Slow-cooked chuck steak ragu with pappardelle, girolles and sage leaves

The relationship between food and family and friends is extremely close and important to me. Growing up as part of a large family, my parents would often be busy cooking two or three different meals per evening for fussy children of different ages, and then finally themselves. Despite this, they always made sure that we all sat down and had dinner together at least 4-5 times a week, and this is something that I will be very keen to pass down when I am a father. Most of my memories involve food. Big family Sunday roasts with steaming joints of chicken. The day my dad called me to the kitchen to make me try a mussel he was cooking for a dinner party (I hated it!). Gazing through old cookbooks with my mum, and really wanting to make the cake that was a house in the shape of a boot, complete with a shredded wheat roof. Thinking about these times fills me with a warmth and happiness. Food is so much more than a fuel to keep us alive, it binds us socially, creates atmosphere and inspires. The wafting smell of bread baking in the oven does so much more than just produce a loaf for toast. 

As I have grown older this bond between food and my social life has become stronger. Nowadays I love nothing more than having friends over for a good meal and a glass or two of wine. I enjoy going out to nice restaurants and eating fancy food where every ingredient intrigues, but my fondest meals are ones where the food is a background constant to bustling conversation. For this kind of occasion, cooking should not dominate; I don’t want to be stuck in the kitchen away from my friends. But that doesn’t mean that it can’t be good, it just needs to be approached in a different way.

On this occasion a few weeks ago, a couple of old friends were coming over for dinner. At first I was just going to knock together a simple but tasty one pot supper, something casual to plonk on the table for everyone to help themselves. This was thrown out the window the day before however, when they told me that they had seen this blog, and they had high expectations of what they would be served. This presented me with a challenge, as I had to try and create something impressive that was practical socially. All those memories of dad making his dinner party staple of salmon en croute came flooding back!

Salmon was not on the menu for me however. I love making pasta, and the thought of a slow-cooked, meaty ragu sauce was too much to resist. This ticked all of my worry boxes; the homemade pasta and flavoursome sauce would please my guests, and I would be able to make the whole thing in advance.

I know that in the last month I have cooked beef a lot, with a tartare, a Wellington and now a ragu, but for this meal it worked perfectly. My only dilemma was the cut to use. Ideally I would have used something with bags of flavour like cheek, shin or oxtail. But as it was a Sunday and I had limited time on my hands, I left the butchers with a whopping piece of chuck. This is the joy of local, independent butchers; you can really talk to them about what you want to cook, and they have the wealth of knowledge to advise. So although they didn’t have the cuts I was looking for (but would have been able to order with a few days notice), I left with something that was still bang up for the job.

Britain has some wonderful mushrooms, and a quick gaze at this blog will tell you that I am obsessed with them. I am lucky that my local greengrocer has a wide range, and I really recommend searching in local food markets. But if you can’t get hold of girolles, then meaty, strong mushrooms such as chestnut or portabella will also work well.

Lots of this preparation can be done days before it is needed, and aside from the pasta, requires very little time. The sauce itself gets better over time, and any leftovers are great with potatoes or as a pie filling.

Serves 6-8

Ingredients:

For the pasta:

600g strong ‘00’ grade flour
6 eggs
1 tbsp salt
2 tbsp olive oil

For the ragu:

1.5kg chuck steak, cut into 2-3” chunks
200g plain flour
2 onions, finely chopped
1 head of garlic, chopped in half
2 celery sticks, finely chopped
2 carrots, finely chopped
200g button mushrooms, sliced
2 bay leaves
10 sprigs of thyme
2 sprigs of rosemary
½ bottle of red wine
1.5ltr good beef stock
Salt and pepper 

6 rashers smoked streaky bacon, finely chopped
2 shallots, finely chopped
50g butter, cubed
40g pecorino, finely grated

For the sage leaves:

About 30 sage leaves
3-4 tbsp vegetable oil, for frying

For the girolles:

About 30 girolle mushrooms, cleaned and trimmed
30g butter
½ clove garlic, finely chopped
Salt and pepper

To finish:

