Saturday, June 11, 2016

Weekend Cooking: Open Cannelloni with Pork Meatballs

We love a good lasagne in this house, but unless you buy a pre-prepared one, it is a bit of work so it is more a weekend kind of meal, with plenty of leftovers for during the week. Making it from scratch, there's the making the meat sauce, and the white sauce and layering it up and cooking it. It is something that I do semi-regularly using a lower fat recipe which is quite tasty but I have also tried a couple of different recipes for making during the week. One was a slow cooker lasagne which I don't think we need to say much more about because it was truly awful. This recipe, whilst not technically lasagne, is a fair substitute and doesn't take too much time or effort to prepare.

The recipe once again comes from an issue of Diabetic Living, but this time is from a celebrity chef by the name of Michael Moore. Now, to be fair, I don't remember hearing about Michael Moore before, but there was a bonus lift out in the March/April issue. There weren't a lot of recipes that I could try because he used a lot of almond meal in his recipes which don't work with our allergy issues but I was impressed with how simple this seemed and then when I had made it, with how tasty it is.

I would say to make sure that you spread your sauce enough to ensure that the lasagne sheets all have sauce on them otherwise you end up with some crunchy bits. Unless you like crunchy bits of course!

No idea why there is so much talk about lasagne in this post when it really isn't a post about lasagne at all!

Open Cannelloni with Pork Meatballs
Serves 6


485g lean pork mince
1 clove garlic, crushed
1/2 small red onion, finely chopped
1 tspn crushed black peppercorns
Sea salt
1 egg white
Cooking spray
300ml bottled Napolitana pasta sauce
350g fresh egg lasagne sheets
60g grated parmesan

1. Preheat oven to 180C. Mix mince with garlic, onion, black pepper, salt and egg white in a bowl. Dip your hands in cold water. Roll mixture into 14 even meatballs and set aside.

2. Grease a large baking dish and spoon a little Napolitana sauce over the base

3. Trim lasagne sheets into squares and place a meatball into the centre of each one. Place into baking dish; repeat with remaining lasagne and meatballs.

4. Pour over remaining Napolitana sauce to cover and sprinkle with parmesan. Bake in over for 45-50 minutes.

In other news, I had to make chocolate cake this week (yes, had to) but wanted to do something a bit different than just ice it. I made my standard chocolate cake, but rather than using icing I bought a couple of tubs of low fat chocolate mousse from the supermarket and stirred it until it was smooth and then used that as icing! Sprinkle with a crushed up Flake or grated chocolate and voila.

Have to say, I will definitely be doing that again. Easy and very tasty!!



Weekend Cooking is open to anyone who has any kind of food-related post to share: Book (novel, nonfiction) reviews, cookbook reviews, movie reviews, recipes, random thoughts, gadgets, quotations, photographs. If your post is even vaguely foodie, feel free to grab the button and link up anytime over the weekend. You do not have to post on the weekend. For more information, see the welcome post.

Saturday, June 04, 2016

Weekend Cooking: Pulled Pork Ragu

I am trying to be a bit more organised, and if there's one thing I can do it is to cook up something big that we can have for dinner on a Sunday night and some leftovers during the week.

Last year I made this when a friend came around for dinner, but it was only as I was looking through all the back issues of Diabetic Living that I found the recipes again. I think that this particular issue (July/August 2015) is the issue that I found the most recipes I wanted to try since I subscribed to the magazine. I have previously shared a recipe for Green Chicken Curry Pie which also came from this issue and that is a recipe that I still make regularly, and I have got another recipe that I might post later.

This week though I want to share a recipe for Pulled Pork Ragu, a perfect recipe for cool winter afternoons!! When I first made this recipe I was surprised at how simple it really is. So long as you allow enough time for the slow cooking then there is a bit of work, then leave it and when you come back you get this tasty pulled pork. Yum

The actual recipe for this is Pulled Pork Ragu which is served with celeriac, parsnip and parmesan mash but the posh mash part wasn't a hit last time, so now I just cook normal plain mashed potato. Still tasty!!

Pulled Pork Ragu

1 tspn extra virgin olive oil
1.5kg piece pork leg roast, skin removed, trimmed of fat
1 brown onion, finely chopped
2 carrots, finely chopped
2 sticks celery, finely chopped
2 thin slice prosciutto, finely chopped
2 cloves garlic, crushed
125ml (1/2 cup) red wine
400g can no-added-salt chopped tomatoes
400g can no-added-salt tomato puree
2 sprigs rosemary
2 sprigs oregano
Flat leaf parsley leaves, to serve.

1. Preheat oven to 140C (fan forced). Heat oil in a large heavy-based stoveproof and ovenproof dish. Add pork and cook, turning often, for 6-7 minutes or until browned. Transfer to a plate. Add onion, carrot, celery, prosciutto and garlic. Cook, stirring, for 2 minutes. Increase heat to high. Add wine and cook, stirring, for 2 minutes. Add tomato, puree, rosemary and oregano. Bring to a simmer. Return pork to dish. Add to oven and cook, covered, turning once, for 4 hours or until meat starts to fall apart. Transfer pork to a plate, reserving sauce in dish. Set aside for 15 minutes.

2. Using your hands, pull pork into long shreds. Bring reserved sauce in dish to a simmer over a medium heat. Cook for 2-3 minutes or until sauce reduces slightly. Stir in pork.

3. Cook mash potato

4. Divide mash between serving bowls. Spoon over pork ragu. Sprinkle with parsley and serve.


Weekend Cooking is open to anyone who has any kind of food-related post to share: Book (novel, nonfiction) reviews, cookbook reviews, movie reviews, recipes, random thoughts, gadgets, quotations, photographs. If your post is even vaguely foodie, feel free to grab the button and link up anytime over the weekend. You do not have to post on the weekend. For more information, see the welcome post.

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