Big Balls

I made my version of Jamie Oliver's Mountain Meatballs on Sunday. I've made it a gazillion times and I'll make it a gazillion times more because it's simply OMG. 

In culinary terms it's classic meatballs in tomato sauce turned on its head and inside out. The cheese is not on top, instead it's hiding inside the meatball so it can ooze out and surprise you. And inside the tomato sauce is coffee (yes, you heard me) and chilli. In the often mundane world of cooking, Mr Oliver, I tip my hat to you...

But the reason I love this recipe is not because of culinary genius. It's because of what it represents - Big Balls. Jamie tells how the original version has cowboys deepfrying calves' testicles up in the mountains. Now, don't get me wrong. I wouldn't eat a calf ball if it were lying in Ryan Reynolds' lap...uh...OK I would. (But remember, it's important to chew slowly...) 

However, even if you're having the mince version, the symbolism of eating balls is so savage, so barbarian, that it can give you balls too. Big ones. Ones that open you up to a strut, a mind-set, an attitude - that can be applied to all manner of situations: 

You wanna hurt my feelings / cut my fringe too short / phone me before 8 / blame me because your PC is freezing / push in front of me on the M5?

I had BALLS for supper BITCH - you SURE about that?!!

Oh yeah. Big Balls. I'll definitely be making them a gazillion times more...

xx

J

MOUNTAIN MEATBALLS

 Balls

1.5 Red Onions diced
1.2kg Mince
1T Dijon
1t Dried oreganum 
1 Pinch cumin seeds bashed / 1/4t ground
1t Coriander seeds bashed / 1/4t ground
1c Breadcrumbs
2 Eggs
100g Cheddar grated

Fry onions slowly for about 10 minutes then allow to cool. Mix together with everything but the cheese and spice well. Divide into 20 balls. Take a ball, make a hole with your thumb and shove in a good pinch of cheese. Cover up, pack, pat and roll back into a ball. Place in a large oiled dish then put in the oven at 230C for 25 minutes. 
 
Sauce

1/2 Red onion
1 Red/yellow pepper roughly chopped
5 Cloves garlic sliced
1 Red chilli chopped
1/4t Smoked paprika
3T Worcestershire sauce
3T Tomato sauce
3T Cider vinegar
3T Dark brown sugar
1T Dijon
200ml Strong coffee
2 Tins tomatoes

Fry onion, pepper, garlic, chilli and paprika slowly for about 15 minutes. Add everything else, bring to the boil, then turn down and simmer for about 25 minutes until thickened. Add meatballs and simmer very gently for another 5 minutes. Serve on mash on spaghetti.

Porky

I remember this one time when I felt thin. It falls into the same category as I remember this one time when I had appendicitis. Thin has always been a condition, never a state of being. Yet looking back at photos when I was young, I was pretty normal looking. But I felt fat and I thought I was fat my entire life. So did my mother. In fact, she has often told me her nickname used to be the Afrikaans version of Porky. But in all the pictures I've seen of her as a girl and a young woman she's gorgeous. As my mother she was almost unseemly hot, but she still felt fat. As a grandmother now she's lovely, but she still thinks she's fat. My beautiful mother - why couldn't I inherit her looks instead of her issues. 

Of course NOW I deserve to feel fat and to be called Porky. But it didn't happen until an asshole imploded my life and jumpstarted me towards becoming a self-fulfilling prophecy. I wasted years thinking I was fat when I wasn't. So I'm trying to get those years back. You should see the stirfries I eat during the week - it'll make a coocoocook poopoopuke. I drink litres of water with the same enthusiasm children drink castor oil. I dread the damn treadmill but I get on it because suffering is my middle name.

But that's OK. I can take the pain Monday to Thursday because Friday is MINE. On Fridays I make up for every beansprout, ever glass of water and every reluctant tread - and I make up for it Big Time. Last night I celebrated Friday with tongue in cheek - Pork Belly stuffed with Pear and Sage on Mash Potatoes. It could literally make a porky cry.

