Cooking inspiration? Just Cook Lasagne

A few years ago I attended a cookery course at Just Cook in Newport, Essex. One of the dishes that I made was a lasagne from scratch: the ragu, the white sauce and the lasagne sheets. It was one of the best I had ever tasted. I’m not being arrogant, it really was – deep in flavour, which was really meaty and flavoursome and extremely filling. Whenever I make lasagne now, I always refer back to the recipe. The key I’ve learnt is to let the ragu to stew for a good two hours and to use a quality pancetta.

I admit, I normally short cut the homemade lasagne sheets, but not today. On seeing how good Lesley Beech’s homemade tortellini was on Twitter, either inspiration struck or the green eyed monster within me. Homemade lasagne sheets it was today. Thanks to Lesley for the cooking inspiration, I’m glad I put the effort in!

The end result … just as nice as I can remember from my cookery course and leftovers for lunch tomorrow!

Cooking inspiration? A fairly healthy salad

A busy day in the kitchen, I’ve been on my feet all day. Today was a day for cooking inspiration….

On reading the November 2012 Good Food magazine, I’ve decided to try healthy lunches this week for work and to stop buying the very tantalising panini from the Italian sandwich bar. I’ve stocked up the ingredients ready for a lentil, carrot and ham salad for Monday lunch. After a nice long walk with the dog today however, I decided to keep up the healthy theme by using some of the ham hock to make a ham and egg salad for lunch. Very tasty indeed and healthy, if it wasn’t for the blue cheese dressing, but it had to be done.

So in the spirit of salad or soup, it’s salad!