Episode 60 Saturday Kitchen Best Bites

Get the kettle on, settle down for some delicious Best Bites.

Welcome to the show.

We've got loads of our favourite

Saturday Kitchen recipes for you this morning.

'The amazing Michel Roux gives us a masterclass in making sauces,

'with not just one but two great recipes.

'He serves a meringue covered in chocolate sauce and a veal chop

'with buccaneer's sauce.'

Yes, that's veal with banana. You saw it here first.

'The Italian stallion, Gennaro Contaldo,

'is always great fun in the kitchen and makes the perfect

'warming, family supper.

'His take on an Italian classic, lasagne, is like you've never

'seen before, with meatballs, ricotta cheese and hard-boiled eggs.

'The perfect winter family feast.

'Nick Nairn popped in with the ultimate hot dessert to warm the cockles.

'He makes marmalade sponge pudding and serves with lashings of

'Drambuie custard, made by yours truly.

'And goddess of home cookery, Nigella Lawson,

'faced her Food Heaven or Food Hell.

'Would she get Heaven - chocolate tart with glace chestnuts -

'or Hell - soya milk pancakes with sauteed apples and pears.

'See what she gets at the end of the show.'

Before we enjoy those seasonal delights,

Vivek Singh proves goose isn't just for roasting.

Take a look.

What are we cooking, then?

We've got a South Indian stir-fry of goose breast.

-With curry leaf, green chillies and red onion.

-Right.

Where would this be from in terms of India?

Because you use goose over there a bit?

You'd use a bit of duck or beef for this dish

and it would be a South Indian...

..a southern occurrence of chukka.

You can do this with beef or something.

OK. Now, when you look at the goose,

really when you're cooking this, if you're cooking this whole

this Christmas, the longer and slower in the oven,

the better it is, I think.

Or you take the breast off and do it as quick as possible.

The thing about the whole roast goose, you get all the crispy bits,

the lovely crackling skin on the outside.

So whole roast for me every time.

Except for something like this, which is...

What you're doing now is rendering the fat?

Yeah, I'm just rendering the fat.

You don't need any oil or fat to sear the goose.

Just put the skin side down and let it crisp up.

On the other side, I'm making a spiced crust.

I've got some cloves, some cardamom, some black pepper, coriander,

cumin and fennel.

It's a bit like a garam masala,

but with the exception being this is

a South Indian garam masala, it's got a bit of pepper, got a bit of chilli.

It's got chilli in it.

So if you notice I put the whole spices in first to roast,

-and the smaller spices in afterwards.

-What spices have you got in there?

I've got the fennel, the coriander, the cloves,

cardamom, red chilli, fennel.

-Right?

-Right?

-Can you smell this?

-I can smell it from here.

Smells goods, proper...

So that's the cardamom, the cardamom and the cinnamon.

Cinnamon, cumin, coriander and all that.

So you've got...

Could you take this idea and then utilise it with turkey

this Christmas, if you want something alternate?

Use that maybe as a rub on the top?

Yes, you could use this for turkey.

It's a great idea for Christmas lunch,

if you've done a turkey or goose or whatever, and the next day,

you can do a stir-fry with the leftovers.

It's a great way to use up your leftovers on Boxing Day.

Now, you're not just appearing in the UK with your restaurants,

you're going over to New York, somebody was telling me.

-That's right.

-Next year, for a pop-up restaurant.

-Yeah, I'm doing a week-long pop-up in New York in Desmond's.

-Right.

It's a great idea.

It's an English chef who runs Desmond's in the Upper East Side

and we've got some common friends who set it up.

And I love the idea of an Indian restaurant going from London.

I like to think of it as the latest British export, really, Indian food.

-Do they have many Indian restaurants in New York?

-There are.

There are quite a few Indian restaurants,

but nothing like London has.

You don't have anything like London has.

Right, so you've got the green chillies.

We can see in that pan the reason why you do this and don't turn over,

look at the amount of fat that is coming out of this goose, as well.

So we've got a couple of green chillies, fresh green chillies,

that I'm slitting.

A couple of cloves of garlic.

These are the hot chillies, these ones?

Yeah, these are the hot chillies.