Do me a favour though - commit to the calories. Don't cut off the fat. And don't, I beg you, EVER make mash with fat free milk and low fat marge. That's like Robbie Williams saying he wants me - and me telling him I don't go past second base. If you're gonna sin you may as well go all the way.

Besides, sometimes you just gotta let yourself go. Even porkies deserve a break, no?

xx
J

PORK BELLY STUFFED WITH PEAR AND SAGE

1.2kg Deboned Pork Belly
1 Lemon
1 Onion chopped 
1 Tin Pears (you can also use apple)
1/3c Milk
2T Sage ripped (you can also use basil or rosemary)
1c Breadcrumbs

Fry the onion in 1T butter and 1T olive oil until soft. Add pears (not juice), sage and breadcrumbs and fry for a few minutes. Add the milk and season well.

If your pork belly was tied up like mine untie it and give it a rinse. Score the fat and rub generously with salt and half the lemon. Turn upside down and cover the middle with the filling. Cut up about 8 pieces of string, 30cm long, then spread about 2cm apart on a breadboard. Put the pork on top and fold and tie and tuck until the whole belly is a study in S&M. Place in a baking dish and squeeze out the rest of the lemon juice onto the fat. Roast at 220C for 20 minutes, turn down to 180C and roast for another 45 minutes. Keep an eye out so the fat doesn't burn. 

I've covered mash before. Lots of potatoes. Little milk. Lots of butter. Salt & white (not black) pepper. And a little baking powder (absolutely essential). 

Eat without a trace of guilt. 

Family Raitas

All families, over time, develop rites that are practiced without thought or consideration. It's what makes each family unique, what binds them, what makes them a unit. It could be the ritual Sunday dinner, a phone call after Top Billing every Tuesday, a standing joke about the black sheep in the family, or the same fight about the same thing every time you have a braai. Rites, good or bad, make families what they are. Such was the case on Saturday when my brother, his wife and my 2.5 year old niece came for lunch. To protect their identities I will call them Perfect, Perky and Precious. 

Let's start with Perfect. Our family rite consists of me trying to impress him, him looking constipated at my efforts, criticising something arbitrary, like a dirty broom, then leaving - genuinely confused that I didn't have the time of my life. I have one sibling and he's done everything right. His sibling, on the other hand, has everyone perplexed by her inability to get anything right. Especially him. He cleans his car dashboard with cellotape to get off every speckle of dust. I have a Woolworths chicken barbecue wrapper behind my passenger seat that expired last year. He's positive and pragmatic. I'm maudlin and moany. (He suggested I try to be happy. Oh wow, it never occurred to me to try, thanks bro!) He's also good looking, unbelievably funny, smart, successful and oh, what IS that word, oh yeah, perfect. 

Next we have Perky. She arrived in the family on my 21st - thin, cute, petite, big hair, huge eyes, loads of teeth, perky as hell. What's not to hate? It took me years to stop comparing myself to her and to just love her. Since she's consistently happy and chirpy and pretty and laughs at all my jokes, this was not all that hard. Therefore, since I've let my insecurities go, our family rite consists of me changing my clothes 14 times before she arrives, feeling fatter and uglier in every single outfit, until I give up and put on whatever's closest and end up meeting her at the door feeling like a dodo bird inviting a hummingbird inside.

Lastly comes Precious, the long awaited miracle, who is the perfect mix of her parents. Our family rite is simple: For the first hour she'll be my brother and scowl at me no matter how hard I try. For the next hour she'll be my sister-in-law and bounce all over the house, laughing at my every word and expression.

