Italian Stuffed Chicken Breasts by The Fat Foodie
This recipe for Italian stuffed chicken breasts is one of my go-to summer recipes which I cook all the time because it’s very quick to make, it’s really rewarding in flavour and it’s a nice, light main meal for those days when the sun is melting the tar on the roads. Continue reading
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Saltimbocca by The Fat Foodie
Although I enjoy eating most meat I’m not a fan of veal at all. Leaving aside ethical concerns about how veal is raised and slaughtered, the fact is, I simply don’t enjoy the taste of it. I didn’t realise that saltimbocca is traditionally made with veal until I decided to make it one day, but after doing some research online I thankfully discovered that a lot of professional chefs believe that saltimbocca is actually far tastier when made with pork escalopes instead.
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Courgetti with Meatballs by The Fat Foodie
I missed the whole Spiralizer
I tend to buy courgettes quite frequently so I’m pretty much guaranteed to always have some in the fridge and I reasoned that they’d be an ideal vegetable to try out the Spiralizer
I must admit, I was really sceptical as to whether the courgetti would be tasty because courgettes aren’t exactly known for naturally brimming over with flavour anyway, but oh my goodness, when I tasted the finished meal I realised that they were actually delicious! They were also very filling and made a very substantial meal.
All I’d done was fry balls of sausagemeat in a large frying pan before adding the courgetti and cooking until it became soft and then adding the pesto and stirring it through it. It was as simple as that, but good grief, it was outstanding. The courgette spaghetti added not only a lovely fresh flavour to the meal, but a delightful and substantial texture too. Whereas normal spaghetti is fairly flavourless and bulky, the courgetti really added an element of interest to the dish and complemented the sausage meatballs really well.
Courgetti with meatballs might sound quite plain and it might not entice you into purchasing a Spiralizer
Ingredients:
2 large courgettes (no more than 240g in total of spiralized courgette)
1 jar of red pesto (I used dairy-free)
1 pack of gluten-free sausages
Method:
Remove the sausages from their casings and form small meatballs with them. Fry them in a frying pan until cooked.
While the meatballs are cooking Spiralize
Freshly Spiralized Courgetti
Once the meatballs are cooked add the courgetti and fry until just soft.
Courgetti with Meatballs by The Fat Foodie
Stir the red pesto through the courgetti and serve.
Courgetti with Meatballs by The Fat Foodie
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Free From Lasagne by The Fat Foodie
Everyone loves lasagne, it’s just one of those universally adored dishes that Italy’s renowned for. However, when I went dairy-free and onto the low FODMAP diet I was concerned that it would be off the cards because it normally has lots of onion, garlic and cheese in it, but I made a conscious effort to adapt my usual lasagne recipe into a FODMAP friendly one and it seemed to have been successful.
When I started looking into the FODMAP diet and for ways to incorporate onion and garlic flavours into my cooking I discovered that you can use chives without it having any impact on your IBS and that garlic-infused oil is fine to use too, as long as you don’t consume the actual garlic itself. During my onion-based investigations though (forgive me, I’ve been reading a lot of old-school crime novels lately), I also found out that there is an Indian spice called asafoetida
Now, you’ve got to be careful when buying asafoetida because some of the spice mixes are blended with gluten flours to make it less potent (it’s a very strong spice), but there are some, such as this one
I’d really recommend trying asafoetida if you’re on the low FODMAP diet and you ordinarily enjoy onion and garlic flavours in your cooking because it definitely does what it says on the tin. As a result, my lasagne sheets were layered between a rich, thick, onion-infused meaty ragù that was just as satisfying as the standard version. This free-from lasagne is also topped with a creamy, cheesy dairy-free white sauce that definitely doesn’t make you feel like you’re missing out on dairy (although if you’re not dairy-free you could just use a couple of sachets of cheese sauce mix instead).
I served the free-from lasagne with a fresh green salad that was liberally dotted with fat, plump little jewel-green caperberries whose piquancy cut through the richness of the lasagne and added a tart freshness to the dish, but feel free to just serve it with chips if you’d prefer. You’ll find no judgement here from me, my friends.
Ingredients for the pork ragù:
450g pork mince (use beef if you’d prefer)
200g red bell pepper (diced)
1 tbsp olive oil
2 tsps dried oregano
360g of tinned chopped tomatoes
1 tsp salt
1 tsp asafoetida
Gluten-free lasagne sheets
Dairy-free cheese for lasagne topping
For the white sauce:
25g dairy-free butter
25g gluten-free flour
1/2 tsp ground black pepper
2 tbsps Engevita
200ml rice milk
Preheat your oven to 190C/170C Fan/375F/ Gas mark 5.
Method to make the ragù:
Put the pork mince in a saucepan with 1 tbsp olive oil and cook until done.
Add the red peppers, oregano, salt, asafoetida, chopped tomatoes and tomato puree and cook until hot.
To make the white sauce: melt the butter in a saucepan over a medium heat before whisking in the flour, black pepper and Engevita.
Slowly add a little rice milk at a time, stirring continuously, so that eventually a thick sauce is created. (Don’t panic if it looks really lumpy, just keep stirring and adding more milk and it’ll come together.)
Once the white sauce is thick take it off the heat .
Take a rectangular casserole dish
Whisk the egg thoroughly into the white sauce mixture, pour on top of the lasagne, top with the dairy-free cheese and bake in the oven for around 45 mins.
Serve with a salad (and/or chips!).
Free From Lasagne by The Fat Foodie
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