Today's dinner : An emergency Sicilian!

Son & heir's plans changed suddenly and instead of being out this evening, he and a friend were going to be in for dinner after all.  This meant that what we had planned to have - a night off from cooking, complete with prawn cocktail baguettes - was abandoned and I had to get thinking about what to make instead!

It had to be something easy, with not much preparation, as following on from a busy and slightly stressful day yesterday (yes, going out for lunch is stressful, these days), I knew I'd be feeling it today.

Good old pasta.  You can't go wrong with it, it's so easy to make - whatever you put with it!  I decided upon the Sicilian Pork Ragu with Chocolate that we all love.  All you need to prepare is an onion and some basil, so it was perfect.  You can find the recipe for this quick and stress-free lovely at http://jennyeatwellsrhubarbginger.blogspot.co.uk/2010/12/sicilian-pork-ragu-with-chocolate-co.html

The ragu was a little wetter than usual, largely because the pan decided to act like Mount Vesuvius and send little super hot globules of sauce flying in all directions.  I'm really not sure why this one decided to do that and others haven't, but it made simmering the sauce virtually impossible.  I really must buy a splatter guard.  I don't really want to go and see the state my cooker is in!

Dessert was a shop-bought lemon tart with additional raspberries - and hubby went a bit mad with the squirty cream and sprinkles.  He reckons everything is made better by the addition of sprinkles.  He may even be right!

Barbecue Sausages & Red Pepper

Spice it up, or spice it down - whichever way you want your chilli , this recipe is completely double yummy.

I had best part of a bottle of Levi Roots' Reggae Reggae Sauce left over from another dish and so needed to find it a job to do.  Coincidentally, we also had around 200ml of tomato Passata left over from the same dish (which we'd put in the freezer, awaiting eventualities), plus two red peppers that never got made into stuffed peppers.  So, thinking about how to use the both of them immediately led me to ye olde sausage.

Ready for the oven

I have discovered that, in order to render an inedible dry sausage juicy and infinitely edible, the best thing to do with it is to cook it in a sauce.  Either in meatball style, or directly as a sausage, it works as well both ways.  I've whinged on in the past about how sausages just don't seem to have the same "juiciness" as they used to - and lay the blame at the door of the fat police.  Now I have some sympathy with the fat police (being seriously overweight myself), but not at the expense of what a food product is supposed to do.  To me, a sausage runs completely out of appeal, if it doesn't burst in your mouth with flavour and preferably, it is supposed to (when a whole sausage is bitten into on the end of a fork) drip down your chin in tantalising fashion.  I'd far rather eat fewer delicious sausages, than eat more dry and boring sausages.

So, having indulged in a bit more whinging about sausages (sorry about that!) I shall stop digressing.


I had a feeling that the Barbecue sauce would go very nicely with mashed potato.  I will admit to being a bit of a mashed potato fan - and have paired some odd things with lovely mash, things that have made hubby recoil in alarm.  However, this time, I was right and a forkful of sauce and mash was a symphony of comforting buttery potato, followed by sweetness, then savouriness, then the growing heat of the chilli.  The sweetness of the sweetcorn and peas that I served alongside, just helped as a bit of a respite from the chilli - even though the effect of the chilli was much reduced by the sweet red peppers - and provided a nice crispness to the overall texture.

Incidentally, speaking of chilli, the Levi Roots' sauce is pretty effective at providing chilli heat.  Well, it is made with Scotch Bonnet peppers!  However, if you're not so keen on the effects of chilli, but are keen on barbecue flavours - just get an ordinary barbecue sauce.  If, on the other hand, you're a fire-breathing chilli hound, then why not add a few dried chilli flakes to the mix?  It's up to you. 

Baked and ready to serve

As a weekday meal, this one is a real winner.  I'd even go so far as to buy some more Reggae Reggae sauce just so that I can make it again - and it is very definitely going on my "list of good sausage recipes".   Needless to say, both hubby and son thoroughly enjoyed the meal - the brilliant Jelly potatoes make such excellent mash that even hubby sets aside his hatred of the humble potato long enough to enjoy a very different variation on Sausage & Mash.

BARBECUE SAUSAGES & RED PEPPER    (serves 3)

Ingredients :

9 good pork sausages
a tbsp olive oil
a red onion, sliced thinly
a red pepper, de-seeded and sliced thinly
200ml tomato passata
200ml barbecue sauce (I used Levi Roots' Reggae Reggae sauce)
a pinch of smoked paprika
a tbsp of mushroom ketchup (or Worcestershire sauce)
a tbsp of tomato ketchup
sea salt & freshly ground black pepper. 


