Nigella Lawson's Italian Apple Pie

We've unpacked my cookery books! Finally after months of having to cook from memory I'm able to try out the huge list of recipes I've flagged for testing. One of the books I was really looking forward to getting my hands one was Nigellissima: Instant Italian Inspiration and so when I decided to have my family for a summer supper in the garden I cooked two recipes from it. The first was a pasta dish which was perfectly nice but needed some tweaking (in my opinion). The other recipe was this Italian Apple Pie which I did at the last minute realising I'd forgotten about pudding and I had some apples that needed using up.

I was really focussed on the pasta and indeed so focussed that I was happily gossiping outside not realising that the alarm was going off to let me know the pie was reading - meaning it had a few charred patches. A disaster I thought, bin it immediately. However, I was persuaded to serve it and I am so glad it was saved from the bin. It was incredibly delicious and unusual and actually very light for what is basically a cake (the sponge was so good I'm going to use this method for other cakes) and great with double cream (and strawberries on the side) for a pudding or indeed with a cup of coffee as elevenses, It is incredibly easy to make and Ned loved it so much that he learnt to say 'cake'!

Italian Apple Pie

Serves 8

100g soft unsalted butter, plus more for greasing
250g plain flour
2 tsp baking powder 
pinch of salt
150g caster sugar
2 eggs
zest 1 unwaxed lemon
1 tsp vanilla extract
75ml full fat milk, at room temperature
3 pink lady apples, or any crisp eating apples (approx 500g in total)

You will need to grease a 22/23cm springform cake tin and line the bottom with baking parchment. Pre-heat the oven to 200C/Gas Mark 6/400F.

1. Into a food processor put the flower, baking powder and a pinch of salt, 100g soft butter, caster sugar, eggs, lemon zest, and vanilla extract, and blitz until it forms a thick smooth batter. Then, with the motor still running, pour the milk gradually down the funnel to lighten the mixture.

2. To do this by hand, beat the butter and sugar together until pale and creamy, then beat in the eggs, followed by the flour, baking powder, salt, vanilla, lemon zest, and milk until you have a batter with a soft dropping consistency.

3. Halve 1 of the apples, the peel, core and chop one half into approximately 1cm cubes, add these to the batter and either pulse to mix, or beat in. Pour your batter into the springform tin.

4. Quarter and core the remaining apples (including the unused half apple), leaving the skin on, then finely slice them and arrange in concentric circles (or how you can) on top of the cake batter.

5. Mix together the brown sugar and cinnamon and sprinkle this over the apples, then bake for 40-45 minutes, by which time the cake should be risen and golden. Piece with a metal skewer, should have only a few crumbs sticking to it when removed.

6. Leave to cool for 1 hour, before springing it out of the tine to cut and serve warm, or leave to cool completely once out of the tin

Lamb Ragu

I'm not a huge fan of lamb, as you'll see if you click on 'Lamb' in the cloud on the right. However, in my frenzy to cook as much as possible from Nigellissima: Instant Italian Inspiration and because the picture looked so damn yummy I decided to try  out her Lamb Ragu. She also describes it as one of her 'go to weekday suppers' and well, I was having friends to supper, it was a Thursday, I thought I'd give it a try. Typically it was the picture that made me want to cook, and eat, this recipe and what with feeding the baby, putting him to bed, cooking and drinking vast amounts of wine I forgot to take a picture. I'll add one next time I cook it. And there will be a next time.

Nigella always bangs on about these exciting types of pasta that I vow to get next time I'm near anywhere that sells such a thing but I always end up ordering online from Sainsburys, so instead of the mafaldine or pappardelle that the recipe requires, I used good old tagliatelle and it worked just fine.This is a great alternative to normal bolognaise as the lamb mince can be in the freezer and everything else is store cupboard stuff. I have to admit that I left off the fresh mint and I'm not a huge fan and added a squirt of tomato ketchup towards the end of cooking as I felt it needed a little sweetness... whether you decide to do that or not is up to you.

Lamb Ragu

Serves 2

1 ½ tbsp garlic oil
1 banana shallot, chopped
1 tsp dried mint
1 tsp dried oregano
¼ tsp dried chilli flakes
250g minced lamb
1 x 400g can chopped tomatoes
2 tsp redcurrant jelly
1 ½ tsp Worcestershire sauce
salt
pepper
200g mafaldine or pappardelle (or whatever pasta you can find)
Fresh mint, to serve (optional)

I doubled the quantities and cooked this in a round le creuset but a heavy bottomed saucepan with a lid would do just as well. Whatever you usually put your bolognaise in basically. I also cooked this on a low heat for about double the amount of time because that was easier when you have people coming over.