It's no wonder when they leave, after performing the final family rite of waving in the street until the car disappears from view, that I stand in the middle of my kitchen with my dirty broom, amazed at the quiet, feeling a little bit like a tornado just came and went, but above all, deeply deeply grateful for my perfect, perky, precious family. 

xx
J

POPPADOMS WITH MANGO CHUTNEY AND CUCUMBER RAITA

MANGO CHUTNEY

1 Lemon - rind only

2 Tin mangoes (or 2 fresh)

1t Cumin seeds toasted

1 Green chilli seeded and chopped
1T Coriander chopped
1T Mint chopped

1/2c Yoghurt

Mix all of the ingredients together, season, give it a few whacks with a blender, not too many, it has to be chunky.

CUCUMBER RAITA 

250g Yoghurt

1 Cucumber grated

1 Garlic crushed

1T Lime juice

1t Ground cumin

1/4t Cayenne

2T Coriander chopped

Press as much of the water out of the grated cucumber as you can. Mix with the rest of the ingredients, season and done.

ROGHAN JOSH WITH NAAN BREAD

750g Lamb cubed
1.5T Dried chilli (or to taste)
8 Cloves garlic crushed
1T Ginger grated
2T Desiccated coconut toasted
2T Blanched almonds
1T Ground coriander
1t Ground cumin
1t Poppy seeds
1/2t Ground fennel
1/2t Ground cardamom
1/4t Ground cloves
1/4t Ground mace
1/2 Ground black pepper
1 Onion chopped
4 Cardamom pods - seeds only
1/2t Ground turmeric
2c Yoghurt
2 Tin tomatoes
1t Garam masala
2T Fresh coriander

Soak the chilli in 1/2c hot water for 5 minutes. Blend together the garlic, ginger, coconut, almonds and chillis with water. Dry fry the ground coriander, cumin, poppy seeds and fennel over low heat. Add to the blended ingredients together with the ground cardamom, cloves, mace and pepper. 

Heat 1/4c butter and fry the onion until golden brown. Add the cardamom seeds, turmeric and blended mixture and fry for 5 minutes. Add the yoghurt a spoonful at a time and stir. Add the tomatoes, salt and the lamb and stir well. Turn heat down low, cover and cook for at least an hour until the lamb is very tender. Add the garam masala. Sprinkle with coriander and serve on rice. 

NAAN BREAD 

1 Sachet dried yeast
3/4c Lukewarm water
3t Sugar
1/4c Yoghurt
1 Egg
1/4c Melted butter
2t Salt
3.5c Flour
Poppy seeds

In a warm bowl sprinkle yeast over the water, leave for a couple of minutes to soften then stir. Add 1t of the sugar and allow to froth. (If it doesn't, start again, your yeast is dead). Mix yoghurt with the rest of the sugar and water, egg, butter and salt. Add the yeast mixture. Put 2c flour into a bowl and pour mixture into well in the middle. Mix in the rest of the flour and knead for 10 minutes until smooth and elastic. Form into a ball, put in a warm, greased bowl, cover with a cloth and allow to rest until doubled (I left mine an hour). Punch down and divide into 8 balls. Heat oven to 450F. Pat dough into circles keeping the centre thinner than the rim. Pull one end outwards to form a teardrop. Brush with melted butter, sprinkle with poppy seeds and bake for 8-10 minutes.

NB - 450F is very hot. Do NOT test this by touching the inside of the oven with your finger. Or, like me, you will end up typing with 9 fingers...

MANGO LASSI GRANITA

1 Tin mangoes
500ml Yoghurt
1T Vermouth
2T Castor sugar

Mix everything in a food processor then freeze. Start at least a day beforehand and reprocess the frozen mixture at least 4 times inbetween to break up the majority of the crystals. 

Succubus Spaghetti

Succubus - A female demon who takes the form of a human woman in order to seduce men, usually through sexual intercourse.

You know who you are. You know what you've done. How dare you take from someone I love? What is it with you slags that you can't leave alone what's not yours?

Succubi like you have been slithering around the borders of my life for as long as I can remember. You are the reason H broke up with me. And then when you proceeded to in turn break his traitorous heart I had to listen to him sobbing: "Why was it so easy to get over you but so hard to get over her?" Nice one. (In retrospect H wasn't a great loss; once when I asked him why he was looking so pensive he replied "I'm not pensive I'm just thinking"... need I say more?) 

