Healthy Lasagne

In this lasagne, I used brown pasta sheets, and then layers of spinach and cheese and meat to make a lighter and healthier style dish.

1kg mince (or mince your own from steak)

3 onions, chopped

2 cloves garlic

olive oil

4 sticks celery, chopped

3 peppers (red and green), chopped

200g mushrooms, chopped

1 Knorr beef stock gel packet (or 3 oxo cubes)

3 jars tomato sauce (I like Dress Italian slow cooked)

250ml red wine

Salt and pepper

2 tubs Quark non-fat soft cheese

400g natural low-fat cottage cheese

1 bag (200g) baby spinach

1/2 whole nutmeg grated

Brown lasagne sheets

2 fresh mozzarella balls

Preheat oven at 180 degrees.


Grease a lasagne dish, mine is pottery and 12 inches by 24 inches and 3 inches deep so fairly big, if you have a smaller one make 2 lasagnes or half the recipe.


Fry the onions and garlic in a deep frying pan until soft, add the mince and cook until brown.


Add the peppers, celery and mushrooms and cook off.


Melt down the beef stock and then add the tomato sauces and wine and simmer for 20 minutes, finishing off with salt and pepper.


Whilst the meat is simmering, put the Quark, cottage cheese and spinach into a large bowl or electric mixer and mix together until combined.  Add the nutmeg and salt and pepper to taste.


Take the lasagne dish, put a layer of brown pasta along the bottom and cover with a thick layer of meat (about 1/2), then cover with lasagne sheets.  Next put a layer of spinach and cheese (again about 1/2), then cover with lasagne sheets again.  Another layer of meat is next, then sheets, then finally the rest of the spinach and cheese mix.  Then tear down to mozzarella into thin pieces and lay across the top of the lasagne.


Cook for 30-40 mins until bubbling and golden brown on top,

Ravioli fillings

This is an extension on the Spicy Squash Tortelloni I made last year. I bought a ravioli press from Lakeland Limited which helped immensely and then the second time I tried these I had bought the pasta machine attachment for my Kenwood chef which made making the pasta sheets a lot quicker and easier.

First you need to make pasta dough, the second time I made the ravioli, as I was making four different fillings, I added different flavours to the pasta dough to change the colour, add a tablespoon of pesto to make green, a tablespoon of sun dried tomato paste to make it red, tablespoon of olive tapenade to make it black. Once the dough is kneaded and ready leave it in the fridge whilst you make the fillings:

Spicy Squash and Ricotta - I used the spicy squash recipe from above but added 2 tsp cumin seeds to the mix as well and added some courgette to the squash I had peeled. Then I mashed it all up and added a tub of ricotta to it and put it in the fridge.

Goats chesse and sundried tomato - 2 logs of soft goats cheese, 10 pieces of sundried tomato - put into a food processor and mix together adding salt and pepper to taste, put in fridge to cool.

Boursin mushroom - chop one onion finely and one 500g portion of mushrooms (preferably chop in the food processor to get very fine) mix with a 200g French Roule to make a creamy garlic mushroom mix, put in fridge to cool.

Mozerella, courgette and onion - fry onions and courgettes in a pan (probably 3-4 courgettes and 1-2 medium onions) and then chop 2 balls mozerella finely and mix in as well, leave to cool.

Pulled Beef - the day before or in the morning put a joint of beef (a cheap one will do) into a slow cooker or a very low oven with a bottle of red wine, a couple of sticks of celery and an onion chopped into two and leave to stew for 6-8hrs. Once it is cooked remove from the juice but do not discard. Place the beef on a chopping board and pull apart into strings of meat, once it is all pulled apart add it to a pan with some of the cooking juice and reduce down. Add a jar of tomato pasta sauce and again reduce down. Leave to cool.

Take the pasta and roll into sheets, do not take it to the thinnest sheet level, but one just before to leave it a little thicker and more elastic. Each portion of pasta dough made as per the recipe above can be cut into 4 and will make 4 sheets which each make one portion of 12 ravioli so 48 pieces of each.

Once you have the sheet made, flour both sides and flour the press. Place the sheet over the press and gently push the white piece into the pasta to form the cups for the fillings. Add just under a teaspoon of whichever mix into the cups. Take an egg wash (egg mixed with milk) and paste the remaining pasta sheet with it so when you lay it over the top of the pasta with filling and roll over the top of the press it forms a good seal. Tip the pieces out of the press and cut further with a knife if needed. Place the pieces of ravioli on a floured plate and allow to dry for an hour.

To cook place in boiling water for around 6-8 minutes and serve with a flavoured butter.

Beef Tagine

This was a Jamie Oliver recipe I used, I substituted the prunes for dried apricots, used rump steak (it was on offer at Asda!) and add the same amount of sweet potato as squash to bulk it out a bit.