1. Put a large pan of water on to boil, then warm the garlic oil in a small, heavy-based pan (with a lid) and cook the shallots, stirring, for 2 minutes.

2. Sprinkle in the herbs and chilli, stirring again in the hot pan before adding the mean and cooking for a couple of minutes, stirring to break it up with a wooden spatula or spoon until it loses a bit of the pinkness.

3. Add the tomatoes, redcurrant jelly, Worcestershire sauce, pinch of salt and some grindings of pepper, give it a good stir and bring to the boil, then partially cover with the lid and simmer for 20 minutes.

4. Salt the pasta water and cook the pasta according the instructions, and your taste.

5. Once the pasta is cooked, and not too efficiently drained, return the pasta to the pan and dress it with the ragu. Spinkle a little fresh mint and serve.

Meatzza

My husband has never been able to pronounce things correctly. So much for his university education. When I met him he would say burlesque to rhyme with barbecue, it was only a couple of years ago I sorted out the Arkansas problem for him and literally months ago that we had a sit down discussion about reneged having a hard ‘g’. I thought it was all over but no, thanks to Nigella and her lovely new book Nigellisima I now have to deal with regular requests for the ‘Meatatza’. He means Meatzza. 

On second thoughts maybe this annoying inability to pronounce quite a simple word was a deliberate ploy to get me to cook it so we could move on. It worked. I cooked it for our romantic Friday night that I’d been planning involving booze and a new Midsommer Murders that actually ending up being me and Most Haunted while Joe wolfed his Meatzza and returned to his computer to get his award for slowest. Worker. Ever.

A quick word on Nigella’s latest series – loved it. Far less simpering and saucy sideways glances, amazing figure, amazing clothes, updated fab makeup and yummy recipes. A big improvement (although I did watch and love Kitchen she was a bit OTT wasn’t she?). And the accompanying book is just lovely – completely different to her usual look and easy to follow.

Now for the Meatzza which she says is the most requested recipe in the book. It was delicious and very simple to make but kind of hefty. Admittedly the recipe is for 4-6 people and there are only two of us, and yes we did finish it (see my constant twitter complaints about how I’m not losing weight even though I’m breastfeeding). But on its own for 4-6 people I feel it would need something with it – salad or tagliatelle perhaps?

Also would like to add that mince doesn't photograph well... I tried.

Meatzza

Serves 4-6

500g minced beef

3 tbsp grated Parmesan

3 tbsp breadcrumbs or porridge oats (not instant)

3 tbsp chopped fresh parsley

2 eggs, lightly beaten

1 clove garlic, peeled

salt and pepper to taste

butter, for greasing

1 x 400g can chopped tomatoes

1 tsp garlic oil

1 tsp dried oregano

1 x 125g ball of mozzarella (not Buffalo), halved then sliced

few leaves fresh basil

Preheat the oven to 220C/425F/Gas Mark 7. You'll need a large mixing bowl and a round baking tin,  although I used a round Le Creuset, about 28cm in diameter. I didn't add enough salt, do not be afraid of salt in this recipe, it is your friend, if in doubt heat up a small frying pan and fry off a tiny bit of the mince mixture to try it for seasoning.

1. In a large bowl, using your hands, combine the mince, Parmesan, breadcrumbs, parsley and eggs. Grate in the garlic and add some salt and pepper. Do not overwork it, just lightly mix together, or the meat will become compacted and dense. 

2. Butter your dish or baking tin and turn the meat into it, pressing the mixture lightly with your fingers to cover the bottom of the dish. 

The mince base

3. Make sure you've drained as much juice as you can from the chopped tomatoes, then mix the tomatoes with the garlic oil, oregano and some salt and pepper and spread, using a rubber spatula, lightly on top of the meat base. Arrange the mozzarella slices on top.

4. Cook for 20-25 minutes by which time the meat should be cooked through and the mozzarella melted. 

5. Remove from the oven and let it sit for 5 minutes then cover with the basil leaves and cut into wedges like a pizza to serve.