But there were others, others that mattered, others I needed, others I loved, that you took. And now here you are again. This time I'm ready for you. You should tread carefully on the pavements around Obs. Battered white Toyotas have been known to veer off course unexpectedly. DON'T hurt me or mine. I'm protective of the people I love. 

 

So here we go, just for you: Succubus Spaghetti - sexy, spicy and shamelessly seductive. I was initially loathe to attribute such a wonderful dish to you, but it's actually quite fitting. Pasta, garlic, oil, chilli - what's not to love? Yet you took it and made it yours. Fine. You can have it. I can take it. I'm mature...

I hope you enjoy the pasta, may it make your FAT ass even FATTER.

Whatever-the-opposite-is-of-xx

J 

SPAGHETTI AGLIO E OLIO CON PEPERONCINI 

250g Spaghetti per person

1/2c Olive oil

5 Cloves garlic crushed

2 Red chillis chopped

2T Rosemary/Sage/Thyme

Parmesan

Cook the spaghetti until al dente. Meanwhile heat the oil and gently fry the herbs and spices - you want to infuse, not burn. Mix through with the spaghetti, season with salt & pepper and add grated parmesan to taste.

Watter Blommetjie Bredie

I'm not a nature girl. It's a little too ... what's the word ... outside ... for me. It's just so ... you know ... fresh. But I wasn't always nature averse. In fact, thinking back, a great many of my fantasy lives took place in the wild. 

As a child I plotted running away from home and going to live on the beach. It required plotting because the beach was all the way across the road from our house, almost 10 metres, so I couldn't just, you know, GO. And so at night I lay in bed, picturing myself living like a little blonde sand crab, sleeping in the crook of a rock, covered by fluffy seaweed, building sandcastles and making dresses out of shells. (Suck that Lady Gaga.) Above all I pictured my parents' tears and sorrow, swiftly followed by the forceful eviction of my brother from the house forever and ever, before they came to get me, cradling me in their arms as they carried me the 10 metres back home.

As an adult nature also beckoned me. I wanted me and my then boyfriend to move to the depths of the wild of the ass end of Alaska. With breathless excitement I explained to him how he would chop down trees with which to build our picturesque cabin by the lake. While he was so occupied I would cook the rabbits (which I found in the woods after they died from natural causes) over a fire with the root vegetables I dug from the earth and the leaves I picked from the, uh, spinach trees. For dessert I would pick wild berries and mix it with snow to make him ice cream. We would make love under the bear skin rug that we found after the grizzly bear had shed its coat in summer. It was beautiful! It was glorious! He said no. 

And so, over time, I gave up on my life in nature. Until I ran into waterblommetjies on the weekend. Due to their rarity they've always felt pretty exotic and wild to me. And then one of the recipes I researched for my bredie called for wild sorrel, which almost certainly would require a trek into nature. I suddenly saw myself collecting waterblommetjies off a river, picking sorrel in the field, finding a lamb that had died of natural causes nearby, cooking a bredie over a fire in the woods...

So I revved up my fantasy. Cabin? Check. Lake? Check. Ex-boyfriend covered in bees, lathered in honey and tied to a tree as a snack for a pissed off grizzly looking for his skin? Check.

There was only one problem - pretty much every damn thing growing out there can kill you. (Seriously, I gotta ask - why can't God label his food? I'm just saying, a small little skull and crossbones at the base of the plant would be so helpful...) Living in nature is all good and well but if you don't know your good blommetjie from your bad blommetjie you're screwed. You gotta be able to call a friend.

Bottomline? Gimme nature, but gimme my nokia.

xx
J

WATERBLOMMETJIE BREDIE

NB - Eating sand is only cool in kindergarden. It's essential that waterblommetjies get cleaned well. I let mine lie in a bucket of water with salt for about half an hour, giving it a stir and a shake every now and again. I repeated this 4 times. And then I took batches and gave them a vigorous rub and shake in a final batch of water. It's a pain, but so is a broken tooth.