Method :


1.  Pre-heat your oven to 180degC/350degF/Gas4.


2.  Taking a non-stick frying pan, heat the olive oil and cook the sausages just to colour them.  You aren't looking to have them cooked through at this stage.


3.  Place the sausages into an oven proof dish to keep warm.


4.  Place the onion and pepper into the frying pan and cook on a medium heat until softened and just beginning to colour.


5. Add the passata, barbecue sauce, mushroom ketchup, smoked paprika, tomato ketchup and season to taste.  Stir well until mixed thoroughly and heated through.


6.  Pour onto the sausages, then bake in the oven for some 30-35 minutes until the sausages are cooked through.


7.  Serve with buttery mashed potato, peas and sweetcorn.


.

Sicilian Pork Ragu with Chocolate : c/o "A Glug of Oil"

Just how lovely does that look?

I found this recipe on the excellent "A Glug of Oil" blog some two or three months ago.  It immediately intrigued me in its use of dark chocolate, not least because of the conjunction with pork mince, but the use of tagliatelle instead of the more usual accompaniments of rice or vegetables.  (More usual, that is, when accompanying mince - rather than accompanying a Sicilian dish).

I held onto it for two reasons.  Firstly, because I needed a little time in which to "get my head around" the idea of using chocolate in this context, and secondly because we never seemed to have the right ingredients around at the same time.

I found myself, this week, with not only some red wine in the fridge but a small block of dark chocolate too.  Bingo!  I could break out the recipe at last.

I loved the result.  The juxtaposition of the cinnamon and the dark chocolate beside the rich tomato and pork mince is not one I have experienced before, but boy oh boy is it good.  I felt that the dish needed some herb input and opted for parsley (as that was the only remotely suitable herb I had to hand), but in retrospect I think that basil would have sat more easily beside the chocolate - which isn't a strong flavour, but is evident nonetheless.

This one will definitely re-appear on the menu list, as it resulted in clear plates all round.

SICILIAN PORK RAGU WITH CHOCOLATE (serves 3-4)

Ingredients :

1 onion, chopped

2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

500g pork mince

175ml red wine

2 tbsp tomato puree

1 tsp ground cinnamon

500g Passata

15g dark chocolate

1 tsp sugar

salt & pepper to taste

knob of butter

3-4 basil leaves, shredded

Method :

1.  Heat the oil in a large frying pan and add the onion.  Cook over a medium heat until soft but not coloured.

2.  Now add the minced pork, stirring and breaking it up as you go.  You may need to increase the heat to prevent the pork from braising.  Allow the meat to brown slightly, but not burn.

3.  Stir in the tomato puree, then the wine and turn up the heat to simmer for 2 minutes.

4. Add the passata, cinnamon and sugar, then taste and season.

5. Simmer for around 10 minutes, then stir the chocolate in a little at a time.

6. Taste and adjust the seasoning and sugar if required.

7. Reduce the heat and slow simmer until the sauce is nice and thick.

8. Stir in the butter and basil leaves and serve immediately with Tagliatelle pasta.

Printable Version

.

Courgettes with crisp cheese crumbs

Just out of the oven

A lovely warming side-dish to something relatively plain like chicken or sausages, this is also a really good use of courgettes for those with a courgette glut at the moment.  Even better is that the kids like it, too!

Serves 3-4

Ingredients

4 courgettes, trimmed and cut into chunky pieces
pinch of dried chilli flakes
1-2 tsp fresh (or less if dried) thyme leaves
1 tbsp olive oil
1 garlic clove, crushed or grated
45g dry breadcrumbs
2 tbsp grated Parmesan
tomato passata (or leftover tomato sauce would do fine!)

Method

1.  Heat oven to 100C/180C fan/gas 6.

2.  In a bowl, combine chilli, thyme, seasoning and oil.

3.  Add courgettes and toss to coat.

4.  Place courgettes into baking dish and bake for 20 mins or until softened.

Ready for baking

5.  Meanwhile, put remaining oil in bowl.  Stir in the garlic, breadcrumbs, parmesan and some seasoning.

6.  Once courgettes are softened, pour over enough passata to cover the base of the dish, then sprinkle with the crumbs.

7.  Bake for a further 10-15 mins until crisp.

I served them with Chicken Kiev, new potatoes and peas.  I have to say that the peas were a bit unnecessary and hubby had sneaked one of his potatoes onto my plate, when I wasn't looking!