These are somewhere between a bird's eye chilli

and the thick, fat ones that you don't have much bite of.

Right, I've done the coconut, there, and the ginger.

Tell me about this bread.

Right, the bread. You've got to be careful.

This is Archana, my wife's recipe for the parathas.

The home-style tawa parathas.

-So you've got this chapati flour...

-You want this in?

-In.

A pinch of carom seed and black onion seed,

which is great, gives it a nice texture.

-I'm not doing it...

-Yes, this is my magic.

-It's your wife's recipe.

Right, OK.

-A pinch of salt in there.

-Salt, yeah.

There's some oil there.

You want some fat? Do you want this ghee or...

-Just some oil.

-Oil.

-For now.

-Oil, yeah.

-OK.

How much?

-Just a tablespoon or so.

-Done, yes.

And then just water to mix?

Yes, just the water to mix.

It's a simple, unleavened dough.

There you go.

Where would these come from in India, then? North or South?

The parathas? Very North Indian.

All of North India you find them being made in homes.

Right, so you've got the red onions, the ginger, the curry leaves,

the green chillies, the garlic. It's all there.

-Yeah.

-Right?

All of that.

So you're keeping the onions quite large,

because often in a lot of Indian cooking you caramelise the onions.

Yes, but here we're using them for the texture, really.

It's quite simple, in the sense that you've added everything into it,

and it's the way the garlic has been chopped,

it's going to cook almost the same time as the onions will.

Now, if New York wasn't busy enough for you, next year you've got

another restaurant opening up in London, as well.

That's right.

I'm opening up another Cinnamon Kitchen in Soho.

We're potentially going to be calling it Cinnamon Soho.

In my head, I've got it as a bit more of a kitchen than Kitchen itself.

It's a little bit more accessible,

a little bit more fun

and some really interesting dishes we're coming up with.

I'm trying to find some lambs' brains to use, really.

-Trying to find some lambs brains?

-Lambs' brains, yeah.

Really nice bheja fry, very traditional.

-Think I've got some in the corridor.

-What you want to do with them?

-I left mine at home.

-I'm going to marinade them...

..with garlic and herb and spiced breadcrumb.

-Onions and...

-Nice?

My rabbit has had a brain problem.

We just had to do a transplant with my rabbit's brain,

but we couldn't get a rabbit brain,

so what we've had to use is the brain from a hare.

And the thing is, since he had the operation, the transplant,

I've noticed that a lot of his schemes are increasingly...

LAUGHTER

..ill-conceived.

LAUGHTER

That's a joke.

It didn't really happen.

You can laugh at that one.

That's free, that one.

I've got a question for you. What is ghee? What is ghee?

Ghee is clarified butter, that's been clarified down, really.

It's been reduced.

-Even after its clarified, you keep cooking it off for longer.

-Oh, right.

Thanks for clarifying that for me.

LAUGHTER

I'm here all week.

You're a bit like James, you know.

I'm not really sure what to expect from you.

Right, so we've got...

Then you put some of this ghee on here, fold it over,

fold it over, a bit of flour, then roll it thinner, yeah?

Roll it into a triangle.

I'll let this one slide, James. But the next one...

-Just try and get it...

-There we go.

Vivek, what about the chapati flour? Is it a special kind of flour?

-It's just a stone-ground, wholemeal flour.

-Wholemeal?

It's still unleavened, no raising agents or anything.

So you've got the onions and the coconut and all that sort of stuff.

You've just put all the ingredients in there.

-You put some additional spices in, though?

-Not yet.

I'm going to add the crust, the roasted spice crust that we added.

Right.

I'm going to add that just before I take it off.

I'm going to use it as a seasoning, as a finishing spice,

rather than a cooking spice.

-The reason, it's already been roasted before.

-Right.

So you want this dusted with a little bit of butter at the end?

-Some more of this ghee over the top.

-The finishing spice gone in.

-That's the goose and the spice gone in there at the last minute.

-Yeah.

There you go. I'll lift these out, that's one. There you go.

-The other one.

-That's not bad, James.

-Sorry?

That's not bad at all.

The first time I've done it.