PS - Kudos to my dad for recommending green apple to take the place of the sorrel, as well as white wine instead of red. For a man who's had his taste buds destroyed by my mom's cabbage bredie, he sure knows his food!

  
1kg Waterblommetjies

3 Onions sliced

2 Small green chillis seeded & chopped

3 Cloves garlic crushed

1/2T Ginger

500g Lamb rib

1kg Lamb shoulder

3 Allspice berries

2 Cloves

1/2t Nutmeg

250ml White wine

1.5l Beef stock

1 Green apple grated

500g Potatoes peeled & cut up

1T brown sugar

Fry the onions with the garlic, chillis and ginger until golden. Remove. Fry the lamb until brown. Remove and pour out all the fat. Put the onions and lamb back and season well. Add the allspice, cloves, nutmeg, wine and stock. Simmer for 1.5 hours. Add the apple, waterblommetjies and potatoes and simmer for another 1.5 hours. Serve with rice. 

Osso Blueco

On Thursday I woke up so so down. Just one of those UGH days. A blue day. It happens. A lot. All the flotsam and jetsam of my life and in my head and on my PC threatens to drag me under. Most days I can paddle my way through the junk but man, sometimes the waves get too big and the junk gets too much. 

So on days like this, what's a coocoocook to do? Hey, here's an idea, maybe I'll cook! I know, shocker right?

Anyway, I hit on a doozy this time - Osso Buco con Risotto alla Milanese. What a glorious thing. Osso Buco is a veal shank stew and how I adore stews! I love to coddle it and pamper it and faff over it, knowing my efforts will be awarded when it succumbs to my charm and falls off the bone. Outside of culinary life my charm has no power - but put me in the kitchen - and I am Aphrodite.

As for Risotto Milanese, it's made with saffron and bone marrow. I LOVE that - the snotty saffron slumming it by getting into bed with the lowlife marrow. It's like Molly Ringwald kissing Judd Nelson in the Breakfast Club. (I was going to go with Divine Brown...uhm...kissing Hugh Grant in a Back Alley, but I'm assuming you want to eat after this.) It's Lady and the Tramp. It's Henry Higgins falling in love with Eliza Doolittle. It's the hope that love can be created between the basest of bone marrow and the splendour of saffron. And if Risotto alla Milanese says it can be... then there's hope for me yet.... 

You ask why I cook? This is why. I woke up blue. I woke up sad. I cooked. And I became Aphrodite. And I dreamt of a prince who will wear glasses thick enough that he will think I'm a princess. And I was happy. Because reality bites. Give me hope and fantasy any day. And my stove. Always my stove.

xx
J

OSSO BUCO MILANESE 

8 Thick pieces veal shank/shin (you can use beef if you have baby issues)
1 Onion chopped
2 Celery stalks chopped
1 Carrot chopped
3 Garlic cloves crushed
250ml Dry white wine
250ml Chicken stock
1 Tin chopped tomatoes
2T Parsley chopped
Zest of half a lemon
Bay leaf
Pinch allspice
Pinch cinnamon

Tie string around the pieces of veal to keep the meat together. (My nautical experience is limited so I tapped into my S&M skills.)

Melt 100ml butter with 60ml olive oil and 1 clove garlic. Coat the veal in flour and brown. Remove. Cook the onion, celery and carrot until soft. Add the veal and the wine and allow to reduce a bit. Add the tomatoes and stock, cover and simmer for 1.5 hours. Mix together 2 cloves garlic, the parsley and the lemon and sprinkle over the Osso Buco for the last 5 minutes of cooking.

