Meatloaf ingredients

• 500g minced beef
• 4 eggs
• 50g cooked ham (about 2 slices)
• 50g Neapolitan salami (optional)
• 40g parmesan, grated
• 40g pecorino, grated
• 50g buffalo mozzarella, sliced (not too fresh)
• 2 cloves of garlic, whole but lightly crushed
• Flour
• 100g stale bread
• 400g chopped tomatoes
• 50g concentrated tomato puree
• A large sprig of basil, torn
• 2 tbsp chopped parsley
• Olive oil
• Salt and pepper

1. Hardboil 2 of the eggs and allow them to cool.Slice them thinly.
2. Moisten the bread with a little cold water and break into small pieces.
3. Mix together the meat, the raw eggs, the bread, the parmesan, the pecorino and the parsley. Season with salt and pepper. Knead with your hands until all the ingredients are incorporated.
4. Spread the paste on a square of kitchen paper to form a 2cm thick rectangle.  Cover with the slices of ham, the salami, the mozzarella and the sliced eggs.


Meatloaf with filling

5. Using the kitchen paper to help, roll up, pressing together firmly, to form the meatloaf.


meatloaf ready to cook

6. Dust with flour and fry the loaf in olive oil in a large pan until it is browned on all sides. Lower the heat, cover and continue cooking for 30 minutes.
7. In a seperate pan, fry the garlic for a few minutes in 3 tbsp of olive oil. Add the tomatoes, the tomato pureemixed with a little water, the basil and a pinch of salt. Cook for 5 minutes.
8. Add the tomato sauce to the meatloaf and cook for a further 30 minutes.
9. When the meatloaf is cooked, remove it from the sauce and allow it to cool slightly. Slice into 1-2cm slices and serve with a little of the tomato sauce.

Meatloaf with tomato sauce

Summer meatloaf ingredients

• 200g minced veal
• 200g minced beef
• 150g minced pork
• 200g ricotta
• 2 eggs
• 50g grana padano, grated
• 1 clove of garlic
• 1 sprig of marjoram (or 1/2 tsp dried)
• 1 carrot
• 150g french beans
• 100g frozen peas
• 3 large vine tomatoes (or 200g tinned chopped tomatoes, drained)
• 10 fresh basil leaves
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• Salt & Pepper

1. Wash and top and tail the beans. Peel the carrot and chop into batons. Parboil the veg in salted water for 3-4 minutes.
2. Mix together the meat, the eggs, half the clove of garlic (finely chopped), the marjoram, the ricotta and the grana. Season with salt and pepper.
3. Lay a piece of grease proof paper flat on the work surface. Spread the meat mixture out so that you get a rectangle about 2cm deep.
4. Arrange the vegetables on top and, using the paper to help, roll up to form a meatloaf (like you would for a swiss roll). Press together firmly and make sure the ends are closed.


Summer meatloaf ready to cook

5. Transfer to a baking tin, cover with foil and bake at 200°C for an hour. Remove the foil 15 minutes before the end of cooking to allow the loaf to brown. Remove from the oven and allow to cool completely.
6. Make the salsa by deseeding and chopping the tomatoes with the basil and the other 1/2 clove of garlic. Stir in the oil and season with salt and pepper.
7. When ready to serve, slice the meatloaf into 1-2cm rounds and spoon a little of the salsa onto each slice

Summer meatloaf with salsa

Baked ziti ingredients

• 500g mezzi ziti or rigatoni
• 200g scamorza cheese, finely diced
• 50g pecorino Romano or parmesan
• 800g passata
• 1 onion
• Olive oil
• Salt and pepper

For the meatballs:

Meatballs ingredients

• 250g minced beef
• 50g pecorino Romano or parmesan
• 1 clove of garlic, finely chopped
• 2 tbsp breadcrumbs
• 2 medium eggs
• sprig of parsley, finely chopped
• Salt and pepper

1. Make a tomato sauce by frying the onion for a few minutes in plenty of olive oil. Add the passata, season and cook over a low heat for about 30 minutes.
2. Make the meatballs by mixing all the ingredients together. Form into small balls about the size of a hazelnut. Fry in olive oil until well browned. Drain on kitchen paper.


fried meatballs

3. Boil the pasta until it is very al dente, two or three minutes less than the usual cooking time.  Dress with a couple of ladles of the tomato sauce and half the parmesan.
4. To assemble the dish take a high sided baking tray and put a layer of the pasta in the bottom. Cover with tomato sauce and sprinkle with meatballs, diced scamorza, and parmesan.


