Anything But Bolognaise

It was a small but select group of MFM at Norfolk St last Thursday for 'Anything But Bolognaise' Italian evening. The house smelt wonderfully bready as I'd made foccacia for nibbles and given that the yeast was rather unresponsive it turned out ok after pouring copious amounts of olive oil over it. Given that the previous week was all about lots of butter and cream, I thought I'd better look after the arteries of my MFM... No heart attacks please cherubs!

With the dulcet tones of my 'Best of Bogan' playlist providing a suitable background, we started with quite possibly the easiest and most scrumptious dessert in the world - cream + raspberries + sugar = pink deliciousness. Whenever I make this I am reminded of the Dr Seuss story 'The Cat in the Hat Comes Back' where he turns the snow pink, it is exactly the colour of the gelato.

After putting the gelato in the freezer away from temptation we started on bruschetta topping complete with much maligned anchovies. I love using anchovies, they have a fantastic depth of flavour and add a great bass note to savoury things. We'll be using them with lamb at some stage too and in warm potato salad and in salade nicoise - be prepared guys!

It's such a shame that the tomatoes we get nowadays are so tasteless, the wee tinned cherry tomatoes (Mutti Italian brand) are a good substitute and I really like those Hungarian peppers from the market, I'll definitely be buying more of those. Bet they'd be great with the Havoc sausages we used in the first sauce as well.

Hope you try the pasta sauces, as long as you have managed to be organised enough and have the ingredients in the fridge they are the ultimate in fast food, minus the chemicals and manufactured flavours of bought sauces. Let me know if you experiment, they are so adaptable. The main thing to remember though is not to crowd the flavours, keep it simple.

I trust you have all gone out and got yourselves a lemon zester, my ultimate favouritest gadget. Lemon is really underrated as a flavour I love using it; not bad with a medicinal gin either... and it keeps scurvy away.

Not sure what'll be happening next week. I'm hoping that we'll get a few new members, so I might re-run this week's lesson - those who were here last Thurs are more than welcome to just come and chat and have a turn cooking if you'd like (of course you wouldn't have to pay for that session - and you might get more gelato). Will text you all later.

I'm writing this from bed and it's lunchtime so I really should get up but, oh well, it is a rainy Sunday and I need to conserve my strength for the football tomorrow morning. Take care, eat well, see you all soon!

Manfood take 1

Contrary to the worries of some Manfoodmen (MFM), Manfood does not have a secret handshake and there will be no voting off based on a poor performance in garlic crushing. Manfood is the time where MFM can think about food and cooking without someone over their shoulder telling them that things should 'be done this way' - except me (the Manfoodmaid) of course!

MFM can confess to their secret love of tofu and delicately flavoured broad bean mash without fear of ridicule; they can feel free to ask questions about all the culinary tips that most women just seem to know and take for granted, eg: why potatoes have to be cooked starting with cold water. Personally, I fancy that many MFM missed out on these tips because they weren't made to help out with dinner like their sisters were - I well remember cooking oodles of potatoes every evening; mind you I didn't have to do the fencing or the lambing beat like my brother and was never very amenable to spraying the blackberry...

Manfood kicked off last Thursday as 5 intrepid MFM to be made the trek to Norfolk St in order to imbibe, consume and converse while hopefully taking in some cooking instructions from the Manfoodmaid. With a good selection of beverages flowing and the talk mainly staying out of the gutter, French-style beef with paprika and fennel, extremely non-diet mashed potatoes and plum clafoutis were served up with intelligent questions asked and hopefully understandable answers given!

I would like to thank all the lovely MFM, I had a fantastic time and am really looking forward to this coming Thursday when quick & easy Italian food is on the menu with nary a plate of spag bol to be seen. Do feel free to bring along another MFM if you'd like, the more the merrier; I reckon the limit for the kitchen is about 8, but extras can always be squeezed in - if you could let me know in advance that would be useful too, but not essential.

Till next week cherubs,

LJW xxx