RISOTTO ALLA MILANESE

3/4c Vermouth (or white wine if you don't have any)
Large pinch saffron
1.5l Chicken stock
100g Butter
75g Beef marrow
1 Onion chopped
1 Clove garlic crushed
360g Risotto
50g Parmesan

Put the saffron in the vermouth to soak. Bring the stock to a slow simmer and leave there for the duration. Melt the butter and the marrow, then add the onion and garlic until softened. Add the rice and stir to coat thoroughly. Add the vermouth and saffron and cook, stirring constantly, until all the liquid has evaporated. Add a ladle of stock and cook, stirring constantly, until all the liquid has evaporated. Repeat until the rice is al dente (you might not need all the stock). Do NOT speed up the process, risotto is a pain but it's worse if you screw it up. Stir in the parmesan and serve with the Osso Buco.

Ati's (Koek) Sister

I made koeksisters, for my neighbour's sister who is visiting South Africa for the first time. 

I gotta tell you - I have the most amazing neighbours. Jenny, the gorgeous hot sexy Portuguese that popped out three children and still manages to look gorgeous hot and sexy. (WTF). Ati, or rather, Atilla, the ohmygod gorgeous hot sexy Turk that's a hardworking breadwinner, has three children and a fiery wife and still manages to be sweet and kind and gentle AND an awesome cook and did I mention gorgeous hot and sexy? 

Then there are the kids - Dharma (10ish) - who seems to have a direct line to Buddha/God/Allah. She has her mother's looks, her father's kindness and the spirituality of an angel. And Khaya (8ish) - who's psycho and psychedelic and funny and freaky and makes purple velvet pants look awesome. And finally, recently, we got Tashi (2ish) - man, that boy is happy! I'm not sure if it's because he's been hanging off Jenny's boobs for the last 2 years, (which could make anyone happy, even their extremely straight neighbour), but I suspect it's because of this:

To me babies are souls, floating about, waiting waiting endlessly waiting for their destination. They have no idea what's coming, who's coming. They could get daddy that molested me. Or mummy that thought I was fat and didn't love me. Or a life in a cold cold shack. Or no life at all, to be born, but with our Proudly South African death sentence of Aids. For those baby souls floating about, waiting for a destination, life could suck horribly.

But not for Tashi. As far as souls go, he shouldn't be here. He was a surprise, an accident, and he almost wasn't. And then, when his soul woke up, it woke up looking into Jenny's gorgeous face (and boobs), and Ati's beautiful eyes, feeling Dharma's zen and Khaya's umph. Man, what a lucky, lucky little soul. It's no wonder he can't stop laughing...

But, I digress. Ati's sister came to visit from Turkey, her first time in South Africa. And I wanted to make her something truly South African to welcome her. Being Afrikaans to me that means Afrikaans food and I went through the list of traditional foods trying to find the right one. But at the end of the day, what better way to welcome a Sister, than with a Sister. 

xx
J

KOEKSISTERS

Try to make the syrup the night before. It needs to be cold and it's a hell of a job to get it cold on the day.

Syrup
750g Sugar
1/2t Ginger
1/2t Cinnamon
1 Lemon

Dissolve the sugar in a cup of water, add spices and bring to the boil. Allow to simmer for 10 minutes or so to get syrupy. Once cool, keep in the fridge until ready. The syrup has to be VERY COLD when you dunk the koeksisters, this is ESSENTIAL so it can suck it up.

Koek
2c Flour
1/2t Salt
2t Baking powder
4T Butter
1 Egg
100ml Milk

Sift the flour, salt and baking powder twice. Rub in the butter then add the egg and milk. Mix to form a pliable dough. Knead 10 minutes. Leave to rest for 3 hours. Roll out to 1/2cm thick. Cut strips 10cm long and 4cm wide. Cut each strip into three but not right through to the top. Plait. Make sure to scrunch the bottom, I didn't so I ended up with three spread legs on most of my koeksisters. Fry in medium to hot oil for a couple of minutes, flip over and fry for a couple more minutes, drop onto kitchen towel for a second or so then straight into the ice cold syrup. For good measure when I took them out I poured some more syrup on top. And for the record, I think my koeksisters were better than those in the shop. They were koekie in the middle, not so crystalised and sugary as the shop, and spicy and sweet outside.