Partially assembled dish

5. Continue until you have used up all the pasta. The last layer should be pasta covered with tomato sauce. Sprinkle the top with parmesan


Assembled dish

6. Bake in a hot oven for 25 minutes.

Baked ziti

Alfredo's restaurant

Fettuccine dressed with butter and parmesan has been eaten for hundreds of years in Italy. The story goes that in 1914 Alfredo di Lelio

Alfredo

had the bright idea to add a lot more butter. Apparently he thought it might help his heavily pregnant wife keep her lunch down. Just what you need when you’re feeling queasy, half a pound of butter With the help of a bit of nifty PR (courtesy of Douglas Fairbanks and Mary Pickford), the dish became popular in the US. Alfredo’s restaurant still exists in Rome and enjoys a great deal of custom from American tourists. Alfredo’s now also has three restaurants in the states. Over the years American chefs have amended the recipe to include cream.

This is the original recipe from Alfredo’s restaurant. The recipe is for 4 portions, but it’s sooo heavy, I reckon 6 would be nearer the mark.

By the way, it does taste very nice, but I think I can feel my arteries hardening as I type

Fettuccine Alfredo ingredients

• 450g fresh fettuccine
• 170g unsalted butter at room temperature.
• 170g Parmesan, grated

1. Beat the butter and cheese together in a bowl until you get a smooth paste.
2. Cook the fettuccine for  3 minutes.
3. Drain the pasta quickly and add to the bowl with the cheese and butter. You should allow a little of the cooking water to cling to the pasta.
4. Toss the pasta in the sauce and serve.

Fettuccine Alfredo

Sweetcorn aside, the main difference between lasagne Bolognese served in Italy and those commonly served in other countries is that the Italians use far less cheese and usually have only about four layers of pasta.

This recipe uses fresh homemade pasta. I really recommend trying it with fresh lasagne, you’ll really notice the difference. The next best choice would be shop bought fresh lasagne, then dried egg lasagne which you need to precook and last, and definitly least, dried lasagne that needs no precooking.  Serves 4-6

• 1 quantity Ragù for baked pasta
• 1 quantity Basic white sauce
• 1/2 quantity Pasta dough
• 25g butter
• 70g parmesan cheese

1. Roll out the pasta into sheets. They need to be a little thicker than for tagliatelle. On my pasta machine I use the setting which is two up from the thinnest.
2. Cut the pasta into rectangles which are roughly 10cm by 8cm.


Lasagne sheets

3. Cook the lasagne, a few at a time, in plenty of salted boiling water. About 2-3 minutes. If you add a little oil to the water it helps to stop them sticking together.  Drain and lay them on a damp tea towel.
4. Grease a lasagne dish with a little butter.
5. Arrange a layer of lasagne on the bottom of the dish. Spread one third of the ragù on top, spoon on some white sauce and sprinkle with a little cheese. Dot with some of the butter.  Cover with a layer of lasagne.
6. Repeat until you have used all of the ragù, finishing with a layer of lasagne. Cover with the rest of the white sauce.
7. Bake in an oven preheated to 200°C for 30 minutes. Be careful not to let the top get too brown.
8. Remove from the oven and allow to cool for a few minutes before dividing into portions.

