“Real cooking is more about following your heart than it is about following recipes”

Hi Everyone!

Not sure where the above quote comes from but it certainly is true.  Relaxing into cooking and trusting yourself is far more important than following a recipe.  Often we don’t have the exact ingredients or the correct size pan or piece of equipment and we have to improvise.  That’s when the magic happens.  There may be flops but who cares, it’s all part of the fun and by taking this relaxed attitude it immediately removes the stress so many feel about cooking.

Everywhere I turn this month there are recipes for yet another type of lasagna.  Matt Preston from Delicious Magazine says “Lasagna is without doubt the heavyweight champion of Italian food”.  So I thought I would put together my version of this Italian staple.  You may or may not recall that I cooked some mince which was called 50/50.  So 50% meat and 50% vegies.

However, I tried this scrumptillious dessert the next day (as it makes enough for 10) and it was even better.  I bought the smallest amount of limoncello I could which was 200ml.  Even though the recipe calls for 250ml this was certainly enough.  A note here about the pan.  I used the rectangular pan I had which was a little wide and just layered the biscuits through the middle.  Then, when I took it out of the pan I trimmed it up and it looked great.  BUT don’t take it out of the pan until you are ready to serve as it may slide a little on the ends.  All in all a huge winner and I got 9/10 – 10/10.  (There were arguments – LOL!!)

So until next week.

From my table to yours with love x

WWW Lasagna

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Ingredients Method Notes

Ingredients

  

• 1/2 c olive oil
• 1 large onion cut into 1/2cm cubes
• 5 cloves garlic roughly chopped
• 500 g mixed vegetable i.e. broccoli, mushrooms, eggplant, carrots cut into 1/2cm cubes
• 500 g beef, pork or chicken mince
• 3/4 c red wine
• 700 g tomato passata
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp dried oregano
• 2 tbsp tomato sauce
• s & p to taste

Method

 

1. Heat a large, heavy-based saucepan or casserole over low-medium heat, add the ½ cup of oil, onion and garlic and fry for about 10 mins until fragrant. Add the vegetables and fry for a further 8 minutes, stirring regularly until softened and lightly browned. Add the mince and fry for 3 mins until it begins to brown, then add the wine, passata, salt, oregano, tomato sauce and 1 cup of water, stirring to scrape up any fond from the base of the pot. Cover, reduce to low heat and simmer for 1 hour, stirring once or twice.
2. Cool the cooked mince. Layer the mince in a suitable lasagna pan with fresh lasagna sheets and the Tuscan Béchamel sauce ending with sauce and sprinkle with extra cheese.
3. Bake for one hour until cooked through, brown and crispy on the top.

Notes

Source: By Wendy and created from two other recipes

Tuscan Béchamel Sauce for the WWW Lasagna

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Ingredients Method Notes

Ingredients

  

• 3 tbsp Unsalted butter
• 5 cloves garlic minced
• 2 medium shallots diced
• 2 c baby spinach
• 1 1/2 tbsp sun-dried tomatoes chopped
• 3/4 c tomatoes diced
• 2 c heavy cream
• 1 tbsp plain flour
• 1 1/2 tsp kosher salt
• 1 tsp pepper
• 3/4 c grated parmesan cheese
• 1 tbsp lemon juice

Method

 

1. Melt butter in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Add the garlic and shallots and cook until softened and the onions are beginning to caramelise and become very fragrant, about 5 minutes
2. Stir in the spinach, sun-dried tomatoes and diced tomatoes and cook until the spinach is wilted, about 3 minutes.
3. Add the heavy cream and flour and stir to incorporate.
4. Add the salt and pepper and bring to a boil.
5. Stir in the Parmesan cheese and simmer on low until the sauce thickens slightly. 5-7 minutes.
6. Remove from heat and stir in lemon juice
7. Cool slightly before constructing lasagna.

Notes

Source: Delicious Magazine - July 2020

Lemon Curd Tiramisu

Begin this a day ahead. You will need a 2.7L 24cm x 10cm x 11cm terrine mould. Alternatively use a 3L serving dish of your choice and serve directly from the bowl.

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Ingredients Method

Ingredients

  

• 525 ml thick cream
• 1 titanium-strength gelatine leat softened in cold water for 5 mins
• 4 egg yolks
• 1 c caster sugar
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 500 g good-quality mascarpone at room temperature
• 1 c store-bought lemon curd
• 32 savoiardi biscuits
• 1 c limoncello
• pure icing sugar to dust

Method

 

1. Place ½ cup (125ml) cream in a small saucepan and bring to just below the boil. Remove from the heat. Squeeze excess water from gelatine and stir into hot cream until dissolved. Set aside and cool to room temperature.
2. Place yolks and sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer with the whisk attachment and whisk for 5 minutes on high speed until thick and pale and sugar has partially dissolved. Whisk in remaining 400ml cream and vanilla until stiff peaks form (about 5 mins) and sugar has completely dissolved. reduce speed to low and whisk in mascarpone and lemon curd until combined and thick. Whisk in cooled cream and gelatine mix. Set aside.
3. Cut a piece of cardboard to fit inside a 2.7L 24cm x 10cm x 11cm terrine mould. Wrap the cardboard in aluminium foil (this provides a stable base to help remove tiramisu once set. Grease the mould and line base and long sides with a double layer of baking paper with 5cm overhang. (Grease in between layers to stick them together).
4. Place the aluminium-covered cardboard over the baking paper in the base of the pan. Measure savoiardi against the mould, trimming to fit if necessary.
5. Place limoncello in a wide bowl. Dip both sides of 8 savoiardi biscuits in limoncello and place in mould, then dip another 8 and lay on top to create a 2-layer biscuit base. Top with half of the cream mixture. Continue layering with 8 dipped biscuits and remaining cream mixture. Dip remaining 8 biscuits in limoncello, arrange on top. Chill overnight or until set. Using overhanging baking paper, lift tiramisu from mould and transfer to a serving plate.
6. Dust with icing sugar to serve.