Ragu! Or if you prefer, spaghetti bolognaise? I did a (brief) bit of research and it seems like spag bol is a bit of a misnomer anyway. We call it ragu. This recipe, that I have adapted from part of a Nigella Lawson recipe for a pasta bake, makes a vast quantity and freezes without so much as a hiccup. I feel most competant when freezing little bags of ragu marked ‘enough for 3′, ‘one child’ or ’2 adults’.

Mind you, since that episode of ‘The Sopranos’ when they wept as they ate the last frozen lasagne made by the deceased wife and mother, I feel like I should write a message of love on each bag. Or an insult to make them chuckle through the tears. Happy thought. So make this recipe, enjoy the feeling of contentment when on a busy day, dinner is but a defrost away and contemplate your mortality at the same time.

And they say that housewives have lost their sense of identity. Ha!

Roughly chop up 2 onions, 2 large carrots, 2 sticks of celery, 4 rashers of smoked, streaky bacon and peel 2-3 cloves garlic.

Then put it in the food processor (I do this in two batches) and reduce to a blitzed pulp.

Heat 3 tbsp olive oil and a big knob of butter (like 75g big) in a large pot for which you have a lid. I use my big le creuset pot – it’s 10″ wide and 4″ deep – so bear this in mind. A saucepan simply can’t accommodate the quantity of ingredients.

Once the fat is melted, add the blitzed bacon vegetable mix and fry very gently for 10 minutes. I do time this, incidentally. Stir regularly to ensure that it gets nice and soft without colouring.

Like this.

To the soft veg, add 1kg minced beef and fork it through into the veg to colour it as much as you can.

You’re going to achieve more grey-brown than bronzed-brown.

Add a 400g tin of tomatoes, 3-4tbsp tomato puree, 2 bay leaves

300ml water used to swill out the tin

and 350ml red wine – a nice one

Stir well to combine, then bring to the boil

Partially cover with the lid, reduce heat to low and cook gently for two hours, stirring now and again.

At the end of the cooking time, taste and add some salt and pepper to taste.

I don’t have a picture of the next step because by this time, it was dark and I simply cannot get a picture worth looking at, from my dark kitchen.

I then remove the bay leaves, shove my stick blender in it and do about two circuits with it. This isn’t to reduce it all to a paste, just to give two textures – the smoother more paste-like meat and the more gravelly mince.

A nasty flash-startled picture does not do it justice, but if I tell you that we eat this a lot and that Alex claps his hands (I know. Odd for a 22 yr old law student. Just kidding.) when I serve it, then maybe that will be persuasion enough. If it is ever light for more than 2 hours at a time, I shall try another picture.

Make it!

Ragu

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adapted from ‘Rigatoni Al Forno’ from Feast by Nigella Lawson

2 onions
2 large carrots
2 sticks celery
2-3 cloves garlic
50g/4 rashers smoked streaky bacon

75g butter
3 tbsp Olive oil

1 kg beef mince
1 x 400g can tomatoes
3-4 tbsp tomato puree
350ml red wine (I do use a nice wine for this)
2 bay leaves
300ml water to swill out the tomato can

Roughly chop the onions, carrots, celery, garlic and bacon, then put in the food processor and blitz. I have to do this in two batches.
Heat the oil and butter in a large pan, (I use my 10″ wide, 4″ deep le creuset) then add the veg and bacon.
Fry very gently for 10 minutes (I time it, because it’s always longer than I think), stirring occasionally, until very soft.

Add the mince and using two forks, fork it in to combine with the veg and colour as much as is possible.
Add the tomatoes, puree, red wine, bay leaves and water that you have swilled out the can with.

Stir well, cover and bring to the boil.
Once boiling, reduce the heat to low, only partially cover with the lid and cook gently for two hours.

At the end of the cooking time, check for seasoning; adding salt and black pepper as you wish.

Allow to cool a little and carefully blend, using a stick blender. I aim to blend only about 1/2 to 3/4 of the sauce so that it retains some texture.
Serve with spaghetti and plenty of Parmesan. Kiss your child’s tomato stained face before getting the damp cloth out.

Freezes in individual portions.

We love celery soup. Celery is a fine thing; tall, proud and distinctive tasting, but heat mellows it, rounds the edges, seduces the non-celery lover into a helpless admirer. Marvellous. Neither Ian nor Alex are fans of raw celery, but they both love this soup. Really, they LOVE it. What’s even better? It couldn’t be easier to make.

Peel and chop a medium sized onion and put it into a large saucepan with a drizzle of oil and a tbsp of salted butter.

On a medium heat, saute it for 5 – 10 mins until it’s softening and beginning to colour.

Acquire a head of celery

Argh!

OK. Then chop it up and add it to the softening onion. There will be leafy bits in the middle – fling them in as well and stir around.

Then reach for a medium sized potato. Peel it (I only had a huuuuuge potato, so I cut it in half)

Dice it up and add it to the celery and onion.

Saute and stir until the vegetables are beginning to get into the groove- just getting a bit warm and interested.

Heat about 500 ml of chicken (or vegetable) stock and add it to the veg.

Give it a good stir, then cover it and let it simmer away.

How long to simmer it for depends on lots of things – how woody the celery is, how large you chopped everything; but reckon on around 30 mins. Start poking the veg at that point anyhow, to see that they are all tender.

I then cool it overnight to let all the flavours come together, but that’s more out of convenience. There is nothing stopping you from liquidising and serving it straight away.

I pour the soup into a large bowl and use my stick blender. Mine is cold here so all I have to worry about is getting splashed, but if you’re doing yours straight away, do mind that you don’t get scolded.

Serve in mugs or bowls, season to taste and if you wish, add the merest dribble of cream and swirl it through to make pretties

or just stir the drizzle of cream through and serve with some sweet potato bread.

Instant veg into kids, but cunningly slipped under the radar.

If it’s too thick, simply add some boiling water and stir that through, but do check the seasoning. If it’s wildly thick because you used a very big potato, just water it down with some more stock.

Mmmmmm.

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Celery Soup

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1 head celery, chopped
1 onion, chopped
1 medium potato, diced
500 ml chicken or vegetable stock
1 tbsp salted butter
salt and pepper
cream (optional)

Melt the butter and a drizzle of oil in a large saucepan.
Add the onion and saute for 5-10 mins until colouring.
Add the celery, stir to combine.
Add the potato, stir to combine, saute until the veg is hot and beginning to look like it might soften sometime soon.
Season with salt and white pepper.

Stir in the stock.
Cover and cook until the vegetables are soft. Check at 30 mins.

Liquidise and serve or freeze. It freezes very well.
Drizzle a little cream to serve, if you wish. If you want to keep it low calorie, don’t bother – it can stand on its own two feet!