Lasagne Bolognese

• 300g minced beef
• 75g carrot, finely chopped
• 75g onion, finely chopped
• 50g celery, finely chopped
• 100ml dry white wine
• 250g passata
• 3 tbsp olive oil
• Salt and pepper

1. Heat the oil in a pan and add the onion, carrot and celery. Fry gently for a few minutes until the onions start to go translucent.
2. Add the meat and break up with a wooden spoon. Cook until it is well browned.
3. Add the wine and continue cooking until it has almost completely evaporated.
4. Add the passata, season with salt and cover.
5. Cook very slowly for at least 2 hours. Add a little water if it starts to dry out.
6. At the end of cooking, season with freshly ground black pepper.

Ragù for baked pasta

White sauce ingredients

• 50g butter
• 50g plain flour
• 500ml milk (or half milk half water)
• a few grates of nutmeg (optional)
• salt and pepper

1. Melt the butter in a pan over a medium heat.
2. Add the flour and stir quickly with a wooden spoon until smooth.
3. Add add a little of the milk and beat until smooth.
4. Continue in this way until all the milk is added.
5. Bring to a very low simmer and cook for around 15 minutes, stirring frequently to stop the sauce catching on the bottom of the pan.
6. Season with salt, pepper and nutmeg

White sauce (béchamel)

Red wine risotto ingredients

Serves 4

• 400g risotto rice
• 2 glasses full bodied red wine
• 1 small onion, finely chopped
• About 1 1/2 litres vegetable sock
• 40g parmesan, grated
• 25g butter
• 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
• Salt and pepper

1. Fry the onion in the olive oil until they start to become transparent.
2. Add the rice and stir for few moments.
3. Add the red wine and cook over a medium heat, stirring all the time, until the wine has been absorbed.
4. Add a ladle of hot stock and continue cooking as per the standard risotto recipe.
5. When the rice is cooked al dente , remove from the heat, season and stir in the butter and parmesan.
6. Allow to rest for a few minutes before serving.

Red wine risotto

A note about the olives. Use the best you can find. Don’t use pitted black olives as properly matured olives are too soft to have their stones removed mechanically, so they will almost certainly be green olives which have been dyed with ferrous glucomate (E151, a synthetic coal tar).

Puttanesca ingredients

Serves 5

• 500g bucatini, linguine, spaghetti or similar
• 500g peeled tomatoes (fresh or tinned)
• 2 anchovy fillets (salted or in oil)
• 100g good quality olives, rinsed. The recipe calls for Gaeta olives, which of course can be green or black, but I have only ever seen this dish prepared with black olives. You can leave them whole or stone them and roughly chop. I prefer half and half.
• 50g capers, rinsed and roughly chopped. The recipe doesn’t stipulate salted or in brine. I prefer the salted variety
• 100g olive oil. This seems a lot but you need a fair amount to allow the anchovy fillets to dissolve properly. Use less if you wish
• 1 clove of garlic, peeled and lightly crushed
• 1 chilli (fresh, dried or a good pinch of chilli flakes)
• Chopped parsley

1. Gently fry the garlic, chilli and anchovy fillets in the oil. Mash the anchovies with a wooden spoon until they have completely dissolved.
2. Remove the garlic. You can also remove the chilli if you don’t like it too hot. If you prefer a really fiery dish, crush or finely chop the chilli before frying.
3. Add the tomatoes, olives and capers. Mash the tomatoes thoroughly with a fork and cook over a medium high heat for 15 to 20 minutes.
4. Cook the pasta until al dente, drain and add to the pan with the sauce. Toss the pasta with the sauce and heat gently for a couple of minutes.
5. Sprinkle with parsley and serve.