Grated pecorino
Extra virgin olive oil
Pepper


Get the ragu going to start with. Tip the plain flour onto a plate and season well, then use this mixture to lightly dust the chuck steak. Heat up a large, heavy bottomed saucepan to a high temperature and add 2 tbsp of oil. Cook the meat in batches, searing quickly until well browned on all sides before removing to a plate. When all of the meat is cooked, add the onions and celery. Sautee for a couple of minutes until coloured, then add the carrots, garlic, mushrooms and herbs. Continue to cook for another 2-3 minutes then pour in the red wine. Bring to the boil and allow to reduce slightly, then put the meat back into the pan. Cover with the stock, topping up with water if needed. Season well and bring back to the boil then turn down to a simmer. Cover with a lid and cook for about 5 hours, until the meat is falling apart. 
 

While the ragu is cooking, make the pasta. Add the flour, eggs, salt and oil to a food processor and blend until the mixture resembles coarse breadcrumbs. Tip out onto a clean surface and pat together, then knead well for 10-15 minutes. The dough should be soft in texture but not sticky. Wrap well in cling film and put in the fridge to rest for at least half an hour, preferably longer.

When the dough has rested, remove it from the fridge and cut it into four pieces. Dust with a little flour, then pass one piece through the widest setting of a pasta machine. Repeat 7-8 times, or until the dough has a really elastic texture. Rub with a little more flour if it starts to turn sticky at this point. Now roll the pasta down through each setting on the machine you get to the second thinnest; number 5 on an Imperia machine. Sprinkle the outside of the sheet with flour, cover with a clean tea towel and repeat with the other pieces of pasta dough. Cut the sheets to the length that you want the pappardelle to be, then pass through the pasta cutter. Dust a cooling rack with flour and lay the individual strands down to dry. Keep the pasta separate and in one layer to avoid sticking. 
 

To prepare the sage leaves, pour the oil in a small frying pan and put on a medium-high heat. When hot, add the sage in batches and cook for 20-30 seconds, or until crispy, then remove to a plate lined with kitchen roll. Set aside until needed later.

After 5 hours, carefully remove the meat and a little of the liquid to a bowl and allow to cool. Once cold, finely shred the meat and set aside. Strain the remaining stock from the saucepan through a sieve into a large bowl and discard the cooked vegetables. Set a large, high-sided frying pan or skillet onto a medium-high heat and add a little oil. Add the bacon and cook for a couple of minutes until starting to colour, then add the shallot and fry for another 2 minutes. Now pour in the strained stock. Turn the heat up and allow to reduce by at least half, until just enough is left to hold the shredded meat. Turn down to a simmer and add the meat, combining well so that the sauce and meat come together as one. Taste and season if necessary, then turn the heat right down until needed. 
 

Fill a large saucepan with well-salted water and bring to the boil.

While the water is boiling, raise the heat of the ragu sauce pan to a simmer.

When the water boils add the pasta. Cook for 1-2 minutes, until just al dente.

While the pasta is cooking, add the cubed butter and grated pecorino to ragu sauce and stir well to combine. Taste and add salt and pepper if needed. As soon as the pasta is cooked, use tongs to transfer the pappardelle to the pan with the ragu and toss to combine well, so that every strand is coated. Remove from the heat.

Heat up a medium sized frying pan to a moderate temperature and add the butter for the mushrooms. Fry the garlic for 30 seconds then add the prepared girolles, cooking for another couple of minutes until crisp on the outside and soft in the middle.

To plate, spoon a generous amount of the pasta into bowl and top with some of the girolles and sage leaves. Grate over some more pecorino, grind some black pepper and drizzle a little extra virgin olive oil.

Egg yolk and ricotta ravioli with asparagus, asparagus puree, smoked salmon and capers

Tomorrow this blog will be a year old; I can’t believe how quickly the time has gone! In that time I have made 47 posts of recipes and reviews, way more than I ever could have hoped when starting out. I’ve certainly come a long way in my cooking, and continue to learn with everything I make. By blogging I have become competitive with myself, trying to make the dish that I am cooking even better than the last. I’d never have thought that my blog would drive me to make things like ballotines and consommes, and I’m excited about what’s to come in the future. Writing about food has also been really fun, I enjoy the weekly cooking routine and I have met some wonderful like-minded people along the way. Long may it continue!