Welcome to South Africa Ati's Sister. Believe me, next door is a good place to be...

Cannelloni Con Cani

Con Cani means With Dogs. Please don't call the SPCA - I'm not having my dogs for dinner, I'm just having dinner with my dogs. I was going to have Cannelloni Con Robbie Williams. But he didn't answer his phone. I'm sure he would have. If it was, in fact, his number I dialled. Which is unlikely, since I dialled 1-800-I-WANT-ROBBIE.

Cannelloni is wonderful. It's the sexy version of lasagna, which is essentially pasta lying flat on its back. Rows of rolled cannelloni stuffed and snuggled together, now that's an orgy!! I made the two classic versions - Con Carne stuffed with beef and Con Spinaci stuffed with spinach. At university I worked at Palermo, a wonderful Italian restaurant where they'd serve a combination of the two. (Sadly, as at the Spur, I was fired before I got the recipe...) 

However, for my lone vegetarian friend Rosie I will separate the two. Not that she'd ever make it, I should add, she eats like a bird. A ladybird. 

But, my vegetarian friend, know that you were on my mind... 

xx

J

PS - You can make cannelloni from scratch (yawn) or you can use white lasagna sheets as wraps or, like me, you can buy a pack of the Barilla cannelloni, which is perfect. In this particular case the spinach recipe fills 8 tubes and the beef recipe fills the other 17.  

CANNELLONI CON CARNE

 
1.5 Onions chopped
4 Garlic cloves crushed
75g Bacon chopped
100g Mushrooms chopped
500g Mince
2 Tins chopped tomatoes
1c Beef stock
3T Breadcrumbs
1 Egg
17 Tubes cannelloni
60g Mozzarella
3/4c Cream
1/2c Parmesan
1T Parsley chopped
1T Basil chopped

Fry one onion, the bacon & half the garlic until soft. Stir in the mushrooms and 1/2t dried basil/other Italian herb and fry for another couple of minutes. Add the mince and fry until browned. Season, add the chopped parsley, 1/2 tin chopped tomatoes and beef stock. Partially cover and simmer for an hour. Remove the lid and simmer for another 1/2 hour to reduce the liquid. Remove from heat, add breadcrumbs and egg. To make the tomato sauce fry the other 1/2 onion and the rest of the garlic until soft. Add the rest of the chopped tomatoes, the basil, a cup of water and season. Simmer for 1/2 hour or more until sauce has thickened. Find a dish that will comfortably fit all the tubes in a single layer and cover the bottom with the sauce. Use a piping bag (or snip a corner off a jiffy bag to serve as one) and fill the tubes with the beef, then layer then on top of the sauce. Grate over the mozzarella, mix together the cream and parmesan, season and pour over. Bake at 180C for 25 minutes.

CANNELLONI CON SPINACI

 

2 Garlic cloves sliced

200g Spinach
1 Hand oreganum chopped
1 Hand basil chopped stems and leaves separate
1 Tin chopped tomatoes
200g Ricotta
1c Parmesan
8 Tubes cannelloni
60g Mozzarella torn
250ml Creme fraiche

Fry spinach with a knob of butter, 1T olive oil, 1 clove garlic, oreganum and 1/4t nutmeg until soft. Allow to cool then chop up and put back into the liquid. Mix with ricotta, 1/2c parmesan and season. Fry other clove of garlic with the basil stalks, add tomatoes and 1/2c water and simmer for 15 minutes until the sauce thickens. Remove from heat, season and add basil leaves. Find a dish that will comfortably fit all the tubes in a single layer and cover the bottom with the sauce. Use a piping bag (or snip a corner off a jiffy bag to serve as one) and fill the tubes with the spinach, then layer then on top of the sauce. Mix together the creme fraiche and 1/4c parmesan, season and pour over. Drizzle with some olive oil, sprinkle with 1/4c parmesan and mozzarella. Bake at 180C for 25 minutes.