Pasta Puttanesca

Rabbit with mushrooms ingredients

• 1 rabbit cut into portions
• 400g mushrooms
• 100g passato
• 1 carrot
• 1 stick celery
• 1 onion
• 1 clove of garlic
• 1 tbsp chopped parsley
• 1 tbsp flour
• 100 ml chicken stock
• 1 glass dry white wine
• 5 tbsp olive oil
• Salt and pepper

1. Chop the carrot and celery into small strips and thinly slice the onion.
2. Add to a pan with 3 tbsp of olive oil and cook over a medium heat until the onions start to go translucent.
3. Add the rabbit pieces and brown. Sprinkle them with the flour.
4. Thinly slice the mushrooms and sautè them in a separate pan with the rest of the olive oil and the whole, lightly crushed clove of garlic. Cook until they are well coloured and start to give off their juice.
5. Add to the pan with the rabbit and add the wine. Cook over a high heat until the wine has reduced by half.
6. Add the passata and stock, season with salt and pepper. Cover and cook for about and hour over a low to medium heat.
7. Sprinkle with the parsley and serve with polenta.

Rabbit with mushrooms

Tomato sauce ingredients

• 250g tinned tomatoes or peeled fresh tomatoes
• A pinch of sugar (optional)
• 2 cloves of garlic, lightly crushed
• 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
• 10 fresh basil leaves, torn
• salt

1. Put the tomatoes and their juice into a saucepan along with the garlic, sugar and a good pinch of salt. Cover and heat gently for about 30 minutes without stirring.
2. Remove the garlic and mash the the tomatoes with a wooden spoon. If you’re using tinned tomatoes cook uncovered for a further 15 minutes  until the sauce has reduced.
3. Remove from the heat and allow to cool slightly.
4. Immediately before serving, stir in the olive oil and the basil.
5. Use to dress pasta

Tomato sauce

Linguine with tomato sauce

Black cuttlefish risotto ingredients

Serves 4.

• 1kg cuttlefish, cleaned and the ink sacs reserved
• 1 litre fish stock or water
• 3 tbsp olive oil
• 1 small onion, finely chopped
• 1 small clove garlic, finely chopped
• 175ml dry white wine mixed with 150ml water
• 350g risotto rice
• 25g butter
• salt and pepper

1. Cut the cuttlefish into strips or dice.
2. Heat the oil in a saucepan. Add the onion and garlic and cook over a low heat for a few minutes, stirring from time to time.
3. Add the cuttlefish and season with salt and pepper. Go easy on the salt as cuttlefish can be quite salty. Cook until the pieces have turned white.
4. Add the wine and water, cover and simmer over alow heat until tender. Timing depends on the size of the strips, but it’l probably be around 20 minutes.
5. Stir in the rice and cook for a few minutes, stirring frequently until most of the liquid has been absorbed.
6. Add a ladle of hot stock (or water) and continue according to the standard risotto method.
7. When the risotto is ready stir in the butter and serve.

Black risotto

Black tagliatelle with prawns ingredients

Black tagliatelle

Serves 4

• 350g black taglatelle (dried)
• 450g chopped tomatoes or tomato pulp
• 2 cloves garlic, peeled and lightly crushed
• 400g prawns, shelled weight
• a handful of rocket, chopped
• 3 tbsp olive oil
• salt and pepper

1. Fry the garlic cloves in the oil until lightly browned. Remove the garlic and discard.
2. Add the chopped tomatoes, season with salt and pepper and cook over a high heat for about 10 minutes.
3. Add the prawns and cook until the prawns are done. Not too long as you don’t want them to shrivel.
4. Stir in the rocket and serve with the cooked pasta.

Black taglatelle with prawns

Tortellini ingredients

Serves 6

• 100g loin of pork
• 100g mortadella sausage (It MUST come from Bologna of course )
• 100g parma ham (actually, they don’t specify that it has to come from Parma.It seems any raw ham will do)
• 150g parmesan (parmigiano reggiano)
• 1 egg
• A few grates of nutmeg

You will also need one quantity of pasta dough.

1. Make the filling by frying the pork loin gently in a little butter. Chop roughly and whiz together with the other ingredients  in a food processor until you get a smooth paste.


Tortellini filling

2. Roll out the pasta as thin as you can.
3. Use a pastry cutter or a glass to stamp out 7cm diameter discs or cut into 7cm squares.
4. Place a small amount of filling on the centre of each disc (about 5g)


Tortellini with filling

5. Moisten one edge and fold in half to make half moons. Be careful to avoid air pockets.
6. Using your finger and thumbs bring the edges (at the widest part) towards each other so that the dampened corners stick together.