This recipe is another example of something that I would never have thought of making a year ago. I first discovered the concept of an egg yolk ravioli a while ago when it was featured on a cooking programme, potentially Masterchef from memory. It sounded great; perfectly cooked pasta with a soft filling and runny egg yolk pouring out. All of my favourite things in one go! It did look really complicated though, requiring a very delicate approach to avoid breakages. 

This proved to be the case when constructing the ravioli, but I have to admit that is was easier than I first anticipated. I found that the key is to make a little cup in the filling that will encase and protect the yolk while you seal the pasta. Timings are just the same as I would use when cooking normal ravioli. A poached egg cooks in 2 minutes, so after that time the pasta was cooked and the yolk still good and runny. A great tip with ravioli and pasta in general that I have recently learned is to use cous cous to dust the outside of the finished pasta instead of flour. Whist cooking, flour tends to form a claggy paste around the pasta whilst cous cous just drops to the bottom of the water.

The other thing that I had to think about with this dish was what to serve alongside the ravioli. I have seen it made with just a simple butter sauce in the past, but for this recipe I wanted to add a few more elements. I thought about using mushrooms, which would have been lovely, but I am aware that I have cooked with mushrooms loads recently so don’t want to be too much of a one trick pony! Instead I chose to wait until the British asparagus season was upon us and make use of the extremely short period that such an amazing ingredient is available to us. Those imported Peruvian ones available aren’t nearly as good! Asparagus is so good with boiled and poached eggs so I was sure it would be great with this. By using it simply boiled and in pureed form it makes it a bigger component of the dish and not just something stuck on the side. The other thing that I have used is smoked salmon, which adds a lovely smokey taste and rounds everything off. 

A note on the amarinth leaves. As I have said before, micro leaves should not just be used to make a plate look pretty, as every ingredient should contribute to the overall taste. In this case they add a subtle beetroot flavour with gives the recipe a nice earthiness. If you can’t find any, baby watercress would give pepperiness that would work.

Serves 2

Ingredients: 

For the pasta: 

100g strong ‘00’ flour, plus more for dusting

1 medium egg

1 tbsp olive oil

pinch of salt

150g good ricotta

1 tbsp tarragon leaves, finely chopped 

1/2 lemon, juice only

Salt and pepper

2 egg yolks, whites kept for brushing

1 tbsp cous cous

For the asparagus puree:

6 stalks asparagus, trimmed and cut into 2” pieces

1 lemon, juice only

50g butter, at room temperature and cut into small cubes

Salt and pepper

To finish: 

The tops of 4 asparagus stalks, peeled, the rest used for the puree

4 slices good smoked salmon, trimmed

1 tsp capers, rinsed

A few pinches of red amarinth leaves

First make the pasta dough by tipping the flour onto a work surface. Make a hole in the middle and crack in the egg and add the oil and salt. Using a fork mix well, incorporating the flour bit by bit. When incorporated, knead well with your hands for 5-10 minutes, or until the dough feels smooth and elastic in texture. Wrap with clingfilm and leave to rest for at least fifteen minutes, preferably longer. 

While the pasta is resting make the filling by combining the ricotta, chopped tarragon, lemon and seasoning. Taste and adjust the seasoning if necessary, you want the seasoning to be quite high to balance with the egg yolk. Set aside. 

Put a small saucepan of seasoned water on to boil. 

To make the asparagus puree, boil the asparagus until tender, about 5 minutes. Remove from the water and transfer to a food processor with the seasoning and lemon juice. Blitz well, then add the butter a cube at a time. Combine again. Taste and adjust the seasoning, then strain through a fine sieve into a bowl. Set aside.

When the pasta has rested, remove it from the fridge and using a pasta machine roll it through every setting until it is the thinnest it can be. Cut the pasta sheet into two, and using a 3 1/4” pastry cutter gently mark two circles onto one of the sheets. Arrange one teaspoon of the ricotta mixture in the middle of each circle and create a deep indent that will hold the egg yolk. Very carefully separate the egg yolks, reserving the whites, and tip the yolk into the centre of each filling. Brush some of the egg white around each filling, covering an area larger than will be needed once the pasta is cut. Cut the other pasta sheet into large squares, and one at a time, very delicately position over pile mound of filling. Starting from one end, seal the pasta sheets together, pushing any air bubbles out. When fully sealed, cut around the fillings with the cutter. Dust with a small amount of the flour and move to a plate lined with baking parchment and scattered with the cous cous. Set aside white you finish the dish. 

