Recipe – Page 2 – Ainsworth Family Cookbook

Mariaâ€™s roasted tomato sauce

This recipe makes a big batch of roasted tomato sauce and you’ll need to buy a box of vine tomatoes. You will also need containers to portion it into and a freezer to keep them in. You could make less of it from scratch when you need it, but that misses the point. Its about convnience; having it in the freezer means you make tasty pasts dishes in the time it takes the pasta to cook. The sauce can then be used as base for all sorts of pasta dishes. See for example Daddy Pasta Surprise.

Use vine tomatoes to get the best flavour. This is best made when they are in season: big, ripe and cheap.

Equipment

Roasting Tin(s)
Food processor or blender

Ingredients

Garlic cloves, sliced. You will need 1 slice for each tomato
Olive Oil
A box of vine tomatoes (the one in the picture has two layers, so about 48 tomatoes)

Method

Pre-heat the oven to 180Â°C.
Wash the tomatoes and dry.
Cut the tomatoes in half and arrange them cut side up in a roasting tin, in a single layer.
Peel the garlic cloves and cut into slices.
Insert one slice of garlic into the flesh of each tomato.
Drizzle the the tomatoes wth olive oil and grind over black pepper.
Put the tomatoes into the oven and roast for 30 minutes.
Remove the tomatoes and trasfer contents of the roating tin into the food processor.
Blend the tomatoes until smooth. Leave to cool.
Divide into containers and freeze.

Method with Pictures

Pre-heat the oven to 180Â°C.
Wash the tomatoes and dry.
Cut the tomatoes in half and arrange them cut side up in a roasting tin, in a single layer.
Peel the garlic cloves and cut into slices.
Insert one slice of garlic into the flesh of each tomato.
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Drizzle the the tomatoes wth olive oil and grind over black pepper.
Put the tomatoes into the oven and roast for 30 minutes.
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Remove the tomatoes and trasfer contents of the roating tin into the food processor.
Blend the tomatoes until smooth. Leave to cool.
Divide into containers and freeze.

Dad makes best, Recipe

Daddy Pasta Surprise

The surprise is you’ll need to have made Maria’s roasted tomato sauce beforehand.

Ingredients

Medium onion

Cubes of pancetta

Olive oil

Mummy’s roasted tomato sauce

Pitted black olives

Italian salami – such as Napoli or Milano

Mozarella cheese

Equipment

A heavy bottomed pan

A pan for cooking pasta

Method

1. Heat the oil in the pan and when hot add the pancetta and onion, fry until the onion is a deep brown and reduced in size.

2. Add the tomato sauce to the pan and stir, bringing to a boil, then reduce the heat and allow to simmer.

3. Quarter the salami slices, rinse the olives and then add to the pan, return to a simmer.

4. Meanwhile cook the pasta according to the instructions on the packet.

5. Drain the pasta and mix with the sauce.

6. Add the mozarell and stir well then place a lid on the pan and allow to stand for 5 minutes so the cheese begins to melt.

7. Serve immediately.

Recipe

Grandadâ€™s roast potatoes

You need to use walnut oil for these. If you are not using walnut oil then you are not making Grandad’s roastÂ potatoes.

Ingredients

Floury potatoes

Walnut oil

Salt

Equipment

A pan

A roasting tin

An oven at 220Â°C

Peel the potates and rinse.

2. Cut the potatoes up into smallish pieces. As a guide, no bigger than a 25mm cube.

3. Bring a pan of salted water to the boil and add the potates. Parboil for 10 minutes.

4. Drain the potatoes and allowed to steam. Shake the potatoes in the pan to rough them up if you like.

5. Transfer to the roasting tin and drizzle with walnut oil. There should be enough walnut toÂ cover the bottom of the tray with a thin layer.

6. Transfer to the oven until they are the colour you want, then serve.

Dad makes best, Recipe

Pasta with sausage sauce and spinach

You can use any kind of sausage for this (e.g. plain pork) but it is traditionally made with Italian Lucanica Sausage which is why it is also known as Lucanica Sausage Pasta (LSP). To find Lucanica sausage you will probably need to visit a specialist Italian food shop. (Or just a normal food shop if you happen to be in Italy.)

