went to get up early this morning and luckily because the kids are older, I didn't have to!

Once I did get up, after a fortifying cup of black coffee, it was a case of rounding up everyone to unwrap presents. I think everyone was pleased with what they received - a major feat in our household!

In my case I received some really great presents:

• Every Day cookbook by Bill Granger
• Cook with Jamie by Jamie Oliver
• Instant Entertaining by Donna Hay
• Irresistible Italy by Bill & Patsy Rowe
• Luscious Chocolate Desserts by Lori Longbotham (chocolate recipes to die for)
• An apron and pot holder
• Recipe stand
• Blender
• earrings and pendant
• butterfly brooch
• electric toothbrush
• cat calendar

So I will be cooking up a storm in 2007! Well that's my intention anyway.

After making egg and bacon muffins for the family for breakfast, I then got busy preparing lunch. Luckily I had done some of the preparation the night before but even so the time went really quickly and I was getting worried, thinking we might be eating lunch late in the afternoon.

Our Xmas lunch menu:

• salt and pepper prawns with lemongrass mayonnaise (from Good Taste magazine, Dec issue)
• Corn fritters
• Cold ham, turkey and chicken
• Potato salad made with baby potatoes and roasted garlic mayonnaise
• Crunchy coleslaw salad with macadamias and cashews and crispy noodles
• Rice salad with roasted vegies (sweet potato, pumpkin, capsicum and onion) (Donna Hay magazine, Dec issue, a Sunrice recipe)
• Mini Xmas puddings (this batch turned out much better than the first lot I made)
• Fruit & nut mini cakes (these turned out ok; not too dry)
• Mixed nuts and Xmas lollies

I had also made an icecream Xmas pudding to have with chocolate sauce but I think that will be left for another day, along with the fruit mince pies and tropical fruit salad.

So that was Xmas for another year. Tomorrow morning I will be running 25km with a few hills thrown in for good measure. I'm going to need it!

Christmas cooking

I have started this blog because I have rediscovered a love of cooking, something that was lost for the last 10 or so years. I have always collected cookbooks but have usually never cooked anything from them; just looked at the pictures from time to time. However our house was renovated this year and I got a brand spanking new kitchen which has inspired me to cook! I am not a great cook and so there will be may mishaps along the way but that's half the fun of cooking, right?! So this blog will be a record of my cooking (mis)adventures as I try recipes from my cookbook collection plus recipes I have collected from magazines such as Good Taste, Delicious and Donna Hay.

Tonight I made Chunky Fruit and Nut Cakes. Its a recipe from Woolworth's Fresh magazine that came out in December 2006.

1 cup mixed nuts (I used macadamias, cashews and almonds)
1/2 cup halved glace cherries
1/2 cup sultanas
1/2 cup chopped raisins
1/2 cup chopped dates
2 Tbs brandy (I used a mixture of Grand Marnier and rum and probably used a bit more than 2 Tbs)
125g butter
1/2 cup brown sugar (I had muscovado sugar so decided to use that)
2 eggs
1/2 cup dark choc bits
1/2 cup plain flour
1/2 tsp mixed spice

1. Preheat oven to 160*c. Line muffin pans with paper cases.
2. Combine nuts, fruit and brandy, stand 10mins (I let it stand for about 24hrs!).
3. Beat butter and sugar until light and creamy (first mistake - I beat the butter and then added an egg before realising that I hadn't added the sugar yet. Oooops!)
4. Fold into fruit mixture with choc bits, flour and mixed spice. Spoon into lined muffin pans.
5. Bake 35-40mins until cooked. Cool in pan before turning out. (I used a pastry brush and brushed on some more rum, just in case!).

* Tomorrow we will find out how these little cakes turned out. Hopefully they will taste as good as they sound. *fingers crossed*

Late edit - the cakes taste ok. I was worried they might be a but dry but they're not. There is only a hint of the alcohol that is in this recipe.)

I also made mini Christmas puddings - a Donna hay recipe. I had made them earlier in the week as gifts for friends. The first time I found the mixture was quite wet and I found it difficult to roll into balls and then coat with chocolate. The other problem I encountered was dipping the balls into chocolate and coating them evenly. This was a lot more difficult than I expected. This time I added a little bit more pudding to the mixture so it wasn't as wet and was easier to roll into balls. However I still had problems coating them with chocolate - it is definitely a knack I haven't developed. Anyway they are now sitting in the fridge, hopefully firming up a little as they are quite soft to touch. I decorated each little pudding with cachous.

Other things I did tonight in preparation for tomorrow (Christmas day) was oven bake a selection of vegies for a salad (pumpkin, sweet potato, capsicum, and red onion). I also baked several garlic cloves to add to mayonnaise for the potato salad which I will make in the morning. Some of the garlic cloves were overcooked and so I couldn't get any garlic pulp out of them. Luckily i had baked a few. I also prepared the lemongrass mayonnaise for the salt and pepper prawns that I'm preparing tomorrow - after DH has shelled and deveined them for me.

So tomorrow I have to make the potato salad, coleslaw salad and finish making the oven roasted vegies and rice salad, as well as the salt and pepper prawns. Because Son #2 doesn't like prawns I am also making sweetcorn fritters as an alternative. We will have cold ham, turkey and a barbecued chicken. For dessert I have made icecream Christmas pudding which we will have with chocolate topping as well as a tropical fruit salad.

Luckily I have a 25km run to do on Boxing Day!!!!