Finished tortellino

7. Allow to dry for about an hour before cooking.


Tortellini ready to cook

8. Tortellini are traditionally served poached in meat broth. On this occasion I served then dressed in a little butter and topped with parmesan.

Tortellini finished dish

Tuna loaf ingredients

• 2 200g tins of tuna in brine
• 2 egg whites
• 20g grated grana or parmesan
• 2 tbsp capers in vinegar
• 4 anchovy fillets in oil
• 6 basil leaves
• 1 unwaxed lemon
• 4 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
• salt

1. Drain the tuna and mash with a fork.

2. Combine the tuna, egg whites, grana, the zest of the lemon and the drained anchovy fillets and whiz in a food processor until you get a uniform paste. Mix in the whole capers.

3. Soak a sheet of grease proof paper in water for a couple of minutes and lay it flat on the work surface.

4. Place the tuna mix onto the centre of the paper and form into a thick sausage shape. It help if you do this with wet hands.

5. Roll up the paper and twist the ends to form a ‘Christmas cracker’ shape. Tie the ends with kitchen string.

   

   Tuna loaf ready to cook

   Poach the roll in just boiling water for 45 minutes. Remove from the water and allow to cool. Refrigerate for at least 2 hours.

6. When ready to serve, unwrap the loaf and cut into 1-2 cm rounds.

7. Make a dressing by mixing the olive oil, the juice from the lemon, chopped basil leaves and a pinch of salt.

8. Serve with green salad leaves (rocket, lambs lettuce etc. anything you fancy)

Tuna loaf

Spaghetti amatriciana ingredients

• 360 grams Spaghetti
• 100 grams pancetta — cubed
• 1 onion — thinly sliced
• 500 grams tomatoes — peeled, seeded and chopped
• 1 fresh (or dried) chilli — seeded and chopped
• olive oil
• salt and pepper
• Parmesan or pecorino Romano cheese to serve (optional)

1. Grease a flameproof casserole with oil, add the pancetta and cook over a low heat until the fat starts to run.
2. Add the onion and cook until lightly browned, stirring occasionally.
3. Add the tomatoes and chilli, season with salt and pepper, cover and cook for about 40 minutes. If it looks like drying out, add a little water.
4. Serve with the cooked spaghetti.

Spaghetti amatriciana

• 360 grams spaghetti
• 1 clove garlic — peeled
• 80 grams tin of tuna — drained and flaked
• 3 tablespoons concentrated tomato puree
• 1 tablespoon chopped parsley
• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• salt and pepper

1. Heat the oil in a pan, add the garlic, cook until browned and remove and discard.
2. Add the tuna and mix well.
3. Loosen the tomato puree with a couple of tablespoons of warm water and add to the pan and stir well. Cook over a low heat for 15 minutes.
4. Remove from the heat, stir in the parsley and season with salt and pepper.
5. Serve with the cooked spaghetti.

• 8 sausages (preferably Italian but any high meat content sausage will do)
• 100 milliliters dry white wine
• 250 milliliters passata
• salt and pepper

1. Prick the sausages with a fork, put the in a pan and add 2 tablespoons of water. Cook over a low heat, turning occasionally. When the water has evaporated the sausages will start to fry in their own fat. Continue until they are golden brown.
2. Add the wine and cook until it is completely evaporated and the sausages are just starting to fry again.
3. Add the passata, season with salt and pepper, cover and simmer for around 15 minutes.
4. This dish can be cooked with small sausages and served cold as an antipasto.