Ingredients

A medium size onion

Olive oil

A packet of Lucanica sausage (or six normal pork sausages)

1/2 tsp ground cloves

Sprig of rosemary, finely chopped

Glass of white wine

150 ml Chicken stock

Spinach

Parsley, finely chopped

Parmesan cheese, grated

Casarecce pasta

Equipment

AÂ heavy bottom pan with a fitting lid for making the sausage sauce

A large pan for making the pasta

Chop the onion finely while heating olive oil in the heavy bottom pan.

2. Fry the onions until brown and startign to caramelise

3. While the onion is cooking take the skin of the sausage and mash the meat with a fork

4. Add the sausgae to the onions, season and cook through

5. Add the ground cloves and chopped rosemary to the sausage and stir well, coooking for a couple of minutes

6. Add the white wine and let it sizzle, followed by the chicken stock and cook until simmering

7. Then put it onto the lowest possible heat and cover. Then boil water for the pasta.

8. Cook the pasta according to the instructions on the packet

9. Add the spianch to the sausage sauce and stir until it has wilted, replace the lid on the pan

10. When the pasta is cooked add the parsley and half of the parmesan cheese to the sausgae sauce and stir well.

11. Drain the pasta thoroughly, then mix the sausgae sauce into the pasta.

12 Serve, adding parmesan cheese to taste.

Dad makes best, Recipe

CBWCG + variations

CBWCG = Chicken baked with chilli and ginger

The source of this recipe was Madhur Jaffery’s “Chicken Breasts Baked with Green Chillis and Onions” from her seminal work “Quick and easy Indian cookery”. It’s a great book – buy a copy!

Over the years we have refined the recipe a little by improving the spicing, adjusting the quantities and adding spinach. More importantly we have refined the cooking method. This is a difficult dish to get right, and the way in which it is cooked, greatly influences the end result. However once learnt, never forgotten – its worth taking the time to get it right. The cooking method is described in much greater detail than Madhur ever had space for in her book.

We have experimented with numerousÂ variations – fish, beef steak, chicken thighs, lamb, pork, even burgers. The pictures below show it being made with chicken thighs and sea bass fillets. The receipe refers to makingÂ it with chicken breasts.

Ingredients

For the sauce:

2 tbsp of tomato puree

1 tbsp of water

1 tbsp of smooth dijon mustard

1 tbsp of ground cumin

1 tbsp of garam massala

juice of half a lemon

1/4 tsp of salt

1/2 tsp of chilli powder

280 ml of water

140 ml of double cream

Main ingredients:

2 large onions

4cm piece of ginger

3 green chillis

Handful of baby spinach

Two chicken breasts

3 tbsp groundnut oil

1 stick of cinamon bark

15 cloves

15 whole green cardamons

1 tsp mustard seeds

1 clove of garlic

1 tbsp of groundnut oil

Equipment

Heavy-bottomed pan

Baking dish

Measuring jug

Preparation

Sauce:

1. Add theÂ tomato puree to the measuring jug with the water then mix

2. Add the mustard then mix

3. Add the cumin and garam massala then mix

4. Add the lemon juice then mix

5. Add the salt and chilli powder then mix

6. Add the water then mix

7. Add the cream then mix. Put aside for later.

Main ingredients:

1. Half the onions and slice very thinly

2. Slice the chillis very finely

3. Julienne the ginger very finely

4. Season the chicken breasts with salt and pepper on both sides

Method

Pre-heat the oven to 180Â°C.

1. Heat 3 tbsp of oil in the pan on the highest heat, when hot add the cinamon stick, cardamons, and cloves, and fry for a couple of minutes.

2. Add the chicken and brown on both sides.

3. Remove the chicken from the pan and place in the baking dish.

4. Add the onions, chilli and ginger to the pan and stir well. Initially the onions will steam, stir occaisionally as they start to reduce in size.

