Tasty Lasagne recipe

Pasta is traditionally the staple food of Italy but is equally popular the world over. The word pasta means ‘dough’ or ‘paste’ and is traditionally made from hard wheat.

Good pasta is made from hard durum wheat. The starch is extracted and produces fine, gritty particles or semolina flour. When this flour is mixed with water it forms strong, resilient pasta which can be dried easily and has a very long shelf-life.

 Pasta should be cooked until it is firm to bite, not soft or mushy. Adding a teaspoon of vegetable oil to the cooking water will prevent pasta from sticking together when it is drained, and makes it more palatable.

Pasta is very high in carbohydrates and low in fat and contains some protein, calcium, potassium and phosphorous. Pasta made with enriched flour has thiamine, riboflavin, niacin and iron. Whole-wheat pasta, egg and colored pasta are slightly more nutritious than regular pasta.

For this recipe, lasagna will be used. Lasagna is the broadest of the ribbon pastas and comes as whole-wheat and plain, or with egg or spinach. 

Here is the tasty and easy to make one-dish meal for six to eight servings. 

Ingredients

·         350 g lasagna noodles, preferably whole-wheat

·         125 ml (½ tsp.) salt

·         125 ml (½ cup) chopped walnuts

·         250 g (1 cup) fresh spinach

·         750 ml (3 cups) tomato sauce

·         Freshly ground black pepper to taste

·         250 g (1 cup) chunky cottage cheese

·         60 ml (¼ cup) grated Parmesan cheese

·         12 thin slices mozzarella or any Swiss cheese

Preparation

1. Cook the lasagna noodles in boiling salted water until tender but still somewhat firm – remember the teaspoon oil! Drain.

2. Preheat the oven to 180⁰c (356⁰F)

3. Toast nuts on a baking tray in the oven – stir a few times – for 10 minutes or until roasted

4. Wash and dry spinach and chop into bite-size pieces

5. Spread 190 ml (¾ cup) of the tomato sauce in the bottom of a 20 x 20 cm oven-proof casserole dish. Place one-third of the noodles on top and season lightly with salt and pepper. Cover with one-third of the spinach, one-quarter of the nuts, one-quarter of the cottage cheese, 12.5 ml (1 tbsp.) Parmesan cheese and a layer of mozzarella slices. Repeat these layers twice, and then spread the remaining sauce, nuts and cheeses on top.

6. Bake for 40 minutes and let stand for 10 minutes before serving.

6-8 Servings

Serve with a fresh mixed salad and ciabatta bread.

Enjoy,

Engela

Recipe for baked sardine and tomato roll

Ingredients

·         225g suet pastry

·         125g canned sardines

·          tomato purée

·         Salt and pepper

Method

1.       Heat the oven to 200⁰C

2.       Place the suet pastry on a lightly floured surface and roll out to a  rectangle 20x25 cm.  Trim edges to form a neat rectangle.

3.       Drain the sardines and mash with a fork. Add tomato purée to taste. Season lightly with salt and pepper.

4.       Spread the sardine mixture to within 1 cm  of the pastry edges.

5.       Turn in the edges  of the pastry, mitre the corners and roll up from one short edge.

6.       Oil a large piece of kitchen foil. Wrap and seal the suet roll in it, leaving room inside the parcel for the pastry to expand.

7.       Place on a baking tray and cook for 1¼ hours, unwrapping the top 5 minutes before the end of the cooking time to brown.

8.       Remove from oven. Unwrap completely, turn on to a hot plate and serve immediately.

Enjoy,

Enge

Easy recipe for tasty Brazilian Chicken

This is an easy and tasty recipe. Try it!

You will need:

·         1 onion chopped finely

·         1 cup dry-fry mixture ( ½cup boiling water with 1 tsp. chicken stock powder mixed into it, and ½ cup white wine)

·         4 chicken breast fillets, sliced into thin strips, across the grain

·         1 cup fruit chutney (mild or hot, to taste)

·         2 cups plain fat-free yoghurt

·         4 chives, chopped (optional, but nice)

·         Salt and pepper to taste

·         1 cup basmati rice, cooked in 4 cups water and a pinch of salt

How to prepare the dish:

1.       Put the rice and water on to cook for 10-15 minutes, stirring 2-3 times.

2.       Dry-fry onion in dry-fry mixture: In a normal pan cook the onions dry over a high heat. Whilst you are waiting for them to stick to the bottom , make the dry-fry mixture (½ cup hot water,  1 tbsp. chicken stock powder and ½ cup wine, mixed together).  When the onions are sticking to the base of the pan, use a wooden spoon to lift them and toss them around the heat to get browned on all sides. As they begin really sticking to the bottom of the pan, carefully add tiny amounts of the dry-fry mixture (about 1 tbsp. at a time), to create very hot, scalding steam. Do not add so much fluid that the onions simmer - you will have lost the plot entirely. Toss the onions about and when they start sticking again, add a tiny bit more of the mixture, creating the same hot steam. Wait until they stick before adding the next bit. Continue until the onions are very brown indeed. Then, add the rest of the dry-fry mixture, stir up the brown bits off the bottom of the pan, and let the mixture simmer down until the fluid is evaporated and the onions are moist but no linger bubbling. When the fluid has evaporated, you have a pretty effective non-stick pan in which you can continue cooking.

3.       Add the chicken strips, and toss until sealed and cooked through (about 1 minute).

4.       Add the chutney and heat well while mixing.

5.       Remove from the heat and stir in the chives and yoghurt, allowing the yogurt to warm from the heat of the chutney (Cooking will make it curdle horribly).

6.       Serve immediately on rice, with creamed spinach sachets cooked in the microwave, and patty pans, which have washed and boiled for 5 minutes.

Enjoy,

Engela