• 1 medium rabbit — cut into portions, washed and dried with kitchen paper
• 2 egg yolks
• plain flour
• the juice of a Lemon
• 1 whole Chilli – fresh or dried
• olive oil
• 1 knob butter

1. Lightly dust the rabbit with flour.
2. Fry the pieces in a little olive oil to which you’ve added the knob of butter.
3. When the rabbit is nicely coloured, season with salt, add a ladle of water and cook over a low heat for around an hour and a half. If it looks like drying out, add a little more water.
4. When the rabbit is done remove to a serving plate and keep warm.
5. Beat the egg yolks together with the lemon juice and add the mixture to the cooking liquid left in the pan. Stir rapidly until you have a smooth sauce.
6. Top the pieces of rabbit with the sauce and serve.

• 360g farfalle
• 100g smoked pancetta, diced
• 250g tomatoes, peeled and chopped
• 1 fresh chilli (or dried), seeded and chopped
• 200ml double cream
• 25g parmesan cheese, grated
• olive oil

1. Heat a little oil in a pan. Add the pancetta and chilli and cook until the pancetta is lightly browned.
2. Add the tomatoes, season with salt and cook over a low heat for around 30 minutes. Reduce the heat to minimum and stir in the cream. Cook very gently until the sauce starts to thicken – about 5 minutes.
3. Cook the pasta, drain and add to the sauce. Cook for 30 seconds or so, stirring all the time, to allow the pasta to take up the sauce.
4. Serve topped with the parmesan.

• 360g spaghetti
• 500g ripe tomatoes, peeled, seeded and chopped
• 4 tbsp olive oil
• 10 basil leaves, chopped
• 2 cloves garlic,peeled
• salt and pepper

1. Put the tomatoes into a large bowl along with the oil, whole garlic and basil. Season with salt and pepper and mix well.
2. Cover and leave in a cool place to allow the flavours to develop – at least 1 hour but the longer you can leave it the better. Remove the garlic before serving.
3. Cook the spaghetti until al dente, drain and mix with the sauce.

• 360g spaghetti
• 3 tbsp olive oil
• 1 clove garlic, peeled
• 1 small onion,peeled
• 2 fresh sage leaves
• 1 stick celery
• 3 plum tomatoes, peeled, seeded and chopped
• 350g courgettes, thinly sliced
• 150g mozzarella, diced finely
• 25g parmesan cheese, grated
• salt and pepper

1. Heat the oil in a pan. Add the whole garlic clove, the whole onion, the sage leaves and the stick of celery and cook over a low heat for about 5 minutes.
2. Add the tomatoes and increase the heat to medium. When boiling add the courgettes. Season with salt and pepper, cover and cook for around 15 minutes.
3. Remove the garlic, onion, celery and sage and discard.
4. Cook the spaghetti, drain and the toss first with the sauce, then the mozzarella and finally with the parmesan.

• 400 grams fresh tagliatelle or fettucine
• 300 grams minced beef – The recommended cut is thin flank aka skirt (finta cartella in Italian) but any good quality mince will do.
• 150 grams unsmoked pancetta — minced very finely
• 50 grams carrot — finely chopped or minced
• 50 grams celery — finely chopped or minced
• 50 grams onion — finely chopped or minced
• 30 grams triple concentrated tomato puree(if using double concentrated, increase the quantity by about a 1/3)
• 1/2 glass red or white wine
• 180 milliliters fresh milk
• olive oil
• salt and pepper

1. Fry the pancetta gently in a little olive oil until it starts to release its fat. Be careful not to burn.
2. Add the vegetables and fry until the onions are transparent, stirring from time to time.
3. Add the beef and cook until it is lightly browned. When it starts to make popping noises, it’s done.
4. Add the tomato puree and the wine and mix well.
5. Add the milk, little by little until it is completely absorbed.
6. Season with salt and pepper, cover and cook very slowly for 3 to 4 hours.
7. Stir occasionally and if it looks like drying out, add a little more milk.
8. Serve with Fettuccine or Tagliatelle (NOT Spaghetti!)
9. Serve with Parmesan cheese on the side. Alternatively toss the pasta first in a little butter and then in Parmesan before adding the meat sauce.
10. Variation: The Academy allows the addition of Porcini mushrooms.