5. While the onions cook (stir occaisionally to make sure they are not sticking) wilt the spinach (50 second in a microwave oven is enough), and top the chicken breasts with it.

6. The onions will eventually stop steaming and start to fry. When the start to fry turn the heat down to medium and continue to stir. You will need to almost stir continually now to stop them sticking and burning onto the pan. They are ready when they have reduced right down and are a deep brown colour, but not burnt!

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7. Spread the onions on top of the chicken and spianch.

8. Heat 1 tbsp of oil in the pan and when hot add the mustard seeds and cook until they start to pop. Add the crushed garlic clove and fry until golden.

9. Add the sauce to the pan and scrap the pan with your spatuala as you stri the sauce, until the sauce is simmering.

10. Cover the chicken with the suace and bake in the oven for 25 minutes. (Now is the time to make some rice.)

11. Remove from the oven and serve immediately, garnish with corrainder.

Variations

The original and best variation uses chicken breasts.

We have also tried:

Chicken thighs (off the bone) – very good

Pork loin fillet – good

Lam neck fillet – can be tough

Duck breast – can be too rich

Cod, hake, haddock – good if you like fish

Sea bass fillets – very good, best if shallowed fried first on the skin side until crisp

Rib eye steak – can be too rich

Burgers – never tried it again!

Beef short rib – good but very rich due to the fat

Mum makes best, Recipe

Salami Pasta

Invented by Maria, an all time family favourite. Better known as “SP”.

Ingredients

1 medium onion

Cubed pancetta

1 green chilli (optional)

1 clove of garlic

150g of salami such as Napoli or Milano

2 tins of peeled plum tomatoes

Handful of whole black olives, more or less according to taste

Parsley, finely chopped

Conchiglle (shells) Pasta

Mozarella cheese

Equipment

A heavy bottom pan for making the sauce

A pan for cooking pasta

An oven proof dish for baking the SP in

An oven at 220Â°C

1. Finely dice the onion, finely chop the chilli.

2. Heat olive oil in the pan and when hot add the onion, chilli, pancttea and crush the garlic into the pan.

3. Cook until the onions are well caramelised and reduced in size.

4. Chop the tomatoes very finely and add to the pan and mix well, bringing to the boil

5. Quarter the salami and add to the pan with the black olives, stir well and bring back to the boil, then turn down the heat and simmer. If you have time simmer for 20 minutes on a very low heat.

6 Meanwhile cook the pasta according to the instructions on the packet, then drain well.

7. Finely chop the parsley and stir into the sauce, then slice the mozerella as thinly as possible

8. Mix the pasta and the sauce together well and place in the over-proof dish

9. Top with the mozerella so it completely covers the pasta.

10. Back in the oven until the mozallera is golden, crispy and bubbling.

11. Serve immediately

Recipe, Salad

Simple Salad

This is a very simple salad I invented for myself, hence the name. Its great with pasta dishes and is all you need with steak. (See also Georgina Salad.)

Ingredients

2 Vine Tomatoes

1/4 Onion

Salt – ideally Maldon sea salt

Olive oil

White balsamic vinegar

Method

You will need four times the amount of tomatoes to onion by volume.

Dice the tomatoes and the onion.
Mix together the tomatoes and onion in a bowl.
Add 1/2 tsp of salt.
Add 1-2 tbs of olive oil.
Add 1 tsp of white balsamic vinegar.
Mix together so the onion and tomatoes are coated in the oil and vinegar.

You can adjust the amounts of salt, oil and balsamic vinegar to suit your taste.

Recipe, Salad

Georgina Salad

This is a very simple salad I invented for Georgina, hence the name. The original recipe didn’t include the white balsamic vinegar, but its addition does enhance the flavour. (See also Daddy Salad.)

Ingredients

Cucumber

Cherry tomatoes

Salt – ideally Maldon sea salt

Olive oil

White balsamic vinegar

Method

You will need the same amount by volume of tomatoes and cucumber.