Ingredients (serves 2):

• 70g of pancetta
• 2 medium courgettes – grated
• 1 garlic clove – crushed and sliced
• 1 egg yolk
• 5 tablespoons of single cream
• 30g Parmesan – grated
• 150g of tagliatelle or fettuccine pasta

Start by frying the pancetta off with a very small amount of oil until golden and crispy, stirring regularly.  Add the grated courgette and garlic and stir it all together then cook for about five minutes or until the courgette is nice and soft.  In a bowl mix together the egg yolk, cream and parmesan cheese.

While you’re frying the pancetta and courgette cook the the pasta to your liking in a pan of lightly salted water.

Once the pasta and courgette are cooked, remove the pasta from the boiling water with tongs and place it straight into the pan with the pancetta and courgette.  Toss it all together and then pour over the creamy sauce and toss once more.  Add a little of the water that the pasta was cooked in if you need more sauce.

Serve up straight away and enjoy this lovely pasta dish!

TIP: This dish can be easily made vegetarian by leaving out the pancetta.

Ingredients (serves 2-3):

• 1 onion – chopped
• 2-3 carrots – sliced
• 1-2 large potatoes – cut into cubes
• 150g of button mushrooms
• 2 tablespoons of olive oil
• 1 teaspoon of dried thyme
• 1 glass of red wine
• 300ml of vegetable stock
• Dash of chilli flakes
• Salt and pepper to taste

Heat the oil in a pan over a medium heat and fry off the onions for a couple of minutes.  Next, add the carrots and potatoes and fry for a further couple of minutes.  Next, add the thyme, chilli flakes and wine and simmer for 3-5 minutes until the alcohol has simmered off.  Pour in the vegetable stock and allow the stew to come to a gentle simmer.  Cook for 15 minutes or so before adding the mushrooms.  Taste the stew to see if it needs any seasoning and then allow to simmer for a further 5-10 minutes.

The stew doesn’t need to cook for too long as you don’t want the vegetables to go too mushy.  Once you’re happy with the flavour and thickness of the sauce and the vegetables are all cooked, serve it up along with some crusty bread.  Enjoy!

Ingredients (serves 3-4):

• 450g of lamb mince
• 1 onion – finely chopped
• 2 garlic cloves – finely sliced
• 2 tablespoons of tomato purée
• 1 teaspoon of cinnamon
• A dash of ground nutmeg
• 1 teaspoon of dried parsley
• 1 teaspoon of dried mint
• 12 cannelloni pasta tubes
• 125g of ricotta
• 125g of Greek-style yoghurt
• 4 eggs
• Salt and pepper to taste

Pre-heat the oven to around 200 degrees C.

Heat some olive oil in a pan and fry off the lamb, garlic and onions until the mince has browned off.  Add the tomato puree, cinnamon and nutmeg and stir for a minute or so.  Then add the parsley and mint and stir for a further couple of minutes on a low temperature.  Remove the pan from the heat and allow to cool for a couple of minutes.

Take one cannelloni tube at a time and stuff with the lamb mixture.  It’s up to you how much lamb you want in each pasta tube, but I wanted them quite well packed.  Repeat that process until all of the lamb is used up.  I found that the best technique was to hold a wooden spatula with one hand and run the cannelloni through the lamb mixture and press it again the spatula, which seemed to force the mixture into the pasta.

Lay out each cannelloni into an oven dish.  Try to keep the cannelloni on one layer rather than stacking them up as this prevents them from cooking evenly and also means not all of your cannelloni will be covered in the sauce.

To make the sauce, mix together the ricotta, eggs and yoghurt then season to taste.  Pour the sauce over the top of the filled cannelloni and bake in the oven for 15-20 minutes or until the topping is bubbling and golden brown.

Serve up straight away with salad or fries.  Enjoy!

Ingredients (serves 1):

For the salsa

• 1/4 mango – chopped
• 1/2 teaspoon of dried mint
• 1/2 teaspoon of dried basil
• 1/2 lemon – zest and juice
• 1/2 lime – zest and juice

For the sweet potato

• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 1 sweet potato – peeled and sliced into 1cm thick rounds
• salt and freshly ground black pepper

For the pork

• 30g butter
• 1 pork chop
• 1/2 orange – juice only

Mix the salsa ingredients together in a bowl and put into the fridge until you’re ready to use it.

For the sweet potato slices, heat the oil in a pan over a medium heat and gently fry the potato for 4-5 minutes per side.  Season the potato on both sides as you’re cooking it.  Cook until golden and tender.

While the potato is cooking get a separate pan and melt the butter over a medium to high heat and then pan fry the pork chop for 4 minutes or so per side.  Add the orange juice and continue to cook the pork for a further couple of minutes per side until cooked through and caramelised on the outside.

Serve up the pork with the potato on the side and top the pork with the chilled salsa.  Enjoy this different combination of flavours!

Ingredients (serves 3-4 as a starter):

• 1 large tomato – finely chopped
• 3 ripe avocados
• 1 large lime – juice
• Handful coriander – roughly chopped
• 1 red onion – finely chopped
• 1 chilli – red or green – deseeded and finely chopped
• Tortilla chips – to serve

Pour the tomato into the bowl that you’re going to serve up the guacamole in.  Cut each of the avocados in half and spoon out the insides into the bowl with the tomatoes.  Break the avocado up a bit if it comes out in to large a chunks.

