When I was first married the watching of Keith Floyd or Ken Hom, Nigella or Delia was a big event. Hubby and I would happily put the t.v. on and watch, often while eating supper perched on our lap. We would greedily watch the episode, flick through the associated recipe book if it had become available (they are much better at this these days, sometimes one had to wait) and decide what we should cook that weekend.

I’ve never lost my love of a good cookery programme, just my love of watching t.v. There have been whole series of bake off that I have missed – quelle horreur! And currently I am down to one hour of t.v.’s watching a week – The Bodyguard, its absolutely riveting. When a friend of mine mentioned that Jamie Oliver’s new series called Italy was rather good. Okay I thought I’ll give it a go and duly tuned in.

The programme was wonderful, gracefully aged Nana’s showing skills honed over the last 70 years is always a beautiful thing to behold. In the episode I viewed (and I fully intend to catch up with them all) a dish called Stracotto came up, this was a delicious looking  slow cooked beef ragu made from beef chuck. I quickly changed my Tesco online order and added in a KG of skirt, chuck not being readily available and made a mental note to buy the recipe book the next day.

My order came this morning on a dismal rainy day and I set to work. Unfortunately I was slightly disappointed that my butcher had diced my meat. But no matter, doesn’t it look lovely.
Following the recipe I soon had this… although my Kenwood may have helped with all the chopping. After a good three hours in the oven we had this (although the recipe says cook on top of the stove, I always feel safer cooking long and slow in the oven).  It was delicious, we enjoyed it with pasta and a little parmesan and 6 more portions are stashed away in the freezer to add warmth and comfort as required..