Spaghetti and Meatballs Jamie-style

I've been watching the series Jamie at Home, where he is often in his vegie garden and then cooking up a storm in the kitchen with produce from the garden. In the first program he made this really easy spaghetti and meatball meal and what caught my eye was that he used sausages for the meatballs. Now I'm for anything that makes cooking easier but still tasty. For this recipe not any old supermarket sausage, full of suspicious bits and pieces, can be used. Gourmet Italian sausages are preferred. So during the week we purchased some from the local butcher who is well known for his gourmet range of handmade sausages, for which he has won prizes.

Once you have the required sausages then its just a case of squeezing out the filling and shaping into meatballs - oh so easy! I probably got about 3 meatballs per sausage and these were then fried in a little olive oil and the put aside while I made the sauce.

The tomato sauce recipe came from Jamie's Dinners which I had got as a birthday present a couple of years ago but for a variety of reasons I never really looked through this book. I had seen the TV series and had every intention of using the book but as usual, life got in the way. Anyway I pulled the book out yesterday and used the Simple Tomato Sauce recipe, which is part of a chapter called Family Tree because as Jamie says, "once you've perfected one really good 'parent' recipe, you can make lots of 'offspring' recipes".

It really is a very simple recipe involving several garlic cloves which are sliced and lightly fried in some olive oil, and a whole red chili which is pierced - it gives a subtle heat to the sauce, some chopped basil stalks, and then several tins of Italian tomatoes. The tomatoes are left whole until the sauce has simmered for about 30mins and then they can be broken up. Apparently tomato seeds can be bitter, and that's the reason for not breaking them up earlier in the process.

I added the meatballs back into the sauce part way through the simmering process and while I was cooking the spaghetti - plenty of salt in the water but no oil. The reason being that salt adds or brings out the flavour whereas if oil was added the sauce would not cling to the pasta at all.

The chilli was removed and a handful of basil leaves (from the garden) were stirred through. Grated Parmigiano Reggiano was the only other accompaniment (mainly because of the dessert that was to follow!)

Verdict - the flavour of the Italian sausages was too mild so we will look elsewhere for more flavoursome sausages. Otherwise, it was an easy, tasty meal.

French-toasted chocolate and banana sandwiches

I bought the latest issue of Gourmet Traveller during the week and this particular recipe caught my eye - probbaly because of the chocolate component! Its in the section called Fare Exchange - recipes you're requested from Australia's leading chefs. This recipe comes from chef Geoff Lindsay from Pearl Restaurant, in Richmond, Vic. It may have been a brunch recipe but it makes for a good dessert too.

The original recipe is for 4 but there were only 2 of us eating last night so I reduced the quantities - not difficult in nay case. Also the recipe calls for 2cm-thick slices of white bread which you then make a deep incision in each slice along one side of the crusts, leaving 15mm around the other edges, to form a pocket. I used 2 thin slices of bread for each serve!

Recipe (adapted from Gourmet Traveller, Feb 2007 issue)
Serves 2

4 slices of white bread
100g dark chocolate buttons
1 banana, thinly sliced
1 Tbs butter
maple syrup, to serve
pouring cream, to serve
French toast batter:
2 eggs
125ml milk
1/4 cup caster sugar
40ml pouring cream
1 tsp vanilla extract
ground cinnamon
pinch nutmeg

1. For French toast batter: combine all ingredients in a large bowl and whisk to combine, set aside.
2. On 2 slices of bread, layer sliced banana and chocolate buttons, leaving about 15mm clear around each side. Top with other slice of bread and press down firmly. Soak sandwiches in batter for 2mins each side.
3. Preheat oven to 180*c. heat half the butter in a frying pan over medium heat and cook each sandwich for 2mins each side or until golden, then place on an oven tray. Repeat with remaining sandwich. Transfer to oven and bake for 8-10mins or until puffed and golden. To serve, cut sandwiches in half diagonally, arrange on plates, drizzle with maple syrup and serve with cream.


Verdict - great! It was a little rich so maybe milk chocolate buttons may be better but otherwise, it was great comfort food!