Fill up 2 saucepans with well seasoned water and bring to the boil. 

When the water is boiling in both pans, drop the asparagus tips into one and boil for 3 minutes. After one of the minutes, put the ravioli into the other pan and cook for the remaining 2 minutes. 

While the asparagus and pasta are cooking prepare the plates. Spoon a generous amount of the puree onto each plate and position the smoked salmon opposite. Top the salmon with some capers and the amarinth leaves. Drain the cooked ravioli and the asparagus and position onto the plates. Drizzle a little extra virgin olive oil around and serve.

Spinach farfalle with mushrooms, celeriac puree, parma ham and a crispy hen’s egg

It feels like ages since I wrote my last blog entry. With December and Christmas being really busy, my Mondays off were spent rushing around sorting presents and preparing for the holidays and time in the kitchen was minimal. Now that we’re back into January I’ve been really looking forward to doing some proper cooking again, and this week was the first time that my Monday lunches got back on the road again. 

I am always thinking up different dishes to make on my days off, and I have been wanted to make this particular one for a while. As always, the dish started off as a simplified version, just some fresh tagliatelle with mushrooms and parma ham, but the more I thought about it, the more bits were added to it until it became the finished meal. No doubt I will think of other ways to further change it as time goes on... 

I have been making fresh pasta for many years now, but have always made ‘cut’ pasta or cannelloni. I have always wanted to have a go at making pasta shapes, but have never got around to it until now. The same goes for making a flavoured and coloured pasta dough. The idea of making farfalle with different coloured halves it not my own. I first saw it whilst watching Masterchef last year, when one of the finalists learned how to make it whilst placed in a London Restaurant (I seem to remember it being with Alain Ducasse but I’m not positive). It seemed like a great idea and fairly straightforward to make, but after making the batch for this recipe it definitely takes a knack to get the pasta just right. I found that the most important thing is making sure that the seam between the two dough pieces is properly sealed before running it through the machine, otherwise the seam can split which makes the finished dough look really messy. It’s well worth trying though as the little bow ties look great once finished. 

The inspiration for this dish came from eating plain pasta (not even any butter or oil!) with breaded chicken as a small child. I used to love the crispy bits of breadcrumb that would find their way into the pasta, and this is replicated with the deep fried egg. It’s funny how childhood eating memories influence the way we eat now, although I’m not sure I’ll be rushing back to syrup sandwiches any time soon!

The key with getting this dish right is balancing the flavours properly. The richness of the egg yolk and saltiness of the parma ham is cut by the acidity in the puree and the earthiness of the mushrooms. No one taste really dominates, they just come together and compliment one another when eaten at the same time. 

This dish can be changed slightly to make it vegetarian. In this case, swap the parma ham for a salty, tangy cheese such as a mild goat’s cheese. 

Serves 2

Ingredients:

For the pasta: 

200g ’00’ strong pasta flour, separated into two 100g amounts, plus more for kneading

2 eggs

50g spinach leaves, tough stalks discarded

1 tbsp olive oil

Salt

2 tbsp dried cous cous

For the crispy eggs:

3 large eggs

100g plain flour

75g panko flakes

Salt and pepper

2 tbsp white wine vinegar

Vegetable oil for frying, about 1.5-2 litres

For the celeriac puree:

1/3 of a large celeriac (about 300g), peeled and chopped into 1in pieces

3 tbsp whole milk

1 tsp wholegrain mustard

40g butter

Salt and pepper

200g fresh girolles, trimmed and cleaned with a brush

100g brown beech mushrooms, trimmed

15g dried porcini mushrooms

20g butter

1 tbsp olive oil

1/2 a lemon, juice only

2 garlic cloves, finely chopped

To finish:

2 slices parma ham

A few shards of parmesan

A few rocket leaves

First make the pasta. Bring a medium saucepan of water to the boil, and when hot, blanch the spinach leaves for a minute. Immediately put the cooked spinach leaves into iced water and leave to cool. Thoroughly squeeze out the water from the leaves so that they are fairly dry. Place into a food processor and blitz until very finely chopped (they should be too dry to really form a puree). Add 1 of the eggs and a pinch of salt and blitz again until will combined. Tip in 100g of the ’00’ flour and mix again until the dough resembles coarse breadcrumbs. Pour onto a work surface and knead really well, until a smooth and elastic dough is formed that is not wet or sticky. Wrap with clingfilm and put in the fridge to rest for at least 30 minutes. 

