Deliciously Simple Dinner Recipes | Gordon Ramsay

The secret to making great food is to ensure you lock in every last ounce of flavour in that pan. And this spicy sausage rice does exactly that. Take the spicy sausages and pierce that skin, because I want all that delicious spicy sausage meat out of its casing. And you get more flavour from the sausage when you take them out of the casing. Sausage is ready. Turn on the gas. Bread onion. Less acidic than a big white Spanish onion, and a lot more flavoursome. Tablespoon of olive oil. A tablespoon only, because I want all that fat coming out of the sausages to sort of really help flavour the onions. Onions in. And the onions go in first because you can never rush cooking an onion. It's really important to sort of give them five to six minutes in the pan, so you can really start to caramelise them. And now for my pepper. Slice round. Wasting nothing. I want to see that sort of little core, those pips in the centre. No fine diced pepper. The rice is going to be cooking for 20 minutes, so I want the veg to sort of have texture after it's cooked. Peppers in. A bit of garlic. Two nice cloves. Just slap down. Off with the shell. Garlic in. Now, we'll turn up the gas. Get the pan nice and hot because the minute that sausage goes in, everything cools down and you'll end up boiling the peppers and the onions and the garlic. So, heat up to maximum. And then just make a well in the centre. In. Now, start stirring quickly. And this is where you get so much more bang for your buck out of the sausages because the skin's off and the real flavour of that spicy Italian sausage is going to come through. What's great about this recipe is that you can use any type of sausage to get the flavour and the heat you want. I've gone for the spicy Italian, but it's just as good with merguez or chorizo. A teaspoon. Paprika in. Give it that really nice smoky flavour. Rice in. And we're going to sort of basically sear the rice. We call it, in the kitchen, blasting the rice, where we sort of sauté the rice for 30 seconds and it takes on all that flavour. Next, white wine. So, the wine sort of deglazes the pan and washes all that flavour from the bottom of the pan into the rice. Stock in. Bring it up to the boil, turn it down and let it simmer. Mmm. Double stock to rice. Turn that gas down and let it simmer. 12 to 15 minutes. And just give it the occasional stir. Keep an eye on it. Now, get ready to finish it. Slice spring onions, dice sweet, juicy tomatoes and roughly chop earthy flat-leaf parsley. Spring onions in. Tomatoes in. Off with the gas. Really important. Otherwise everything becomes overcooked. Flat-leaf parsley in. But look at the volume in that pan now. That is an amazing way to take spicy Italian sausages to a completely different level. Beautiful. First off, get your pan on and start sweating off your onions and your garlic. This recipe involves making the meatballs in a classic way, but the exciting part is actually cooking them in coconut milk and it gives a really nice new dimension to a sort of soft, rich, sumptuous meatball. Chop the onion nice and finely keeping those slices very close together. The closer the slices, the finer the onion. Pat it back down at an angle. Slice down and just chop. I want the onions nice and fine because I want some finesse to these meatballs. The secret of a really good meatball is the texture, getting that balance right between the minced beef, the breadcrumbs, the milk and the seasoning. A couple of cloves of garlic. Slice the garlic really nice and thinly. Nice. Pan nice and hot. A tablespoon of olive oil. Onions and garlic in. A little touch of salt and pepper. With your mince, open it up a little bit and sort of pat it out. Salt and pepper. For me, a good meatball is all about the softness, the texture of that rich beef and the way it sort of melts in your mouth. You can colour it on the outside, but you want it nice and soft and sort of rich in the centre. Mix that in beautifully and then paste it back out again. I've got some really nice dried chilli flakes. I'm going to season the onions with the chilli flakes in. Cook that out for two minutes. I'm going to add some milk. Take your breadcrumbs, make a little well. Three or four tablespoons of milk. That makes a sort of nice slightly doughy texture but it lightens the texture of the meatball. Place that in. Add your onions, your garlic and your chilli in there as well. Nice. Put your hands in there and start mixing them. If you've got the right amount of milk and breadcrumbs it doesn't mean binding with an egg. Don't make them too small. The problem with making them too small is the fact that they dry out