Eye for a Recipe

This is another great recipe from Jamie Oliver’s 5 Ingredients Mediterranean. Pull the sausage meat out of its casing to make meatballs, brown them and set aside. Cook vegetables and tomatoes, add feta and meatballs and bake for about a half hour. Cook’s note: I used finely chopped fresh onion, carrot and celery instead of frozen.

Avoiding Additives and Preservatives

I used Free From hot Italian sausages, Eden butter beans, Unico tomatoes and Krinos feta cheese. All are additive-free.

Remove sausage meat from casings and form into meatballs

Giant baked beans with sausage meatballs

Ingredients:

6 hot Italian sausages (1 lb/454 g)

12 oz (340 g) frozen or fresh chopped mixed onion, carrot and celery

1 x 24 oz (680 g) jar of giant butter beans or 2 x 15 oz (425 g) cans of butter beans

2 x 15 oz (425 g) cans of plum tomatoes

7 oz (200 g) feta cheese

Preparation:

Preheat the oven to 350 F (180 C). Place a large non-stick ovenproof frying pan on a medium heat with 1 tablespoon (15 ml) of olive oil. Pull the sausage meat out of the casings into rustic 1-inch (3-cm) balls and put straight into the pan. Brown all over for 3 minutes, then remove to a plate. Place the mixed veg in the pan and cook for 10 minutes, stirring regularly, then tip in the beans (juices and all). Scrunch in the tomatoes through clean hands, season with black pepper, then bring to the boil. Finely break up and stir through half the feta, dot in the sausage meatballs, then coarsely break the rest of the feta into chunks and scatter on top. Bake for 25 minutes, or until golden, thick and bubbling away. Serve as is or with a hunk of fresh bread for dunking and mopping up the sauce. Serves 6.

From 5 Ingredients Mediterranean

This recipe from Jamie Oliver’s 5 Ingredients Mediterranean stuffs roasted onions with a savoury mixture of sausage meat and feta. The stuffed onions cook with tomatoes and rice for a tasty one-pot meal.

Avoiding Additives and Preservatives

I used President’s Choice Free From hot Italian sausages, Krinos feta and Blue Menu tomatoes.

Stuffed onions

Ingredients:

4 large onions, yellow, white or red

6 sausages (about 1 lb/454 g)

2 oz (57 g) feta cheese

1 14-oz (414 ml) can plum tomatoes

1 1/3 cups (333 ml) basmati rice

Preparation:

Preheat oven to 400 F (204 C). Peel the onions and halve widthways across the middle, then place in a large shallow casserole pan. Season with sea salt and black pepper. Drizzle over 1 tbsp (15 ml) olive oil, then roast for 30 minutes. Remove the sausage casings and squeeze the sausage meat into a bowl. Mix in most of the feta and set aside.

Transfer the cooked onions to a board. Carefully remove and coarsely chop the cores, then add just the chopped onion to the pan and place over medium heat. Scrunch in the tomatoes through clean hands and more in 1 can of water. Bring to a simmer, then add the rice and mix together well.

Separate the onions into rings and divide the sausage mixture among the rings. Arrange on top of the rice, squashing them right in. Drizzle with 1 tbsp (15 ml) olive oil, then roast for 20 minutes or until golden on top and the sausage and rice are cooked through. Crumble the remaining feta over and serve. Serves 4.

From 5 Ingredients Mediterranean

I usually shy away from “5-ingredient” recipes, but after reading a review of Jamie Oliver’s 5 Ingredients Mediterranean I decided to give it a try. This recipe for simple steamed fish was quick, easy, colourful and tasty. While cooking the peppers and leek, make a quick dressing of oregano, orange juice, red wine vinegar and oil (olive oil, salt, pepper and vinegar are considered pantry staples and are not counted toward the five ingredients). Nestle the fish into the cooked vegetables and steam until cooked through. Drizzle with the dressing and serve.

Avoiding Additives and Preservatives

I used Eden Organic red wine vinegar.

Put peppers and leek in shallow pan

Cook for about 15 minutes

Make dressing while vegetables cook

Nestle fish on top and steam until cooked through

Simple steamed fish

Ingredients:

4 x 5 oz (150 g) white fish fillets (I used branzino fillets)

3 mixed-colour peppers

1 large leek

½ a bunch of oregano (0.5 oz/10 g)

1 large juicy orange

Preparation:

Put a large shallow casserole pan on a medium heat. Chop the peppers into 0.8-inch (2-cm) chunks, discarding the seeds and stalks, adding them to the pan as you go with 2 tablespoons (30 ml) of olive oil.

Quarter the leek lengthways and wash, then slice 0.8-inch (2-cm) thick. Add to the pan, season with salt and black pepper, and cook for 15 minutes, or until sweet and lightly golden, stirring regularly and adding splashes of water, if needed.

