This was great fun to make, the production team were really kind and helpful and friendly, if you ever get a chance to do it then you have to give it a try.. only one life hey.
I have added the recipes as I wrote them for the book, it gives a little of the back story to the food that I made for them.
I hope you give them a go and enjoy them too.
If you do then let me know how you get on.
If you have any questions then just leave a comment and I'll get back to you.
If you want the other recipes then you will have to buy the Hairy Bikers Mum Knows Best Series Two Cookbook.
PASTA SAUCE (basic)
this makes enough to use with 1.5 kg of pasta. We would make the sauce and keep it in the fridge to use as and when the pasta was being cooked. Just reheat in a separate pan the amount of sauce you wan to use before pouring onto the cooked and drained pasta
1 medium white onion, peeled and whole
1 celery stick, washed and whole
1 carrot, scrubbed and whole
1 clove of garlic, peeled and whole
5 tablespoons of normal olive oil
500g beef bones (optional)
Heat the oil in a heavy (3 litre) pan and add all the above. Allow to brown as you prepare the following.
3 rounded dessertspoons of tomato puree
4 cans of peeled plum tomatoes (choose ones in a rich tomato sauce)
680g jar of passata
2 teaspoons of salt flakes
( when I was a child my mum would use unpeeled fresh tomatoes from the garden as well as her own home bottled tomatoes and passata, it makes a very different sauce but it was very yummy)
As the veg and bones take a good golden colour add the tomatoes, rinse the cans and fill the pan to top.
(optional add a bouquet garni and two bay leaves)
Bring to a boil and add a heavy lid. Reduce the heat so that the sauce just turns over at a simmer. Leave to cook like this for a minimum of 2 hours but ideally it will cook for 4 -5 hours until the fat on the top of the sauce looks quite black, then you know it is ready. Stir it as it cooks and as it reduces top it up from a kettle of boiling water and allow to reduce again.
After the final reduction remove the bones, vegetables, bouquet garni and bay leaves.
Add 50ml of marsala wine, a good splash of balsamic vinegar and 15- 20 basil leaves (washed and torn). If you have grown proper italian basil in the garden then add 5 leaves at the same time as the tomatoes but if it is the type of basil that you buy in the supermarket then if will have a much more fragile taste and this type has to be added at the end just to fragrance the sauce before serving.
Check for seasoning and add salt and pepper if needed. This is now ready to be used.
Whilst it has been cooking anything else that is to be served wit the meal will have been prepared.
Gerarda Minichiellos Meatballs (its a secret recipe)
Makes about 30.
100g sourdough bread (preferably with no added yeast)
cut into cubes and soaked in warm water for 2-3 minutes, then squeezed dry.
5 cloves of garlic
6 sprigs of thyme
12 sage leaves
24 mint leaves,
24 flat parsley leaves
100g pinenuts (toasted in a heavy pan )
all chopped together
150g raisins
(soaked for 5-10 minutes to plump them up)
100g pecorino grated
500g minced lamb
500g minced beef
Into a large mixing bowl beat 3 large eggs, add salt and pepper (and a good splash of worchester sauce if you have some).
Mix in the pecorino, garlic, chopped herbs and pinenuts and mix well.
Break the soaked bread into small pieces and add this with the raisins into the egg mix.
With very clean hands mix in the meats and work well into a good smooth mixture.
Use a dessertspoon to make similar sized balls. Set these onto a clean tray ready for frying.
In a heavy frying pan heat 1/2 cm of sunflower or vegetable oil.
Fry the meatballs in the oil , about 10at a time, until borwn all over. They will take 2 or 3 turnings to get them properly browned.
As they become ready pop them into the simmering (de boned and veg-ed) tomato sauce.
Once the final batch of meatballs have been added cook meatballs in the sauce for a further 35 minutes.
These should then be removed to a warm dish. The sauce poured onto the pasta and the meatballs served with salad or minestra or roasted vegetables.
MINESTRA (how my mama made it)
Every day version
a large bag of fresh greens (anything from cabbage, spinach, spring greens, kale but a big favourite was endive which we called ‘Scarole’)
Wash in a couple of changes of water. Put into a large pan with some boiling, salted water. Stir the leaves to get them wilting and in touch with the hot water.
Cook for a few minutes until ready (this depends on what you are cooking Endive will only need a minute or two where as the cabbage will take longer.
Into a serving bowl mix a good gulg of the best olive oil with a splash of balsamic vinegar, 2 cloves of garlic (thinly sliced), some fresh pepper and salt.
Stop the cooking by putting the pan into the sink and filling with cold water from the tap.
Drain well, pick out handfuls of the greens and squeeze until most of the water is gone.