Bresola salad

• 1 packet Bresola (or can use thin roast been if you're not keen on air dried meats)
• Rocket, watercress and spinach salad (or other peppery leaves)
• Blue Cheese (use according to your taste, Docelatte works, but so will Danish Blue or Stilton)
• 1 packet Baby new potatoes
• 250ml reduced fat creme fraiche
• 125ml reduced fat double cream (elmlea)
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice
• 1-2 tablespoons horseradish sauce (according to your taste and how hot you want it)
• Bunch of chives, chopped into 1/2 cm pieces

In a bowl, mix together the creme fraiche, cream, lemon juice, horseradish and chives. Cover with clingfilm and put in fridge to allow flavours to develop.

Put the potatoes on to cook, strain, allow to cool and chop in halves.

Add the horseradish cream sauce a spoonful at a time into the potatoes until they are well coated.

To plate up put a layer of lettuce on the plate, top with the beef, a couple of slices per person. Then add a spoon on the potato salad and spinkle with blue cheese.

Provencale Beef Daube

Delicious magazine recipe

Serves 4

• 1 large celery stick
• 2 bay leaves
• 7 sprigs fresh thyme and parsley plus handful fresh parsley leaves for persillade
• 1kg lean braising steak (or venison)
• 4 tablespoon olive oil
• 225g thick cut rindless streaky bacon cut into strips
• 3 onions, halved and thinly sliced
• 6 fat garlic cloves, thinly sliced, plus 1 fat clove, sliced for persillade
• 600ml red wine
• 200ml beef stock
• 350g carrots cut into chunks
• 400g can chopped tomatoes
• 2 salted anchovies rinsed (optional!!)
• 3 large strips pared orange zest
• 20g softened butter
• 20g plain flour
• 100g small black olives (optional!!)

Make a bouquet garni by cutting celery in half and sandwiching the bay and herb springs in between. Tie everything into a tight bundle with some string.

Cut the steak into large chunky pieces. Heat 3 tablespoons of olive oil in a large casserole over a high heat. Brown the beef in batches until well coloured all over. Season. Add the bacon to the pan and fry until golden brown. Set aside with the beef. Add the reminaing oil and the onions to the casserole and fry for the 10-12 minutes until richly browned. Add the garlic and fry for 1-2 minutes more. Add the wine and simmer vigorously, scraping the base of the casserole to release the caramelised juices, until the liquid has been reduced by half.

Preheat oven to 150 degrees (130 if fan and gas 2).

Stir in stock, then return beef and bacon to casserole with carrots, tomatoes, anchoives, orange zest, bouquet garni, season. Cover with foil and tight fitting lid and cook in ove for 2 hours or until meltingly tender (I found cooking for 2 hrs, drinking some passionfruit martini's and forgetting it for another 2 hours worked wonders!).

Shortly before it is ready make the persillade garnish by chopping together the parsley and garlic. Mash the butter and flour together to make a thickening paste (beurre manie).

Remove daube from oven, uncover and skim off any excess oil. Discard the bouquet garni and orange and bring to gentle simmer on the stove. Whisk in beurre maine paste (if needed) a little at time until thickened. Stir in olives. Simmer for 5 minutes, then sprinkle with the persillade garnish. Serve with honey roasted carrots and parsnips and new potatoes.

Charlie's Lasagne

• 1kg mince (or mince your own from steak)
• 3 onions, chopped
• 2 cloves garlic
• olive oil
• 4 sticks celery, chopped
• 3 peppers (red and green), chopped
• 200g mushrooms, chopped
• 1 Knorr beef stock gel packet (or 3 oxo cubes)
• 3 jars tomato sauce (I like Dress Italian slow cooked)
• 250ml red wine
• Salt and pepper
• Chopped basil and cutting celery
• Dried lasagne sheets or fresh made lasagne
• Jar of lasagne white sauce (I know, I cheat)

Fry the onions and garlic in a deep frying pan until soft, add the mince and cook until brown.

Add the peppers, celery and mushrooms and cook off.

Melt down the beef stock and then add the tomato sauces and wine and simmer for 10 minutes, finishing off with salt and pepper, basil and cutting celery.

If making own lasagne, roll pasta through machine to make sheets and then boil in water for 2 minutes to make them more workable. Take sheet out of boiling water and place in cold water until needed.