quickly. Just the size of a golf ball. A little bit bigger. Nice. Give it a really nice tight squeeze. That stops it from breaking up. It always pays to double the recipe and spend a bit more time making extra meatballs so you can freeze a batch ready for another time. Give the pan a little wipe out. Don't wash out that pan. We've got that flavour from the onions and the garlic at the bottom. Get that pan nice and hot. A touch of olive oil in there. Place them on the top of your pan. Nice and gently sit them in the oil. Get a palette knife and go underneath them and just sort of tilt the pan and let the pan cook the back of the meatball. We're going to add some heat. Coriander seeds. Slightly spicy and peppery to give a really nice flavour to the coconut milk. Next, some cardamom seeds. Three or four onto the board. Knife on. In. A little touch of turmeric into the centre of the pan. That's going to give it a really nice spicy flavour. A little pinch of cinnamon. All the time you're doing this those meatballs are just getting tastier and tastier. A couple of dried chillies. Let them infuse in that oil. And then some lemongrass. Just take the back of your knife and sort of beat it down. That starts to release all that lovely sort of fragrance like someone's just let off the most amazing fragrant air freshener. In with the lemongrass. And finally, some fresh ginger. Just peel and slice. Nice and thinly. Time now to turn them over and let the other half have that wonderful flavour. Chicken stock. In. Bring the stock up to the boil. Turn the gas up and then add the coconut milk. And I want the coconut milk just sitting underneath the top of the meatball. Coconut milk in. And that sort of gives it that creamy richness but it's not heavy. It's a fragrant, light richness. Before we start simmering, check the seasoning. That nice, soft texture of the meatball but that fragrance, light richness of the coconut broth is going to cook those meatballs perfectly. Bring the broth up to the boil and simmer gently for eight to ten minutes. Touch them with your finger. They should be slightly pliable but slightly springy. Gas off. Finish it off with something light and fresh. Zest of lime. But I want the zest on top of the meatball to cut through that richness. And then finally squeeze the fresh lime. And that just gives it that nice, zesty amazing taste. Stir in the juice. Mmm. Got that kick and that vibrant taste. Now, the exciting part. When you come to serve it, be generous with that coconut broth. Tilt the pan. Get a good couple of ladles of the broth in. Mmm. Meatballs. And that is a very delicious way of eating an old-fashioned meatball and bringing it into the 21st century. And they're just as good cooked from frozen as well. Take a sieve. When you think of shortcrust pastry, it's sort of semi-flaky but it's rich and buttery. Start by sifting 200 grams of plain flour into a mixing bowl. Large pinch of salt. 200 grams of unsalted butter. Bring the butter up to room temperature. If you let the butter become too soft then the flour sort of doesn't absorb it. In with your fingers. Rub together first. Now, the secret is grab big handfuls and squeeze the butter into the flour. So look what's happened. Literally in 30 seconds I've got that nice crumbly texture. Now, a couple of tablespoons of water. Nothing worse when the pastry's so wet you can't bring it together. It needs to shape like a nice, rich cookie dough. It's just a touch too dry. So, one more tablespoon of water. And there you go. It's coming nicely. Now, that's what I want. A nice sort of firm ball of pastry. Onto the board we're going to use these. One of the strongest parts of the body. Pull towards you and push back down. Use those wrists to really knead it together. So, just that nice sort of smooth texture. Now, wrap it in cling film. Set that in the fridge for 20 minutes. Really important that you let the shortcrust pastry relax. Now to make the quiche. You can use just an ordinary flan dish but I love making them in mini frying pans which give them an extra rustic charm. Brush with oil to stop the pastry from sticking. Once the pastry is at room temperature roll it out to a nice even thickness. Place it in the centre of your little pan. Turn it in. Don't use your fingers because what we don't want is any holes in this. Just get a little bit of dough because that sort of acts like a little sort of mallet. Flattens it out nicely. I'm building a sort of extra lip because that way I can get the filling at its absolute maximum levels. We're going to cook them blind first. To blind bake simply means to pre-cook your pastry before adding the filling. This ensures you'll have a fantastic