Strip the oregano leaves into a pestle and mortar with a pinch of salt and pound into a paste. Squeeze in half the orange juice, then add 1 tablespoon (15 ml) of red wine vinegar and 2 tablespoons (30 ml) of extra virgin olive oil and muddle together.

Rinse the fish and pat dry with kitchen paper. Nestle the fish into the veg, squeeze in the remaining orange juice and add ½ cup (125 ml) of water, then cover the pan, reduce the heat to low and cook for 7 minutes, or until the fish is just cooked. drizzle the orange dressing over the fish and veg and serve. Serves 4.

From 5 Ingredients Mediterranean

These tasty chicken legs from Jamie Oliver are quick and easy to make and are a great weekend dinner on a chilly night. Nestle chicken legs, basil, tomatoes, garlic and hot pepper in a baking dish and cook low and slow until the chicken is tender and the skin is crisp.

Avoiding Additives and Preservatives

This recipe uses all-natural ingredients. If you use dried hot pepper flakes, check to be sure they don’t contain colour or anti-caking agents.

Nestle chicken legs in baking dish and add tomatoes, garlic, basil and spices

Tender and crisp chicken legs

Ingredients:

4 chicken legs

Sea salt & freshly ground black pepper

1 big bunch fresh basil, leaves picked, stalks finely chopped

2 big handfuls red and yellow cherry tomatoes and ripe plum or beefsteak tomatoes, cherry tomatoes halved, plum tomatoes quartered

1 whole bulb garlic, broken into cloves

1 fresh red chile, finely chopped, or a big pinch of dried chile flakes

Olive oil

Preparation:

Heat your oven to 350°F (180°C). Season your chicken pieces all over with salt and pepper and put them into a snug-fitting pan in one layer, skin side up. Throw in all the basil leaves and stalks, then chuck in your tomatoes. Scatter the garlic cloves into the pan with the chopped chile and drizzle over some olive oil. Mix around a bit, pushing the tomatoes underneath.

Place in the oven, uncovered, for 1½ hours, turning any of the exposed tomatoes halfway through, until the chicken skin is crisp and the meat is falling off the bone. If after an hour or so the skin isn’t crisping to your liking, you can put it under the broiler for a bit at the end, rotating the pan occasionally and watching closely, until you get the skin as brown as you like. Just don’t let the sauce simmer too vigorously or the meat might toughen up.

You can serve the chicken with some simple mashed potatoes. Squeeze the garlic out of the skins before serving. You could even make it part of a pasta dish—remove the chicken meat from the bone and shred it, then toss into a bowl of linguini or spaghetti and serve at once. Serves 4.

From Jamie Oliver

This pasta dish from Jamie Oliver’s Meals in Minutes is a favourite of his wife, Jools. It’s very good and doesn’t take long to make. Mix together scallions, carrot, celery, sausages and spices in the food processor, then cook in a frying pan. Add garlic, balsamic vinegar and canned tomatoes and toss with cooked penne. You can top it with parmesan cheese if you like.

Avoiding Additives and Preservatives

Sausages, spices, balsamic vinegar and canned tomatoes may contain artificial ingredients. Look for all-natural sausages and spices with no colour or anti-caking agents. I use a balsamic vinegar with only naturally occurring sulfites and Unico brand tomatoes.

Cook the sausage meat and vegetable mixture

Add garlic, balsamic vinegar and tomatoes

Jools' Pasta

Ingredients:

4 scallions

1 carrot

1 stick of celery

1–2 fresh red chilies

3 or 4 good-quality sausages

1 heaped teaspoon (5 ml) fennel seeds

1 tsp (5 ml) dried oregano

500 g dried penne

4 cloves of garlic

4 tbsp (60 ml) balsamic vinegar

1 400 g can of chopped tomatoes

A few sprigs of Greek basil, or regular basil

Preparation:

Turn your oven to 375°F (190°C). Put a large frying pan on a high heat. Put the standard blade attachment into the food processor.

Trim the spring onions, carrot and celery. Roughly chop all the vegetables, then blitz in the food processor with the chilies (stalks removed). Add the sausages, 1 heaped teaspoon (5ml) of fennel seeds and 1 teaspoon (5 ml) of oregano. Keep pulsing until well mixed, then spoon this mixture into the hot frying pan with a lug of olive oil, breaking it up and stirring as you go. Keep checking on it and stirring while you get on with other jobs.

Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Season well then add the penne and cook according to packet instructions.

Crush 4 unpeeled cloves of garlic into the sausage mixture and stir in 4 tablespoons (60 ml) of balsamic vinegar and the tinned tomatoes. Add a little of the starchy cooking water from the pasta to loosen if needed.

Drain the pasta, reserving about a wineglass worth of the cooking water. Tip the pasta into the pan of sauce and give it a gentle stir, adding enough of the cooking water to bring it to a silky consistency. Taste, correct the seasoning, then tip into a large serving bowl.

From Jamie Oliver’s Meals in Minutes