Now make the plain pasta dough. Put the second 100g portion of flour into a cleaned food processor bowl and add the second of the eggs, the olive oil and a good pinch of salt and repeat the blitzing / kneading / resting process as the spinch dough. 

Using a pasta machine and a little extra flour, roll each dough through each of the thickness settings until you get to the second finest (I only really use the finest setting for filled pasta). Cut each sheet of pasta in half so that you have two narrow pieces of each dough, then cut each piece so that it is about 30cm long; this will make it much more manageable. Carefully brush one long edge of each spinach sheet to about 1cm in, then very gently position the long edge of one of the plain pasta sheets on top. Seal with your fingers. Roll the sealed combined sheet through the second thinnest setting on the machine and you should be left with a sealed sheet with one side spinach dough and the other plain. Cut into 4cm strips, then use a large circular cutter to form the outer edges. Try to make this as even as possible so that the join between the two doughs is in the centre. Squeeze the centre of the strips to form the bow tie shape. Gently flour the completed farfalle, then pour the cous cous onto a plate and position the pasta on top. The cous cous absorbs the moisture but will drop off in the pan whilst boiling. Set aside to dry whilst you prepare the rest of the recipe. 

While the pasta dough is resting, make the crispy eggs. Bring a pan of water to the boil and lower in 2 of the eggs. Cook for 1 minute, then turn the heat off, cover and leave for another 5 minutes. Remove the eggs and place in iced water mixed with the white wine vinegar. Allow to cool thoroughly, then peel the eggs very carefully. Set up 2 small plates and 1 small bowl. Put the flour on one plate, the panko on the other and beat the egg into the bowl. Season each element. Roll the eggs one at a time very gently in the flour to cover then dip into the egg. Finally transfer the eggs to the panko and roll around until fully covered with the breadcrumbs. Set aside until needed.

To make the puree, bring a large saucepan of salty water to the boil and when hot, add the chopped celeriac. Boil for about 10 minutes, or until tender before draining and putting into a food processor with the milk, butter, seasoning and mustard. Blitz very well before tasting and adjusting with milk/butter/seasoning as necessary. Pass through a fine sieve and into a bowl. Keep warm if near to serving, or cool and refrigerate if making in advance to reheat later. 

Put the porcini into a small bowl and cover with boiling water. Leave for 20 minutes to soak before draining, keeping the strained liquid for later. 

While the celeriac is cooking, make the crispy parma ham. Preheat the oven to 190ºC (Fan). Line a baking tray with baking parchment and lay the parma ham on top. Cook in the hot oven for 6-8 minutes or until very crisp. Drain on kitchen paper and break into small shards. 

Fill a large saucepan with water, add salt and bring to the boil. In a separate medium saucepan heat the deep frying oil to 170ºC. Finally, put a large frying pan onto a medium heat. 

When everything is hot, melt the butter with the olive oil in the frying pan. Add the soaked porcini and the garlic and fry for 1 minute, before adding the girolles and season well. At this point, put the farfalle into the boiling water and carefully lower the crumbed eggs into the hot oil. Add the beech mushrooms and lemon juice to the frying pan and cook for a minute, by which point the pasta should be ready. Lift the pasta using a slotted spoon and transfer to the pan with the mushrooms and gently stir everything together. Add a couple of tablespoons of the porcini liquid and cook for another minute, at which point the egg should have turned a golden brown in the oil. Remove from the oil and drain. 

To serve, spoon a little of the puree onto the middle of the plates and top with the crispy eggs. Arrange the farfalle around the egg and top with the mushrooms. Spoon a little of the buttery pan juices over the pasta. Scatter the parma ham, parmesan and rocket around the pasta and serve.