Not photography's finest hour
A night alone, then. There is a ball of pasta dough in the fridge left from Rosie’s wild garlic and ricotta ravioli, a tube of tomato puree, some milk, and a few other odds and sods. I scoop up 500g pig cheeks for £1.99 from Delia and Heston’s favourite supermarket, as well as a couple of heads of chicory. This meal has cost me no more than £5 and it could serve 4 probably not ravenous people, perhaps with garlic bread for good measure.
While the ingredient list is relatively long, and there are several processes to go through, this really doesn’t require too much of your own time and effort. The hob does most of the work. Nevertheless, if the lasagne palaver isn’t for you, the pig cheek ragu will go terrifically with another pasta – say, tagliatelle.
Serves 4
For the pig cheek ragu
500g pig cheeks
An onion, peeled and finely chopped
A stick of celery, trimmed and finely chopped
A clove of garlic, peeled and finely chopped
400ml red wine
3 tbsp tomato puree
A bay leaf
Salt, pepper, olive oil
For the white sauce
25g butter
2 tbsp plain flour
300ml milk (makes quite a thick sauce, add more milk for a wetter end product)
A handful of grated parmesan
A little grated nutmeg
The rest
4-6 sheets of lasagne/rolled fresh pasta
Parmesan cheese
*****
- In a saute pan or lidded frying pan (lid firmly in drawer for the time being), heat a drop of oil over a brutish flame. Brown the pig cheeks for a minute or so on each side, seasoning with salt and pepper as you do, then remove to a plate. Bring the heat right down and add a little more oil if necessary, then add the onion, celery and garlic. Cook over a low heat, stirring regularly, until softened. This will take up to 10 minutes. Be very suspicious of any recipe that tells you it only takes ‘a couple of minutes’.
- Now your vegetables are soft, whack the heat back up and add the wine and tomato puree, stirring to mix the puree through. Bring to a boil and simmer for a minute or two, then add the pig cheeks and bay leaf. Cover and braise quietly over the lowest heat for an hour and a half to two hours.
- Meanwhile make the white sauce. Melt the butter over a medium heat and stir in the flour. Cook for a couple of minutes, stirring regularly, then slowly add the milk, continuing to stir as you go. Warming the milk first expedites the process but also uses another saucepan. Season with nutmeg, salt and pepper, and simmer for 5 minutes before adding the parmesan. Take off the heat and set aside.
- Bring a pan of salted water to a boil and add the pasta sheets. Simmer for 1 minute, drain, and run under a cold tap.
- Have a cup of tea.
- When the pig cheeks collapse under a prod from a spoon, they are ready. Take off the heat and attack with a fork until the meat is broken up.
- Take a medium-sized, oven-proof dish, and bespatter it with a few flicks of white sauce. Add a spoonful or two of pig cheek ragu then top with a sheet of pasta. Repeat until finished, making sure there’s enough white sauce to spread over the final sheet of pasta. Finish this with a good grating of parmesan and set aside/refrigerate until ready.
- Preheat the oven to 180C. Bake the lasagne for 25-30 minutes, until golden on top and bubbling within. Serve with something green. I cooked halves of chicory face down in butter. Not a bad choice.
