Pesto

I love, love, love pesto, but until yesterday I had never actually made it. I don’t know why, I never buy other pasta sauces, but it was just one of those things that I’d got into the habit of buying.

I saw a discussion on a food forum recently which pushed me into finally taking the plunge and I’m really pleased I did; I used some to make Delia’s Trofie Liguria for dinner last night and it was absolutely delicious, we loved it, it was so much more zingy and fresher-tasting than ready made. I also had some on a tomato sandwich for lunch today – gorgeous!

There’s a million recipes online – I just adjusted quantities a bit. Slightly less basil (I used all I had), no salt (I never cook with salt) and a bit less garlic in order to avoid knocking out the optician while she fixed Mr S-V's glasses today.

I’m a fool to myself – looks like I’ve just made another kitchen job for myself in future…

40g pine nuts
65g basil
40g parmesan-style cheese
125ml olive oil
1 fat garlic clove

black pepper

Toast the pine nuts in a dry pan until golden and leave to cool. Chop the cheese into rough chunks then put everything in your processor or blender, add a few good grinds of black pepper, and pulse until you have the consistency you like. I don’t like it absolutely smooth so I stopped before it got to that point.

Pour into a clean jam-jar and cover with a thin layer of olive oil. Store in the fridge. Now... how easy was that?

Mushroom and Sherry Sauce

Is it a Sauce or is it a Gravy? Who knows …who cares? All I can say with any certainty is it’s damn tasty and will go very nicely with our Nut Roast Wellington on Christmas Day.

I was planning to do my usual gravy on the big day but I happened to see a recipe by Gordon Ramsey (I really can’t stand that man!) on the net recently which was served with a mushroom sauce. It set me thinking and this is the result; a rich, flavoursome sauce or, possibly, gravy which is perfect for those times when you want something a bit more special to complement the centrepiece of a celebratory meal. Actually, this was so gorgeous, it was all I could do not to eat it by the spoonful!

25g dried porcini

25g butter

1 red onion, roughly chopped

1 clove garlic, crushed

200g chestnut mushrooms, roughly chopped

1 tbsp flour

500ml stock

3 tbsp sherry

1 dsp tomato paste

½ tsp dried thyme

Soak the porcini in 100mls of hot water for 20 minutes, then drain them over a small bowl reserving the soaking liquor; roughly chop the porcini and set aside.

Melt the butter in a largish pan and sauté the onion for five minutes; add the chestnut mushrooms and garlic and cook for another five minutes. Stir in the flour and cook for a couple of minutes then pour in the stock and the reserved porcini liquor and stir well then add the sherry, tomato paste, thyme and porcini. If the flour goes lumpy, ignore it; you’ll be blitzing it later, anyway. Bring to the boil, stirring; turn the heat down to a simmer, pop a lid on, and let it bubble gently for fifteen minutes. Blitz with a stick blender until smooth, adding a little more stock if necessary to bring it to a consistency you're happy with.

You can freeze this until needed then defrost and reheat thoroughly before serving.

Tomato and Basil Pasta Sauce

This is one of the most useful recipes ever – a multi-purpose tomato and basil pasta sauce which can be made in bulk and frozen in handy-size portions to bring out whenever you need it. It's so simple that I dithered for ages about putting it on here; well, let's be honest, pasta sauce isn't terribly exciting, is it?

I first started making this years ago when I was still at work and always looking for shortcuts. These days I have a lot more time on my hands, but I still make a batch for the freezer every couple of months; it’s brilliant for roast veg pasta bakes, garlicky mushrooms with spaghetti, spag bol with soya mince, gnocchi and aubergine bake, pizzas…the list is almost endless.

Just because it’s made in bulk it doesn’t mean that every pasta meal you use it for will taste the same. To each defrosted portion, along with your chosen veg, add some different herbs or maybe a splash of balsamic, perhaps a few olives and capers, some chilli flakes…or whatever takes your fancy at the time.

2 onions, finely chopped

5 garlic cloves, crushed

1 tbsp of oil from a jar of sun-dried tomatoes

8 sun-dried tomatoes, chopped

50ml red wine

3 tins chopped tomatoes

1 tbsp tomato paste

250ml stock

1 tsp dried thyme

1 tsp dried oregano

1 tsp sugar

2 tbsp chopped fresh basil

Heat the oil in a large pan and gently fry the onion for 5 minutes; add the crushed garlic and fry for a further minute. Add all the other ingredients, except the basil, stir well and bring to the boil; turn the heat right down and simmer without a lid for about an hour, by which time the sauce will be thickened and concentrated. (I feel I should warn you, the contents of the pan will plop and bubble like ‘Old Faithful’ in Yellowstone Park; it’ll make an awful mess of your cooker and splashback!)

Take off the heat and add the chopped basil; if you like a smooth sauce you can blitz it but I prefer to leave it chunky. Allow to cool then divide into your chosen portions and freeze.

Depending on what I use it for I find this makes enough for four to six meals for the two of us.