Probably one of my favourite foods is Lasagna. I only really started to eat it after I met Mr. Grad all those years ago. I grew up in a very poor family with 6 children and parents who couldn't work due to illness so we tended to eat what we could afford which meant a lot of potatoes, stews, cheap meats etc nothing very fancy. I was 13 before I even ate a strawberry! 22 before I tasted cherries for the first time and 24 before I ate an aubergine! The list is endless really, I am still discovering foods that seems so exotic to me but you see everywhere! Lasagna was way off the list as a kid, beef was too expensive and fresh pasta sheets pretty much unheard of. We were more of a shepherds pie kind of family, which is still my go to comfort food.
But Lasagna... I'd had Lasagna before but it was the ready meal kind, you know, way too salty, way too mushy and far too many calories. I never really liked it until I tried the real deal. Proper Italian lasagna made by a proper Italian Mamma. One bite and I was in heaven, oh the delicious savoury yet slightly sweet meat sandwiched between layers of handmade pasta, oozing creamy bechamella sauce. Sooo good!! It's also one of Mr. Grad's favourite foods so I had to get down to making it!
It took me a while to find a recipe that really hit that sweet spot, there were a few requirements. Primarily, no celery. In my humble opinion celery has no place in a lasagna, or anything else for that matter! I've never eaten a Lasagna in Italy that's had this monstrous thing in it. It's probably one of the most disgusting things I can think of, seriously just... ugh. Béchamel sauce is a must it's not lasagna without it and none of this fancy schmancy one with cheese and goodness knows what else, yeah I've even seem some with celery in it, what is up with that?? Why would you do that? Just a simple, traditional Béchamel is what you want.
So I had a search around and found this Jamie Oliver recipe. The meat sauce totally hit the spot, the creamy sauce, not so much but I just ignore that! Seriously butternut squash? Just... no. So a few adaptations later and I had this Lasagna to serve to the almost in-laws. Nervous? moi? you betcha! But... it's probably the one thing that I've cooked that really turned the almost in-laws opinion, the meal that said 'I can take care of your son.' It was incredibly delicious and they quickly suggested that I could open a restaurant with this dish. High praise indeed!!
I mean look at it, all golden and bubbly and steaming hot with the gooey Béchamel and Mozzarella oozing out and those beautiful crispy bits on the edges that taste soooo good. What more could you want?? It's perfect for these cold winter nights!
So without further ado I give you Lasagna!
We eat a lot of pasta in this house easily 3-4 times a week. Mr. Grad gets withdrawal if he doesn't eat a big steaming bowl of pasta at least once every 2 days. Left to his own devices I'm pretty sure pasta would be his sole food source for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Myself, I love pasta but I can't eat it everyday, I get bored with eating the same food too often. I do have a good repertoire of pasta dishes, most of them are really simple and quick and totally delicious.It's a really cheap way of eating too, you can buy giant 3kg bags of pasta for around £3-4 from the supermarkets which will feed you for a good few weeks! We always have a couple in the cupboard, it's even better value when they run promotional offers and you can pick up a bag for £2!
What I love about Italian cooking is that it doesn't have to be expensive and fancy, in fact expensive and fancy is pretty much the antithesis of Italian cooking! It's all about simple food with good ingredients that are healthy and delicious Pasta is quite central to Italian food and its eaten in one form or another most days. There is also something so comforting about sitting down to a big old bowl of pasta surrounded by family all laughing and joking and sharing in the deliciousness in front of you.
So, Spaghetti Carbonara, we've all heard of it. Spaghetti, Eggs and Bacon combined to make an amazingly delicious dish that ticks all the boxes, cheap, easy, quick, yummy. But, on the market there are some just awful imitations, really I've never understood the need to buy Carbonara Sauce in a jar, it's full of sugar, salt and unnecessary ingredients and additives. Then there are the ready meals that you cook in the microwave, one look at the bowl and its just so unappetizing, a gloopy white mess with stringy things in it... yuck! You can even buy the whole meal in a can, you know the famous baked beans brand, horrifying! We jokingly took a
tin of it back for one of Mr. Grad's friends, 4 years later he still
dare not open it! Seriously people it takes 4 ingredients to make your own (plus the spaghetti) and I guarantee you it's 1000x better!
Carbonara is probably Mr. Grads go to comfort food and I often make it for him at the weekend when he's home for lunch and it always goes down particularly well. Sometimes if he's had a tough day at work I'll make it for dinner, although I don't usually partake in that meal, it's a bit too heavy for me in the evening! But that eggy, carby goodness seems to cheer him right up, or it might be the glass or two of wine... but lets go with the carbonara shall we?