Add the lime juice, coriander, onion and chilli to the bowl and mix the whole lot up with a fork, making sure that you blend the avocado and tomato together until mostly smooth but still chunky.

Serve up straight away or place one of the avocado stones into the guacamole to keep it fresh for later.  Enjoy with some tortilla chips! 🙂

Ingredients (serves 2):

• 4 flour tortillas
• 3-4 eggs
• Dash of milk
• 3 spring onions – finely sliced
• 2 tomatoes – seeds removed and cut into chunks
• 50g of grated cheddar cheese
• 1 tablespoon of olive oil
• 1/2 tablespoon of cider vinegar
• Salt and pepper to taste

Mix together the chunks of tomato and 1/2 of the sliced spring onions and season with salt and pepper (you can add 1/4 teaspoon of chilli flakes if you like).  In a separate bowl, beat together the eggs and milk.

Heat the oil up in a frying pan and gently fry the remaining spring onions for 30 seconds or so before adding the eggs.  Scramble the eggs and make sure that you move the mixture around the pan so that it incorporates the spring onion.  Cook to your liking then stir in the cheese briefly before removing the pan from the heat.

Divide the mixture between the tortillas then fold them up and slice in half to serve.

Serve up with a side salad and the tomato salsa on the side.

Ingredients (serves 2):

• 150g lemon curd
• 1/2 lemon – zest
• 150ml pot whipping or double cream
• 1/2 punnet of blueberries

Put 2/3 of the lemon curd into a large mixing bowl with the cream and lemon zest and whisk until consistent and thickened.  You may want to use an electric whisk!  Once the mixture can hold it’s own shape pour over the remaining 1/3 of lemon curd.

Take your serving glasses and add a spoonful of the mixture to the bottom then add several blueberries and then another layer of the parfait.  Continue this until you’ve divided the mixture equally between the glasses, or they’re full! 🙂

Top off with any remaining blueberries and put into the freezer for 30 minutes before serving up.  Add some lemon shortbread biscuits on the side if you like.  Enjoy!

Ingredients (serves 2-3):

• 1 tablespoon of olive oil
• 1 large onion – finely sliced
• 200g of cherry tomatoes
• 100g of spinach leaves
• 1 teaspoon of dried basil
• 100g of ricotta
• 50g of grated chedder cheese
• 3 eggs

Pre-heat the oven to 200 degrees C.

Heat the oil in a pan and fry off the onions for a few minutes.  Add the tomatoes to the pan and toss with the onions for 30 seconds or so.  Add the basil and then the spinach leaves and stir it all together.  Pour it all into an oven dish.  Place spoonfuls of the ricotta randomly around the dish and top with the grated cheese.

Whisk together the eggs in a separate bowl and season well then pour evenly over the tomatoes, spinach and cheese.  Cook in the oven for about 20 minutes or until just going golden on the top.  Serve up with some salad or fresh bread.  Enjoy!

Ingredients (serves 4):

• 2 teaspoons of cumin seeds
• 1 teaspoon of chilli flakes
• 1 tablespoon of olive oil
• 1 red onion – chopped
• 140g of red split lentils
• 850ml vegetable stock
• 400g can chopped tomatoes
• 1/2 can of chickpeas – rinsed and drained
• Small bunch of coriander – roughly chopped

In a large pan dry fry the cumin seeds and chilli flakes for around a minute until they release their aromas.  Next, pour in the oil and onions and fry for 3-5 minutes until the onions soften, stirring regularly.  Pour in the lentils, tinned tomatoes and vegetable stock.  Bring to the boil and then simmer for 15 minutes or so until the lentils have started to soften and the soup has reduced a little.

Use a hand blender to blend the soup to a smooth mixture and then add the chickpeas.  Bring back to a gentle simmer and stir in the chickpeas well before leaving to simmer for five minutes.  Season to taste with salt and pepper and stir through the coriander, saving some for decoration if you like.

Serve up straight away with some crusty bread!

Ingredients (serves 3-4):

• 1 pack of puff pastry
• Mixture of cherry tomatoes and normal tomatoes (multiple varieties) – cut in half
• 150g of cheddar cheese – grated
• 2-3 cloves of garlic – finely slicely
• 1-2 tablespoons of olive oil
• 1 teaspoon of dried rosemary
• 1 egg
• Freshly ground pepper

Pre-heat the oven to around 200 degrees C.

Roll out the pastry so that it will fully cover an oven tray.  Once rolled out, transfer the pastry to the tray.  Take a butter knife and mark a perimeter in the pastry about 1″ thick all the way around, being careful not to cut through the pastry!  Then make a criss-cross lattice over the middle of the pastry.

Scatter the halved tomatoes over the pastry along with the garlic and a good drizzle of olive oil.  Lightly whisk the egg and brush a coating of it all around the perimeter of the pastry.  Place the tray into the oven and cook for 10-15 minutes or until the pastry just starts to rise as in the third picture below.

Once it’s reached that stage remove it from the oven and grate over the cheese along with a scattering of rosemary and a good grind of pepper.  Return to the oven and cook until the cheese is all melted and bubbling and the pastry is golden brown.

Serve up straight away with a simple side salad! 🙂