Either cut or tear the leaves into smaller pieces.
Add this to the dressing and mix well with a couple of forks and a nice lifting, airy action.
This should be just warm when it is served.
Fancy version
2-3 hot italian sausages
250g dry italian sausage,
250g pepperoni
250g sweetcured back bacon
Into a large pan of boiling water add the meats and allow to cook for about 40 minutes, this makes a nice salty, sweet, spicy broth.
As the broth cooks a mix of greens are cooked separately and then added to the broth and brought back to the boil for another 5 -10 minutes.
This is then served with some nice cheese (whichever you prefer, I like a gorgonzola or a grano padano) and eaten with bread that is all crust inside and out.
SCAPECE
This was something we would fight over as children, its special as my mum could only make them with the very first, young, small corgettes.
6 small to medium corgettes, washed and sliced 2 -4 mm thick
2 cloves of garlic sliced
8 mint leaves (as from the garden, you will need double if bought from the supermarket) torn
6 tablespoons of red wine vinegar
fresh ground salt and pepper
sunflower oil
In a heavy frying pan heat 1 cm of the oil.
Add the corgettes to make a single layer, as they turn brown, turn them over.
When brown on both sides drain on some kitchen paper for a few minutes.
In a bowl mix the other ingredients and add the cooked corgettes.
Carefully stir and cover with cling film.
Leave for a minimum of 4 hours but overnight is perfect.
Eat these on chewy bread drizzled with a little yummy olive oil and the scapece piled on top and a little grind of salt.
WHAT ITALIANS EAT AT BIRTHDAY PARTIES
Pane de Spagna
6 large eggs
200g caster sugar
300g plain flour (preferably ‘OO’ tipo)
1 teaspoon baking powder
2 teaspoons vanilla extract (depending on the quality some are much stronger than others)
a pinch of salt
Preheat the oven to gas 4.
Whisk the eggs, vanilla extract and sugar in a pyrex bowl over a pan of hot water until it is really thick (almost like mousse)
Remove from the heat. Mix the flour, baking powder and salt and (if possible double) sift it into the bowl of egg mix.
Using a big slotted spoon, fold the flour in to the egg.
Pour this into a 10- 12 inch cake tin that is lined with grease proof paper or else butter and floured.
Level the mix off then bake in the lower middle of the oven for about 15 - 20 minutes. It should have no wobble and not be making any noise when you listen to it.
Allow to cool in the tin for 10 minutes then carefully lift it onto a wire rack.
Chocolate & Lemon Sauce
1 litre milk
2 large eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla
125g flour
300g caster sugar
grated rind and juice of a lemon (boiled in 50ml of water and allowed to reduce to a few spoonfuls)
150g 70% dark chocolate broken into pieces
Heat the milk until the point of boiling.
While that is happening mix the flour, sugar and vanilla with the eggs to a nice creamy mix.
Set the lemon reduction to the side in another mixing bowl.
Pour the hot milk onto the egg mix and whisk, have someone wash the pan of the milk solids then return the milk and egg mix to the pan and bring to the boil whilst whisking. Allow to cook for a minute or two.
Pour half the sauce onto the lemon reduction and mix well.
Into the remaining sauce mix the chocolate until all melted and amalgamated.
It is best if the pans of sauce are stood in a sink of cold water and stirred as they cool that way they won’t form a skin.
Set these to the side covered with a cloth.
Poached pears.
In a pan bring 500ml of water to the boil with a slice of lemon and 200g of sugar.
Peel, halve lengthways and remove the seeds and hard central stem from the pear.
Add the pears to the boiling sugar stock and allow to cook gently for about 20 minutes (this varies depending on the pears but you want them to look a bit translucent)
Remove form the stock and allow to cool in a dish cover with a cloth. When they are cool, slice them thinly.
Throw away the lemon slice. Then divide the stock between two cups. Into one cup mix 3-4 dessertspoons of Amaretto and into the other the same of fresh lemon juice.
Assembly.
Cut the cake into 3 layers.
Place the bottom layer onto the serving plate. Spoon on enough of the amaretto stock to moisten the cake but do not make it soggy. Carefully spread the cool chocolate sauce on top (you may not need all of it ), then add the sliced pears.
Cover with another slice of cake, soak with the lemon stock and add the lemon sauce (again you may not need all of it).
Add the final slice of cake and soak with some more of which ever stock you prefer and maybe some of the remaining sauce. I like to do it that if I finish with the lemon sauce I sift a little cocoa powder on top and if I finish with the chocolate sauce I sift a little icing sugar on top.
Pop into the fridge for about 2 hours and then it is ready to serve.
