SAUSAGE LENTIL STUFFED CONCHIGLIE

We went to our best friends 40th birthday party last night and the food was some of the best I have ever tasted. They hired the lovely Sabrina Ghayour to do the cooking and she produced an absolute feast from her bestselling cookbook Persiana - it was beyond impressive. Unfortunately I was in a pretty tight dress otherwise I could have spent the entire night just eating and eating and eating….

I wish I could have taken Sabrina home with us today to cook for us forever….however instead it was up to me to provide lunch and Pascal and Arabella had requested pasta (no surprise there)!

Ingredients for 4 people:

300g of giant pasta shells (conchiglie)
Olive oil
8 herby sausages
2 garlic cloves, finely sliced
1 tsp fennel seeds
4 tbsp puy lentils
400g tin chopped tomatoes
1 tbsp tomato puree
300ml chicken stock (I just used beef as that is all I had)
1/2 tub of ricotta cheese
80g Parmesan cheese, grated 

The recipe tells you to fry the sausages however I decided to be a little healthier and grilled them for 10 minutes, turning them halfway through cooking time.

Whilst the sausages are grilling, cook the shells according to their package instructions until they are al dente and then rinse them under cold water to stop them cooking.

Back to the sausages, after 10 minutes (they were almost cooked but not quite), cut them/break them into small chunks and add them to a large frying pan with some olive oil. Try not to spray yourself with oil like I clumsily did!

Add the garlic and cook for a couple of minutes.

Next add the fennel seeds and fry for another minute.

Pour in the lentils.

Then the tomatoes and tomato puree.

Finally add the stock and simmer for 20 minutes until the sauce has thickened. Give it a stir every so often so it doesnt stick and I also broke the sausages a little more so the meat became more mince like. At this point, start preheating the oven to 180C / 160C fan / gas mark 4.

In a shallow oiled baking dish, pour in the shells.

Cover and fill with the sauce.

Dollop over small blobs of ricotta.

Scatter over the Parmesan (obviously I also added extra grated cheddar cheese but this is optional).

Cook for 25-30 minutes until the tops are golden.

Then tuck in!

Pascal and I absolutely adored this - it is like a twist on bolognese. Arabella wasnt so keen - I dont know why, maybe the sausages were too herby or she was just p*ssed off it wasnt her favourite carbonara!! I am becoming a huge fan of lentils and they tasted great, the only thing I would change if I did this again would be to add mushrooms (much to Arabellas disgust) and it would go brilliantly with a green salad. It was really good and very easy and took just over an hour in total to make. You could also prepare it all before if you were having a dinner party or such. 

It wasnt Sabrina Ghayours high standard but I was still proud of the delicious dish!

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CHORIZO ROSEMARY STUFFED ROAST PORK

I had the most incredible meal last night at Kurobuta in Chelsea - I was so busy tucking in that I completely forgot to take photos - at least it has given me an excellent reason to go back as soon as possible! Their "Japanese junk food" was out of this world.

Today being Sunday was roast day and Pascal and I had decided to cook this pork recipe from Olive magazine - you were meant to use a boned pork belly but they didnt sell this in my supermarket so I had to alter the recipe….thankfully it worked!

Ingredients for 3 people:

1kg boneless shoulder of pork roasting joint (mine was from Sainsburys)
1 leek, chopped
Olive oil
1 tsp fennel seeds
1 tsp rosemary needles, chopped
75g chorizo, chopped
Sea Salt

I love recipes with so few ingredients!

One thing to remember when roasting pork is to take the meat out of the fridge a couple of hours before if you can (or even just 30 minutes if that is all you can manage). You want the skin to be dry for the crackling, I helped this along by also patting excess moisture out with kitchen roll.

Start by preheating the oven according to the packet instructions. We preheated ours to 220 C / 200 C fan / gas mark 8.

Prepare the ingredients for the stuffing. Chop the leeks, chorizo and rosemary.

Heat some olive oil in a frying pan and then add the leeks and cook over a low heat for around 3 minutes until they soften. I burnt mine a little as the heat was too high!!

Then add the rosemary and fennel and cook for a minute.

Finally add the chorizo and continue to cook for a further few minutes.

Take off the heat and leave to cool.

Score the pork and rub with olive oil and then rub in sea salt. It always scares me how much salt I use with roast pork but you do need a LOT for good crackling so dont be shy and cover the skin. I assure you, you need more than you think!

Then make a hole and stuff the pork with the chorizo and leek stuffing and tie with string if necessary. Without a doubt some of the stuffing will fall out but dont worry about it. 

Put the pork in a roasting tin and put in the oven for 25 minutes.

After 25 minutes, turn the oven down to 180 C / 160 C fan / gas mark 4. We then cooked our pork for a further 55 minutes however it will depend on the exact size of your joint and the packet instructions.

Rest for 15 minutes.

Finally serve and enjoy. We served it with French peas (recipe to follow).

As roasts go, this was super easy - not too many ingredients, not complicated and not too time consuming. Perfect for a lazy Sunday. The fennel seeds add a great twist to the flavour and it looks impressive too - fantastic for a family lunch or perfect for impressing pals at a dinner party.

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