OK, I'm finishing this off with the coconut milk, yeah?

-The last-minute coconut milk.

-Yeah.

You mix the whole thing up.

You've got a spoon there, when you're ready.

And so there you are.

You've got your...

You cooked it medium-rare.

-The reason for that, you don't want it to go tough.

-Yes, that's right.

I mean, if you're doing it for Christmas lunch,

then you cook it like that, you cook your breast specially for it.

But if you've got any leftovers the next morning,

and you're stir-frying it, then don't worry about how you've got it.

So remind us what that is again?

Right, we've got South Indian stir-fry of goose with red onion,

green chilli and curry leaf.

And with the layered paratha.

Don't forget the parathas.

And there you have it. Looks stunning, what does it taste like?

-This is you.

-Look at that.

-Dive into that.

-Yes, I will.

Vivek, you're over here.

Try that. Oh, it's a big bit.

Oh, mmm.

Mmmm. That's lovely. May I try the...

It's nice, but you can mix and match.

You don't have to use the goose. I suppose lamb would work.

You can use turkey, lamb would work, duck works really well with this.

Gosh, that's really nice.

I'm definitely going to cook it for my Christmas lunch.

-That's a whole chilli.

-That's a whole chilli.

LAUGHTER

I'd just like to point out,

I can't be held responsible for Harry Hill's jokes.

Coming up, I treat Lisa Faulkner

to Arbroath smoky fishcakes in chive sauce.

But first, Rick Stein visits the shores of Sri Lanka

and cooks a cashew nut and green bean curry.

I had been told that some of the fishing scenes in

Sri Lanka would be some of the most visual I was likely to see anywhere,

but I must say it's exceeded all my expectations.

It's like central casting fishing-wise.

When I first saw it, I just thought of Newlyn,

of those Newlyn school of painters,

people like Stanhope Forbes from the last century,

from Victorian times,

because all those boats are still powered only by sail.

These ones here which are motorised just bring

the fish into the shore from the bigger boats.

But to me, it's just like I can hardly believe I'm here.

This teardrop-shaped island was all about fish and coconut and cinnamon.

This was a first for me.

It's a spice so associated with Christmas

and one I've used all the time I've been cooking,

but I'd never seen it in its raw state before.

Today, Sri Lanka is still the leading source of this fragrant bark.

I imagine that's incredibly difficult to do.

I could never master it.

He's trying to get them off in one long roll.

It's wonderful. As a cook, I've been using cinnamon for about 40 years,

just taking it out of a jar and snipping a bit off.

I never realised there was so much skill

going into packing these lengths of cinnamon,

apparently three and a half feet long, as tightly as possible.

The other really important product from this island was the coconut,

and particularly the oil that was extracted from it.

Once they'd been smashed open, they were dried over

husks of other coconuts that had gone before them.

It's this process of drying the flesh of the nut, I suspect,

that will make you either love coconut oil or hate it.

All this machinery would have been here when Ceylon

was painted pink on the world atlas.

That's if you're of a certain age.

Here they were squeezing the flesh to extract that essential oil.

It was by far the most common cooking medium on the island,

that smoky, coconut taste and aroma

that was all pervading in most dishes and in the air.

I visited an old friend called Geoffrey Dobbs who owns a very

nice house on the island of Taprobane.

Well, I think it's the first time I've had to wade to somebody's house.

It's fabulous.

This house was built in the 1920s by a person called Count de Mauny.

He came here with Sir Thomas Lipton

sort of built this rather fantastical house here.

Unbelievable. And what's it feel like to have your own island, then?

Well, sometimes I can't really believe it.

Sometimes I pinch myself,

but when I wake up every morning and I look out to the South Pole.

-It's just...

-Nothing in-between?

There's nothing between here and the South Pole.

I was intrigued to know how he survived

on that Boxing Day in 2004 when the tragedy happened.

I was swimming in the sea just on the other side of the island and

I experienced a very strong current,

then I looked at the island and I was about 18 foot higher,

so I thought, "There is something

"very wrong at the moment."

Then I was taken across the islands,

and I landed up over there,

between a palm tree and the top of that house.

I was lucky to be left alive.

