dinnerlastnight

Torn lasagna with tomato capsicum sauce and bacon

It was Friday night and it had cooled down quite considerably from the previous days. I happened to be at lunch with some friends from work - just somewhere cheap - and when reading the menu I notice that they were good enough to suggest what wine you should enjoy with your meal. It was at that moment that I got a craving for a good red wine. Bit of a problem as I was already enjoying a beer and the red wines available at this establishment was not ideal. I promised myself a nice bottle of red with dinner.

After visiting the bottle shop on the way home I walked in the door wondering what to cook to go with the wine. This reminded me of a favourite Saturday lunch venue - Il Baretto - which serves amazing Italian.

Italian it was then - a nice rich sauce layered over torn lasagne sheets with salty bacon pieces. YUM!

Ingredients for this were: Italian canned tomatoes (the sauce with the tomatoes is richer and thicker than others), half a red capsicum, garlic, dried oregano leaves, onion, dried lasagna sheets, bacon rashers, fresh basil, pine nuts and achicken stock cube.

Preparation:

This is really easy. Place the capsicum under a hot grill until the skin is charred. Cover with a tea towels for a few minutes and the skin should peal off easily - but watch your fingertips as they are hot. Roughly chop the capsicum flesh.

Chop garlic and an onion finely. Heat a little oil in a pan and gently fry the onion, garlic and a shake of dried oregano leaves. When the onion looks glassy, add two 400gram tins of tomatos, the cooked capsicum and a crumbled chicken stock cube. Cook on medium heat until the sauce is cooked through. Pour the sauce into a blender and use the pulse to make the sauce smoother - but not like tomato soup - it should still be a bit rough. Pour back into the pan, stir through chopped pine nuts and keep hot.

Break roughly a number of dried lasagna sheets into sizable pieces and boil some salted water in a wide saucepan. Add the lasagna pieces stirring to make sure they don't stick together. While this is cooking, fry about 6 rashers of bacon cut into thumbnail sized pieces.

Drain pasta when cooked. On each plate starting with a large spoonful of sauce, roughly layering alternate layers of pasta, sauce, bacon and fresh basil leaves finishing with basil. Season with cracked pepper and serve. We had a rocket salad as well, oh and a bottle or two of fantastic red.

dinnerlastnight rating: 8/10

Steamed pork fillet with ginger shallot mash and miso vegetables

At work, I often have hainan chicken noodle soup for lunch. The noodle soup is served separately from the chicken which is basically poached in stock on low heat for hours until the meat is juicy and tender. The chicken is usually served on the bone chinese style. My favourite thing about this dish is the topping my local adds to the chicken. It is a delicious mix of chopped shallots and grated ginger.

The ginger shallot mash took a few tries to get right at home but really makes this dish special. This dish can be made with chicken or pork. I tend to go for the pork as it is a richer flavour and a little easier to cook - all you need a bamboo steamer. If you don't already have one of these go out and get one right now. It will only cost you a few dollars at an asian shop and you can also use it for steaming dumplings, vegetables, tofu and fish. As you would guess it is a much healthier cooking method than frying.

Ingredients for this dish were pork fillet, ginger, shallots, garlic, miso paste, broccoli, pumpkin, rice, soy sauce, coriander sesame oil and chilli sauce. Prep is about 10mins and about 10mins to cook.

Preparation:

Place in a mortar and pestle two finely chopped shallots (white and green parts) and a thumb sized portion of ginger finely grated. Mash together and add a small amount of oil and a couple of pinches of salt. Set aside.

In a bamboo steamer arrange a fillet of pork and place into a wok with enough boiling water to cover the base but not touch the pork. Steam for about 10mins or until the pork is just done. While that is steaming start cooking some rice.

5 mins before the pork and rice are ready heat some peanut oil in a small saucepan. Fry a segment of sliced garlic till fragrant, add choppped floweretts of broccoli and thinly sliced pumpkin. Toss to coat,add a little water and top with a tight lid to steam. When cooked through but still a little crispy stir though a tablespoon of miso paste. This should form a nice thick sauce for the vegetables - add more water if necessary.

Slice cooked pork and serve topped with coriander and ginger shallot mash. Miso vegetables and rice in separate dishes. Additional condiments were soy sauce with a dash of sesame oil and some chilli sauce both served in small condiment dishes. We usually eat this dish with small bowls and chopsticks

dinnerlastnight rating: 8/10

Linguini with anchovies, breadcrumbs and chilli

Last night Rich and I went out to a friends 50th birthday so the only dinnerlastnight was pizza. Instead of trying to deconstruct the pizza to create a recipe, what this post centres on is lunch today. It is a yummy pasta meal I picked up from here and there.

Growing up in Lithgow I always thought that when you had pasta it had to be drowning in a thick tomato-y meaty sauce. It wasn't until I went to uni that I found out that this isn't always the case.

Chilli is an amazing spice. Not only the heat of it (I like it fiery) but even the lower grade chillies give a fantastic flavour. I like to pair it with salty food and in this case it was anchovies. I like to keep a small jar of anchovies in the fridge as they keep almost forever and cooked in the right way anchovies don't make a dish taste fishy - just rich and savoury. Richard doesn't usually like anchovies but he thought this was great.

I served this pasta with a side salad of vine-ripened tomato and rocket leaves with balsamic. Make sure you toss in some sea salt and freshly cracked pepper to season it nicely.

Ingredients for the pasta are linguini, anchovies, dried bread crumbs, garlic, chilli, parsley, onion, olive oil and parmesan. It is really easy and quick but equally filling and more-ish. Cooking time is as long as it takes the linguini to cook - about 8-10 minutes.

Preparation:

Bring a pot of salted water to the boil and when the boil is at a roll add half a packet of linguini. Finely chop garlic, onion, parsley and chilli separately. Roughly chop 3-4 anchovy fillets and keep a teaspoon of the oil from the jar to add in later.

In a wide frypan, heat three tablespoons of olive oil. When hot slowly fry the garlic and onion. The idea here is to infuse the oil with the flavour not to crisp the garlic and onion. Throw in the chilli and keep heating. When the linguini is almost done, add about half a cup of breadcrumbs, the anchovies, anchovy oil and parsley. Lower the heat and stir to combine and absorb the oil.

Drain the linguini and add to the pan. Use a pair of tongs to coat the pasta well. Test for taste and add more seasoning if necessary. Eat immediately.

dinnerlastnight rating: 7/10