Simple Pasta and Ragout (did i mention you had to make the pasta?)

Taken on a Canon Eos 350d digital camera

I once had a heated discussion with my mother because she wanted to make lasagna. She bought all of these nice ingredients, ripe juicy tomatoes, fresh basil, minced beef from the meat counter only to discover I have Tesco value lasagna sheets. I didn’t buy them due to lack of funds, I bought them because when you read the ingredients on expensive pasta and value pasta it reads exactly the same 'durum wheat' nothing more, nothing less. To make pasta you mix flour with water. Sometimes you get egg pasta where instead of water you add... yep, that’s right, egg.

So if you're feeding 2 or 20 it’s easy to remember how to make enough pasta for all. Are you ready? 

1 egg and 100g of flour for 2 people. Simple.

If you have a food processor the next part is easy. 

PASTA

Put the flour in the bowl, close the lid, turn on the machine and crack an egg into it, whizz for 30 seconds. done

You’ll need to stretch the gluten in the flour now so pour the crumbs onto a clean surface and knead for a few minutes. Wrap in cling film and refrigerate for about 20 minutes.

If you don’t have a food processor use a mixing bowl, sift the flour in and bore a hole in the middle. Whisk and egg and pour it into the hole and spin the mixture with your fingers to slowly bring the flour into the centre, once it’s all collected you can knead it as above.

Pasta machines look good in a kitchen but if you're not going to use one then pure and simple don't buy one. It’s a utensil not an ornament. If you have one then use it, if you don’t then a rolling pin will do, if you don’t have a rolling pin then a empty bottle of wine will do, if you don’t have one of those then there’s no hope.

After making your pasta sheets, run it through the tagliatelle cutter and toss it in a bowl of flour to stop it sticking to itself. If you don't have a pasta machine cut it by hand.

RAGOUT.

Mince is cheap as anything nowadays, again, check out the reduced aisle as there's always different types of mince reduced. Turkey mince will work when mixed with beef mince. In my local Super Marche I can pick up some value mince for about £1.20 for 250g, which is enough for purpose.

TIP 1. Tomato passata in cartons is cheaper than the majority of tins of chopped tomatoes and you get more for your money. Buy this instead as it will save you money and taste nicer. 

Dice (and I mean dice, not chop) an onion, a carrot and a couple of sticks of celery and fry them in some decent olive oil. When softened remove from the frying pan and fry the mince (a mix of pork and beef is the best but just beef is fine) when browned add the veg and a carton of passata with a good pinch of sugar and a decent amount of seasoning. Stick a lid on it and simmer for a minimum of 1hr 30 mins.

When you think the ragout is at its best, boil some salted water and cook the pasta, drain and add to the ragout. Always mix your pasta and sauce (the only exception is if you're using a pesto for the pasta and having a sauce as well) otherwise your pasta dries out and tastes like nothing. Top with Parmesan and serve with a glass of red wine. delicious 


Price per head hard to quantify as eggs and flour don't come in individual servings. roughly £1.70 per person