All I can say is, I admire your British understatement,

saying you were lucky, you know?

That particular Christmas-time certainly changed a few lives there,

and nothing was ever going to be the same again,

especially for a bunch of kids further inland.

This hostel at Sawan Sarana is run by Carla Browne

to help disadvantaged children.

On the day we visited, there was to be a feast and a blessing

by the local Buddhist monks for a new, long sought-after dormitory.

-They're very good indeed. Very nice.

-Thank you.

We're just frying outside, which seems like a good idea to me,

as you don't get all that oily smell in the house,

not that it matters too much, but he's frying some river prawns

with flour, egg, salt,

a little bit of coriander leaf and some turmeric.

And they're jolly good.

'It was the tsunami and the desperate need of these children that

'made Sri Lanka Carla's home.'

They're the forgotten children, and in Sri Lanka it's a stigma.

And the families are very, very poor, so they're here

and probably their lives here are better than at home.

They're lovely kids. You'll see them, their beautiful kids.

And lost.

So it's that building at the back that is being officially blessed.

It is today. An almsgiving is when the monks come

and chant and we prepare the food.

We give them food. The children will have a wonderful meal today,

-because not every day do the children have food.

-Really?

Because there's not much funding for this hostel, so sometimes they

think that food is going to be given by the people, it doesn't turn up.

MONK SAYS BLESSING

'So the monks were there to bless this new building

'and alms, in this case food, were given to them.

'From what I could see, there were about ten different curries

'on the table, from fish to cashew nut,

'all served with the local red rice.

'It was considered a privilege to serve the monks,

'and I was happy to join in and be included in the ceremony.

'Also, I was interested to notice that they ranged from older,

'more experienced ones, right down to youngsters.

'As I understood it,

'the boys had their horoscopes looked at by their local village wise man,

'and he decided if they should continue to be monks or not.

'Apparently, it doesn't suit them all.'

This dish stood out that day. The cashew nuts were so satisfying.

It's made with lemongrass, garlic and chilli, fried onions,

turmeric, the essential Sri Lankan roasted curry powder,

pandanus leaves and, of course, a generous dollop of coconut milk.

And then a handful of fresh curry leaves,

some green beans for that bit of crunch.

Now cashews. I couldn't get fresh ones,

so I bought salted ones and then let them soak in water.

They were lovely.

To finish off, add some lime juice.

A bowl of this curry is amazingly tasty and satisfying.

I'd really love this during the Christmas break.

What a delicious looking curry.

As Rick said, it would be a tasty alternative to rich Christmas food

we're having over the next couple of weeks.

And I've got something a little bit different for Christmas,

and I've been having a lot of these.

If this was one of my food heavens, this would be it. Arbroath smokies.

I absolutely love them.

Whether they're in pate, or whatever they are.

Arbroath smokies are, in actual fact, they're not herring,

that's different.

They're kippers. This is actual haddock.

And what they do is cure it, then they hot smoke it.

What we're going to do is do a little fishcake

using Arbroath smokies.

They have to come from Arbroath, up in Scotland.

They are brilliant. And the flesh is absolutely incredible.

And if you're ever up in Arbroath and you're at one of these markets,

they do an amazing sort of thing at the markets where you can

taste the hot ones that come out of the smokery.

You can have them in newspaper with lashings of butter.

And when I was up there last time, this poor old lady

was complaining, because she'd set up her underwear stall right next to

the smokehouse and the wind changed.

-She wasn't very happy, really.

-No!

Anyway, we've got some potatoes in there,

flake them into the potatoes.

Bit of lemon, bit of chives. That's kind of it, really, in here.

But you've just got to pick through and mind the bones.

But you'll be quite good at this,

doing what you've been doing recently.

Cooking in all these Michelin star restaurant.

You've had practice doing all this sort of stuff.

-But first thing, you got spotted as a model, first, didn't you?

-I did.

When I was about 16, and I was on a Tube station,

and I got asked if I wanted to be a model.

And I said, "No."

Yeah, then ended up giving the modelling agency lady

my number, because it was all in the time of just home phones,

no mobiles, and she just kept phoning.

And in the end I said, "All right, might as well give it a go."