crisp pastry. Add a sheet of foil or baking paper and weigh it down. You can use rice, pulses or ceramic baking stones. Just make sure you keep them for the next time. Into the oven. 200 degrees for 10 minutes. Now for the filling. I'm going to do a classic quiche. Bacon and leeks. This is an amazing cured pancetta. Pancetta is an Italian cured meat made from belly pork seasoned with things like juniper, nutmeg, fennel. A great substitute is unsmoked bacon. As the pancetta gets lovely and crispy finely slice leeks and add. Leeks and bacon. Nice. It's really important to cook those leeks down. That's exactly what I want. Those leeks are almost caramelised slightly crispy. The flavour is amazing. Just drain them off so any excess fat gets drained. A couple of tablespoons of cream gives it a really nice richness. I want two thirds garnish, i.e. bacon and leeks in my quiche and one third of the savoury custard. A touch of salt. A touch of pepper. I'm going to grate some Gruyere cheese. That makes a really nice sort of creamy less of an eggy quiche. Take my amazing crispy pancetta and leeks in. Give that a good mix. Needs one more little thing. Some freshness. Flat leaf parsley. Incredible. Really important just to taste the mixture. With the quiche filling ready, next finish off the pastry. Remove the fallen weight and return to the oven to get it lovely and golden all over. Now when we fill them, give that a really good mix up. Beautiful. Grate over some more cheese which will bubble up and melt beautifully. Into the oven. Bake your quiche for 15 to 20 minutes. Incredible. It's got that nice sort of cheese on toast smell from the top. It's sort of baked. The secret of any good quiche is in the short crust because that's the hero. Really important to put the water on first so you can just have it gently simmering away ready for the pasta. While the water comes to the boil, start the sauce by slicing mushrooms. First off, fingers. One in front, two behind. Up and down. Then add olive oil to a hot frying pan. I want that nice colour on the mushrooms. Off the heat, literally 10 seconds and when you toss something really important to get all the ingredients to the end of the pan push down and pull back. That noise that's all the water coming out of the mushrooms. Next, finely chop a fat clove of garlic. Then prepare your leeks. Just take your knife and go down through the centre turn it over and again into quarters. So you've got all that opening up and then just rinse the top of that to get rid of any potential dirt or sand. It just breaks up into nice little quarters. Add all that leek into those mushrooms. Beautiful. And now, the secret is to get rid of that water inside the leek. As it cooks down all the water's gone and you've just left that really nice intense flavour. The garlic's gone nice and crispy. Now, we're going to add a touch of chicken stock in there. Lasagna sheets. Just going to drop the sheets into the water. Lasagna sheets are an unusual choice for a dish like this, but they work brilliantly. Although any type of pasta you've got in the cupboard will do. And just twist that pan. That stops any pasta actually sticking to the bottom of the pan. Chicken stock will reduce down by half and it almost delays the bottom of the pan basically washed all that wonderful flavour off. Turn the gas down and add a couple of tablespoons of cream. This just enriches the dish. Bring it back up to the boil and let it simmer for three to four minutes. Now, the secret of the pasta is just taking it out a little early so you've got that nice texture. Hold up the sheet and just nip it. If you can feel your fingers in the centre, it's ready. Turn the sauce down and lay these beautiful sheets of lasagna into that sauce. Just going to turn the gas off now and let the pasta sit in there and absorb that amazing sauce. Finish with chopped fresh tarragon. It's a delicious herb that goes brilliantly well with mushrooms and leeks. Just let that sit and almost sort of infuse. To serve, I'm making a quick bruschetta by toasting fresh ciabatta bread. Two nice slices. Drizzle that in olive oil. A little bit of garlic. Just rub the bread. The crust as well. The crust is what really takes that garlic. Now, pan for the bread. A little touch of olive oil. As it starts to smoke, bread in. But look at the pasta now. It's been stained by that amazing sauce. To serve, I want a nice spoon of my mushrooms, leeks and cream. Then I'll take my pasta, just twist it and let it sit on top. That tarragon has just lifted everything. Bread on. And that's the beauty about something so simple that can be done in 20 minutes with everyday ingredients. A stunning pasta dish.