Pinching the props

I had no idea when I started out how hard it was going to be to write a recipe book. Indeed I had no appreciation of what goes into developing a recipe. I thought that it would be a simple thing. Cook it, write it down take a photo and hey presto a recipe. yes I know .. that is the process, but throw into that the other things. The exact measuring, the ingredients .. i.e. buying them all and not forgetting a small thing and having to cart off to the shops .. again. The weather. I need daylight to shoot and when it rains .. well there's no point in cooking. Then there the things you know how they should taste and you just can't quite seem to get the taste you want. I've made some recipe 6 times. and finally there the children. My three darling prop eaters. It can drive you mad I say ... I just can't tell you haw many times I've turned my back to find either the children or the cat eating the props !

Just 5 weeks and 5 days until i hand in the manuscript and the pressure is on.

Tomato Pizza & Oregano Bread

This is a perfect recipe for time short foodies. It's two for one. Fresh baked bread and home made pizza – the kids love it – and fast food doesn’t get much better than this. But what I really love about this recipe is that for absolutely no extra effort I can bake a loaf of bread at the same time.. It’s a double cook if you like. There are no extra ingredients, no extra clearing up and it takes no time to make it. In my world that’s smart cooking. It’s easy and fun to make and the kids love to get involved. Spelt flour makes it satisfying and it has a nutty texture, which is lightened by the yeast. The addition of the fragrant oregano gives both the bread and the pizza it a real Mediterranean depth. The tomato sweetened by the honey has an intensified flavor through reducing it slowly. It’s delicious, and worth taking the time to make the dough. Add to that good quality mature cheddar this pizza has depth and natural saltiness. If you can bear to leave some it’s superb cold. Both the dough and the bread and sauce freeze well, so Friday nights I am prepped at the end of a long day for an easy and economical start to the weekend. Serve the pizza with laughter and ice-cream and enjoy your bread with a hunk of cheese for tomorrow’s lunch.

Of course a recipe has to work on a practical level, and seeing as up until now I am the only person to test this combination I asked an expert to test it. So I braced myself for a public answer by asking one of the top bloggers in the blogasphere to test out the practicality of making this and blog about the results. To find out how @EnglishMum ( twitter name) got on testing my recipe you can her superb post that will give you her run down about making this here.

Preparation time 2 hours proving & 20 minutes making

Cooking time 10 minutes for pizza’s and 25 minutes for the

bread.

Makes 2 x 12 inch pizzas

& 1 loaf of bread

Dough

3tbs sugar

12g dried yeast

3 tsp rapeseed oil

3 tbs dried oregano

3tsp salt

225g wholemeal spelt flour

450G plain spelt four

warm water

Sauce for the pizza

2 tins chopped tomatoes

2 tbsp runny honey

2 tbs Oregano

Alternatively you can use spare sauce from Linked Recipe > Garlic Pasta

100g grated strong mature cheddar

1 Put the sugar and yeast into a bowl and add 200ml of luke warm water. Not too hot or it will kill the yeast. Not cold or it will not activate.

Allow this to sit for 10 minutes somewhere warm.

2 Add the oil. Put all the dried ingredients in a large bowl and make a well. Add the yeast to the dry mix. Using a little water at a time mix into dough. This should not be too dry or it won’t pick up all the flour. But add the water slowly as it doesn’t want to be too wet either. Kneed for 10 minutes, by hand or in a food processer. Set this aside somewhere warm and cover with a clean damp tea towel for two hours.

3 In a heavy based saucepan add the tinned tomato, oregano and honey. Bring to the boil and turn down to a very low heat. Simmer gently stirring occasionally over about 45 minutes until the tomatoes are reduced by at least half. Set aside to cool.

4 Put the Dough onto a floured surface and cut into two. Knead gently. (You can freeze it at this point) Cut 1/3 of the Dough away.

5 Cut the 1/3 in half and roll both to 9 inches squares. Transfer to baking trays and share the tomato base equally between the two, ensuring that it is evenly distributed. Scatter with the cheese.

Bake for about 8 – 10 minutes. 450/230/-gas mark 8. Do allow to cool before serving as this improves both the texture and flavor.

6 The 2/3 of the dough that is left transfer into a lightly oiled bread tin. Drop the temperature of the oven (leave the oven door open for a minute or two) to 180/350/ gas 4 and bake for 20 – 25 minutes. When the bread is cooked you can test. On knocking the base it will sound hollow. .. if it doesn’t return to the tin and bake for another 5 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack and allow to cool.

href="http://audioboo.fm/boos/188055-pizza-and-bread.mp3">Listen!

Tomato and Garlic pasta

For as long as I can remember I have eaten this dish, it is the very best pasta dish imaginable. It's fast . just the thing for a hungary time short foodie. The exact origins of it are lost in the mists of time, but my mother is Italian, so there is a connection from Naples somewhere. I am aware that my readers are not six years old, so for the sake of treating you adults I have called this dish tomato and garlic pasta, but in our house, since I was a child, it has always been known as garlic yum yum. Despite the name and the huge amount of garlic in this there is very little direct garlic taste. It is the intense sweet tomato that comes to the front of the pallet, with soft mellow garlic base under this rich sauce. This is a fast dish that has depth. The speed at which you can take the ingredients out of the store cupboard and have this ready to eat on the table is seriously impressive.

It's worth making extra. I use this as the topping for my Pizza.

Linked recipe > Tomato Pizza and Oregano Bread

Ingredients

One medium bulb of garlic

One 200g tube tomato puree

75 ml of olive oil

One pack of 500 g of spaghetti

Fresh Parmesan for serving

Method

Peel and finely chop all the garlic cloves. Put the pasta on to cook according to the instructions on the packet. Add a teaspoon of salt to the water before cooking. Heat the olive oil in a saucepan for a minute or two. Test it is hot enough by dropping a small piece of garlic in, when it sizzles it is hot enough so add the rest of the garlic in. Cook for about 1 -2 minutes. You are not looking to brown the garlic at all to keep the heat at a mid temperature.

Stir in the tomato puree and turn the heat to a slightly lower temperature. Keep stirring. As the tomato cooks it incorporates most of the oil and turns from a fresh red to a deeper darker red. After 4 – 5 minutes it should be done.

Drain your pasta and add to the tomato sauce stirring well. Serve immediately with freshly grated parmesan, a glass of merlot and a crispy green salad to finish.

Makes for 6 people