Once ready to make up lasagne, get a deep casserole dish, take out a lasagne sheet and allow the water to drain off and then lay in bottom of dish, cut to fit and place a sheet alongside until the whole of the bottom of the dish is covered. Then cover in the meat mixture, smooth out and drizzle about 1/4 of jar of white sauce over meat. Lay lasagne sheets across the meat layer again cutting to fit and making sure all meat is covered. Cover again in meat mixture and drizzle 1/4 sauce again. Carry on with this layering until the last layer of pasta is 1cm from top of dish. Then cover lasagne layer with rest of sauce, chop up mozzeralla and sprinkle on top. Cook in oven at 200 degrees for 30 minutes.

Jamie's Meatballs

My favourite all time Jamie recipe from his Naked Chef book

Serves 4-6

900g/2lb mince (If its for a special occassion then I buy good beef or steak and mince it myself)

2 slices bread (blitz to make breadcrumbs)

1 onion, finely chopped

1 clove garlic

1 tblsp olive oil

1 tblsp dijon/wholegrain mustard

2 tblsp dried oregano

1/2 teaspoon cumin seeds

1/2 teaspoon coriander seeds

1/2 teaspoon mustard seeds

1/2 small dried chilli or a little chopped fresh chilli

1 tblsp chopped fresh rosemary

1 egg yolk

salt and pepper

4 tblsp olive oil

2-3 jars Tomato sauce (I buy the new Dress Italian slow cook jars cos I'm too lazy to make my own!)

250ml red wine

2 handfuls fresh basil leaves, torn

Mozzarella ball

Fresh Parmesan (grated)

Add olive oil to frying pan and saute the onion and garlic, once soft add the mustard and leave to cool.

Put the minced meat and breadcrumbs in a large bowl.

Put the cumin seeds, mustard seeds and coriander seeds in a dry frying pan and lightly toast for 2-3 minutes until you can smell the spices. Place the toasted seeds in a pestle and mortar or a flavour shaker and pound until powder like.

Add these spices to the meat along with the dried oregano, chilli, rosemary and the egg yolk. Add some salt and pepper and finally add the cooled onions.

Wash your hands then stick them into the bowl and mix all the ingredients together. Then with wet hands roll the mixture into meatballs of any size you like. I prefer smaller ones, but thats my choice ;)

Preheat a frying pan or a griddle with some oil in and lightly fry off the meatballs to brown the outside and keep them together. Keep turning them to make sure they brown all over.

Put the meatballs in a casserole dish.

In a pan put your tomato sauces and the red wine, mix together then pour over the meatballs. Then tear up basil and mozzarella and sprinkle over the top.

Cook in oven at 200 degrees for about 25-30mins until golden brown.

Serve with your choice of pasta.

Shepherd's or Cottage Pie

• 2 onions (diced)
• 850g mince
• 150g carrots (diced)
• 250g mushrooms (diced)
• 3-4 sticks celery (diced)
• Cutting celery (or can use parsley, thyme or sage)
• Celery salt
• Black pepper
• 350ml stock
• 150ml red wine
• Gravy granules
• 3.5lb potatoes
• Butter

Peel, chop and put potatoes on to boil.

In a large shallow pan, put some oil and add onions and fry until softened.

Add mince, stir and bash so in small pieces and no clumps.

Once mince browned, add carrots, mushrooms and celery and saute on low until all cooked.

Add herbs and salt and pepper to season.

Add stock and red wine and leave to simmer so juices reduce.

Whilst simmering, if potatoes are cooked, drain and mash with butter, salt and pepper until smooth.

Add gravy granules to mince mix to thicken. Put in large dish (like the kind you would use for lasagne or a roasting dish), spoon mash potatoes on top and smooth out with fork, brush melted butter over the top. To finish off, place in oven around 180 degrees for 30-40mins until top goes golden brown

Beef in Red Wine

This is one of those recipes I can't give exact amounts for the ingredients, I just know what I put in ;) Have to thank my mum for this one :)

• Suitable casserole dish, like round cast-iron, with lid
• Brasing steak (enough to fill 1/4, for a six person casserole I use around 0.8kg, if it is for a dinner party, I would use better steak)
• Chopped Carrots (enough to fill 1/4, again for a six person casserole I would use around 6, cut however you choose, chunky is usually good)
• Chopped onions (enough to fill 1/4, for six people I use around 2 large again cut chunky), or have used chopped fennel as well
• Chopped mushrooms (enough to fill 1/4, for six people I used around 2/3 of a large punnet)
• 1 bottle red wine (for 6 people)
• 1.5l beef stock
• Salt & Pepper

Chop up all the ingredients, making them chunky. Add to casserole and mixed so they are evenly distributed throughout. Season with salt and pepper, then pour in red wine to around the 1/3 - 1/2 way point, then top up with the beef stock. Place in oven at 160oCand cook for as long as possible, usually 3 hours is good. Stir occassionally and when ready to serve, if juices are thin, use gravy granules to thicken up. Serve with either new potatoes and veg, or with rice.