Tonight we needed a quick tea so raided the freezer for a leftover stash. I found an unlabelled mysterious package which turned out to be a batch of bolognaise sauce.
The only way to salvage was to whip up my favourite tomato sauce…
Onion (medium) sliced and diced
Carrot (medium) scrubbed and grated
Garlic clove crushed
Teaspoon of fennel seeds crushed
Tin on chopped plum tomatoes opened
Splash of oil in sauce pan add onion, carrot and cook on medium heat for five minutes
Add garlic and fennel and cook for a further 2 minutes then add tomatoes.
Cook for 15 minutes, season and blitz with a stick blender taking care not to splash yourself.
Add enough sauce to the bolognaise to bring it back to life.
I love this sauce the fennel really gives it a depth of flavour and it’s really rich and smooth the carrot removes any acidity from the tomatoes .
Just goes to show how easy it is to cook from scratch using simple ingredients.
We’ve yet to try this with just pasta but I feel confident with some basil ripped over the top it would be a winner too.
Love Louise X
Louise Winder Food & Travel
#EatBakeBlog
Isn’t it funny how we can forget about dishes in our repitoire and they disappear into fond food memories. Well today, I decided to revisit this wonderful dish that I disovered via my first food hero Delia. My bookshelves are full of her books but this new wonder foodie resource DeliaOnline has become a go to for me.
Delia recommends a shallow gratin dishe measuring 6 inches (15 cm) in diameter, which will hold one or two eggs I use my Falcon enamel round pie dish or the recatangular version.
You will need the following ingredients:
75g of Chorizo (today I used a cheat)
Red pepper (cut in half, quarters then sliced thinley into lengths)
Onion (medium sliced in spears)
2 Cloves of Garlic (chopped)
4-5 Really ripe tomatoes *
3-4 free range eggs
50g Cheddar or any good melting cheese
Shot of Dry Sherry; this is optional
Salt and pepper
Method
Step 1 turn your oven on to 180ºc (fan) or gas mark 4.
Step 2 deseed the pepper, remove the white flesh cut in half, then quarters and slice finely into lengths.
Step 3 Peel your onion and cut in half and cut into thin spears.
Step 4 Boil your kettle and put the tomatoes into a large (1 litre Pyrex jug) and cover the tomatoes. Within 1 minute they will be ready to be skinned. Some of the skins might be difficult to remove, I leave the odd bit on. (Delia removes the seeds I prefer to leave the seeds in; each to their own). Peeling tomatoes
Step 5 next chop the tomatoes into pieces and then finely chop the garlic.
Step 6 heat a pan (I used a small wok for this dish) with about a tablespoon of oil (I used rapeseed) when the oil is hot add the chorizo pieces to brown them off, I added a slug of Oloroso Sherry just to make it that little bit more spanish. Once cooked off I then place these into the dish I am going to use.
Dry sherry
Step 7 Add the onion and pepper to the pan and cook on a high heat, until they are starting to soft with brown edges – this will take about 5 to 10 minutes depending on the thickeness of the slices. Step 8 add tomatoes
Step 8 add the chopped tomatoes and garlic and cook for 1 minute more and return the browned chorizo to the pan. Give it a good turn around to meld all the flavours.
Step 9 season well with freshly ground salt and black pepper.
Step 10 take the pan off the heat heat and place the mixture in the dish. Break your eggs into the dish (as I am using a one pot I space these out equally) . If you use indiviudal dishes then sit you eggs side by side on top of the mixture.
Step 11 now you should have the mixture with eggs sat on top so season and sprinkle each one with your grated cheese. Ready to bake
Step 12 place the dish or dishes on the baking sheet on the top shelf of the oven to cook for 12-15 minutes (or a little longer, depending on how you like your eggs).
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