-In the end you gave it a go.

-I did.

Was it that that opened the door to the acting?

Well, I saw it as a way of getting money to put myself through drama school.

That's what I thought would be a great way to earn some cash, really.

Is that what you wanted to do as a kid, drama?

-That's what you wanted to do?

-Yeah, I wanted to be an actress.

And it worked out that I didn't actually have to go to drama school till later.

I went later.

But I got a film and started from there, really.

-Wasn't there that French director...

-Yes, Jean-Jacques Annaud.

..that spotted you. So it was film that really started,

because a lot of people go from television the other way.

Yeah, it was film.

And it was a film called The Lover, which sounds much more dodgy

than it was, and it was a great film

set in Paris and Vietnam.

We went over to Vietnam to film.

But I was told that they had beautiful French caterers

on this show and gorgeous cakes and amazing food

and they told me I wasn't allowed to eat it.

I had to have Vietnamese green beans,

cos they didn't want me to put on any weight!

Then, of course, from doing that film,

Dangerfield was the one that really...

-Would you say that launched you to the British public?

-Yes.

You know, it was a massive drama over here

and it was great fun to film and I met my friend Amanda Redman

who I then went and studied speech and drama with, actually.

So it opened a lot of doors and it was fantastic.

It went on to be a huge success, Dangerfield.

Then, of course, the soap Brookside.

Brookside, yeah.

And then, from that, you've done all kinds of stuff since then.

All connected with food, I have to say.

Holby City, knives were involved.

Didn't you get stabbed or something?

There you go, food connection. Stabbed with a knife.

LAUGHTER

I like the best one, Spooks, where you got deep-fried, didn't you?

You can see one over there. Slightly bigger than that.

That was quite controversial at the time.

-Although we didn't see it, it was very controversial.

-Yes.

It got the most complaints ever, I think, which was strange.

Very nice that people were so upset about my death.

Some people...

-Just the way that it was.

-Yeah.

Then, of course, we talk about MasterChef.

I mean, hugely popular programme now, incredibly popular.

Did you realise when you were doing that you'd stand a chance?

No, I love the show. I mean, I just wanted to go on.

When they asked me, I thought, "I'll go and have a nice day's cooking and that'll be it."

And I had no idea I'd stay the course, really. I just had no idea.

And it was brilliant and the most amazing thing I've done, really.

It is kind of thrown in the deep end, though, really?

Because they take people... it's fair, you've cooked at home,

but it's very different to be cooking at home

-and cooking in a restaurant.

-Absolutely.

And they throw you in and they literally don't say, "Do this,

"and once the cameras have stopped, then we'll carry on for you."

You do everything.

And I learned very fast, but I loved every minute of it,

and I think it was such a great opportunity.

-Now I just want to do loads more cooking.

-You should have said that.

You could have had a go with this.

These are the little fishcake sort of thing.

Just roll them up into little balls, really.

That's the lemon and everything else.

We're going to deep fat fry that.

And I kind of think the secret fishcakes -

and I don't know whether Nathan's over there, the king of fish -

but I put more fish than I do potato.

I think a lot of fishcakes, there's not enough fish in there,

and it can be almost like hunting for it.

So you almost put two thirds fish to one third potato.

And how long do they take in the fryer?

They're going to take about two minutes.

I'm a bit scared of the fryers.

-I'm not surprised, really!

-LAUGHTER

-Not surprised.

-Well, yeah.

But you know, I always think, how do you know when it's cooked in there.

-Apart from it just turns a different colour.

-That's it.

-And then it's done?

-There's no rocket science behind it.

That's it, when it's changed colour, it's ready.

I'm just going to put a little bit of white wine in there.

We're going to do a nice little lime beurre blanc.

White wine, some chicken stock,

although this is fish, we can do it with chicken stock.

I'm going to saute off a little bit of spinach in there, as well.

We reduce that down with double cream.

Quite quick, this sauce.

And I'm going to add some lime juice and some butter.

So, MasterChef, are we going to see you do a cookbook

or anything with that?

-I'd love to.

-Didn't Matt Dawson do one, as well?

I think he might have done. I'd love to.