This is a more detailed explanation of the dish from Bologna Cooking School

A ragu Bolognese style is a meat sauce that is slow simmered for at least an hour to develop a complex flavor and proper thickness. Cooking the ragu in a heavy-duty enamel or similar pot will hold the heat steady and help to give a velvety texture to the ragu. Bolognese ragu is a classic sauce for lasagne and tagliatelle. The sauce also freezes beautifully.

Bolognese sauce (ragù alla bolognese in Italian) is a meat- and tomato-based pasta sauce originating in Bologna, Italy. It is typically made by simmering ground meat in tomato sauce, white wine, and stock for a long time (often upward of four hours), so that the meat softens and begins to break down into the liquid medium. The original sauce is not done with minced meat; instead, whole meat, usually beef or veal, is chopped with a knife.
Spaghetti alla Bolognese, or spaghetti bolognese which is sometimes further shortened to spag bol, is a dish invented outside of Italy consisting of spaghetti with a meat sauce. In Italy, this sauce is generally not served with spaghetti because it tends to fall off the pasta and stay on the plate. Instead, the people of Bologna traditionally serve their famous meat sauce with tagliatelle (‘tagliatelle alla bolognese). Outside the traditional use, this sauce can be served with tubular pasta or represent the stuffing for lasagna or cannelloni.

While “Bolognese” is undoubtedly the most popular ragù in this country, it is also the most misunderstood.
The ragù you get by that name is usually a characterless tomato sauce with pea-like bits of ground beef floating in it, bearing little resemblance to anything you’d find in Bologna.
And not, in any sense, a ragù.
True ragù alla Bolognese contains no tomato sauce — just enough fresh or canned tomato to add a hint of sweetness and another layer of flavor to a subtle, complex mix. Like all ragùs, Bolognese is characterized by its long, slow cooking, which in this case starts with simmering the meat in milk (to mellow the acidity of the raw tomatoes added later) and wine (some use white, others red), after which the tomatoes are added. The whole lot is cooked together for about two hours

• 320g fusilli
• 800g mushrooms (as many different types as possible), chopped
• 250g tomatoes (tinned, pasatta or fresh – skinned seeded and chopped
• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 1 sprig parsley, chopped
• parmesan cheese, optional
• 1 knob butter, optional
• salt and pepper
• olive oil

1. Wash and chop the mushrooms. How finely you chop them depends on taste and the varieties you are using. I could only get standard field mushrooms, so I chopped them quite finely.
2. Fry the onion and mushrooms in olive oil until the mushrooms start to release their liquid.
3. Add the tomatoes, season with salt and pepper, cover and cook over a low heat for 45 minutes.
4. Remove from the heat and add the parsley.
5. Cook the fusilli in plenty of salted boiling water until al dente. Drain and toss with a knob of butter (optional).
6. Mix the pasta with the mushroom sauce and serve with parmesan cheese on the side.

• Beef, veal or horse fillet, sliced very thinly
• Lemon juice
• Olive oil
• Salt and pepper
• Aromatic herbs, chopped – optional
• Parmesan cheese, shaved – optional
• Green salad leaves, optional

1. Marinate the meat in the lemon juice for around an hour.
2. Remove from the marinade and arrange on a serving plate.
3. Season with salt and pepper and dress with olive oil.

1. Variation: Add some chopped aromatic herbs (parsley, basil, mint etc.) to the marinade.
2. Variation: Top with shaved Parmesan
3. Variation: I like to serve the carpaccio on top of some green salad leaves.

• 320 grams bavette
• 2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
• olive oil
• salt
• a small bunch of parsley, finely chopped
• a small bunch of basil, finely chopped

1. Heat plenty of oil in a pan, add the garlic and cook over a medium heat until it is well coloured.
2. Remove from the heat and add the herbs. Leave to infuse for a minute or so.
3. Add the cooked pasta to the pan and mix well.
4. Variation: You can use other fresh herbs eg. mint, chives, dill etc. Whatever you fancy. Don’t try it with dried though.