Italians and Spaniards have a totally different lifestyle from the English. The weather dictates a lot of our behaviour and they have the good fortune to be able to spend a lot of their life outdoors. Food plays a very important role in their lifestyles the belief being that eating good food isn't a privilege, but a basic right. Eating well is a sign of well being, of the normal functioning of a family.
Whilst we Brits lead very frentic lives compared with our Mediterranean counterparts, we find it harder to relax and enjoy our leisure time. The Italian writer Umberto Eco once said that throughout history Italians have been able to appreciate sitting down and doing nothing. This is called non far nulla in Italian and it's true, Mediterranean people have raised the act of doing absolutely nothing in their leisure time to a fine art.
Stroll through the village of my second home in Jacarilla Spain on a late Saturday afternoon and you will find the shops are closed but the bars and cafés will be buzzing with families. They will sit quite literally for hours with maybe one coffee chatting in their very expressive, outgoing way, it's just instinctive for them to relax. We Brits don't have these instincts, we have to be doing something be it wandering aimlessly around a shopping precinct, a garden centre or a DIY store, or furiously pumping iron at the gym.
After a hard weeks work my partner spends most of his weekend finding jobs to do around the home, the concept of just sitting makes him feel guilty. Yet in Spain he can just 'be', he'll happily wander into the village and sit outside a café, watching the world go by for a couple of hours.
When staying in Jacarilla I love the morning ritual of shopping. Most of the women take great pleasure in buying their food daily, they have good relationships with the local shopkeepers and popping out for a few groceries can turn into quite an event. I have stood in a queue many a time where women are talking and gesticulating, smelling the fruit, tasting the ham, insisting on the best ingredients. This takes me back to my childhood when my mother shopped daily and would spend whole mornings chatting with the grocer, the baker and the butcher, not to mention being waylaid by various neighbours.
My next dish is one that is as popular to us Brits as a roast dinner or fish and chips. I'm guessing everyone has at some stage made a lasagne. However, lasagne has also become one of the highest selling ready meals in the UK which horrifies me! Please look back on a post I wrote in April: Autism and our eating habits, I have photographed a processed lasagne which alarmingly has (in bright red) warnings of high fat and salt content. Aside from the fact processed lasagne has no substance, the meat sauce is more like gravy, and that it is pretty tasteless, it is also harmful if eaten on a regular basis.
It is a shame that we have come to see food as just fuel stops rather than as a celebration of good ingredients, taste and nutritional value. We are so preoccupied with watching the TV or looking at our mobile phones whilst eating that we've become de sensitized. If you are going to eat lasagne make it from scratch and really appreciate it, I always double the quantity I've given below and freeze a lasagne for another time.
Lasagne al ragu di carne
Recipe
Lasagne sheets
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 onion, peeled and chopped
1 carrot, peeled and chopped
2 garlic cloves, crushed
1lb minced beef
1 teaspoon dried oregano
150ml red wine
200g tin of tomatoes
75g cheese, you can use Parmesan, Cheddar or a combination of Cheddar and mozzarella
For the white sauce
50g butter
50g plain flour
1 pint of milk
To make the meat sauce, heat the oil in a pan, add the onion and carrot and sweat over a low heat for 3-4 minutes
Add the garlic, oregano and minced beef and cook until the beef is browned
Season with salt and pepper, add red wine and bubble until completely evaporated
Stir in the tomatoes plus 2 tomato tins full of water
Bring to the boil, reduce heat, cover and simmer for 1 hour, stirring occasionally
Meanwhile make the white sauce, melt butter in a pan, stir in the flour and gradually add the milk, stirring all the time
Bring to the boil, stirring continuously, reduce heat, simmer for 2 minutes and remove from heat
Preheat oven 180c/gas 4
Cover the bottom of a large lasagne dish (or you can like me make individual portions) with a couple of tablespoons of each sauce
Cover with a single layer of pasta sheets, then with a couple more tablespoons of each sauce, keep layering in this way until you have about 7 layers of pasta and sauces
Finish with a layer of white sauce and sprinkle cheese on top
Bake for 35 minutes, until golden and bubbling
A final word on lasagne, the pasta is the equal star in this dish, you should be able to slice your lasagne and see the layers of pasta. It should never be a runny, saucy, glutinous mess, as processed lasagne tends to be.
'Time you enjoy wasting is not wasted time.'
- Marthe Troly-Curtin
'The happiness of your life depends upon the quality of your time.'
- Marcus Aurelius
Love Donna xxxxx
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