We'll see what happens, really.

I just feel like I've just started on this big road of food

and I just want to learn so much more and maybe get

back into some restaurants and do a bit of cooking there, as well.

-There you go, free staff, mate.

-You're more than welcome to come.

You looking to learn anything about sushi or anything like that?

I'd love to.

-I thought girls couldn't...

-You creeps.

Is it true that girls can't be sushi chefs?

-Traditionally, yes, because their hands are too warm.

-Really?

-Traditionally, yes.

-My hands are freezing, I'd be great.

-Perfect.

-Cos you warm the rice up too much and you warm the fish.

-Oh, I see.

I thought it was some sort of...

It's because your hands are warm, there you go.

Tell us about the new thing you're doing at the moment.

Is it Murdoch Mysteries?

Yes. I've got a new drama coming out called Murdoch Mysteries,

which is a Canadian TV detective drama.

Has this already been out in Canada?

Yes, it's been out in Canada

and it's the second series, now, over here.

That I've done. I think there's about four series.

It's done really, really well and it's a great detective show.

So I got to go out to Toronto for the summer

and shoot out there, which was brilliant.

Running around with a little gun, shooting people.

What's it about, then?

Well, Yannick Bisson is in it, he's a detective

and always solving all these things that go wrong.

And my character's come back.

I went and did it last year, and I've come back this year,

and she's come back because she's lost her fiance,

and he has to find him.

-Duh-duh-duh!

-Duh-duh-duh!

Right, I'll just quickly run through.

Oh, that's good.

Fishcakes are in, I've just wilted a bit of watercress.

Lime juice. To get more juice out of a lime,

you whack it in the microwave for eight seconds.

18 seconds, you'll end up with a walnut, but eight seconds...

That's great.

Little bit of that, then what we do with that

is we take this and just spoon this.

This is the watercress,

and instead of using spinach, just wilt some watercress down.

-I love the idea of the watercress.

-It's very different.

Then, of course, you've got your little fishcakes, which are great.

You can prepare these in advance. These come out, look.

Then you take your little fishcake, sit that on there

and you've got lime butter.

You don't need anything else with it. Really simple.

-I want to come and just eat all the food every week, please.

-You can do.

In fact, I've just noticed, you can come and decorate

our Christmas tree, because look.

This is what I love. BBC have got cutbacks, but look at this.

It's only half finished! Look at it!

I love it, it's brilliant.

What do you reckon?

-Mmm!

-Those Arbroath smokies are amazing.

-The smokies are fantastic!

-They're brilliant, aren't they?

So that's a reminder to always decorate your tree all over.

You can find all those recipes at bbc.co.uk/recipes.

Now, we're not live today, but instead we're looking back

at some of the finest moments from the Saturday Kitchen archives.

And here's one of the finest.

When the amazing Michel Roux entered the Saturday Kitchen studio

with two sauce recipes, I knew I was going to be pretty busy.

-Welcome back, sir.

-May I shake your hand, first?

-Absolutely.

Welcome back. Very good. Absolutely. What are we cooking?

We're cooking veal chop, lightly pan-fried, with a buccaneer sauce.

Buccaneer sauce? There you go. So it's a classic, classic sauce.

-So you're going to get the veal chop on first of all.

-Veal chop.

I'm going to prepare the mange tout and everything over here.

Cos you want to get that cooking, don't you?

It takes about seven minutes.

So what is it about veal?

Because over in France they eat masses of it,

but over here we still have...

Do you think it's where we get it from?

Still got that stigma attached to it?

It's really where we're getting it from,

but I suddenly realised we've got some nice...

Starting to produce veal, lovely veal, in the UK.

-Fabulous.

-Which is good news.

It is in fact British, what we're cooking today, which is very good news.

This is rose veal, that's what you need to look out for

if you want it this Christmas.

Get it online, really. That's the best way to get it.

So the ingredients I need for the sauce, there -

I need stock, which can be either veal or beef,

raspberry vinegar, ginger - which if you don't mind,

I'd like you to peel it and grate it,

-because sometimes I cut my fingers.

-OK, no problems.

Give it to somebody else, that's always a bonus.

And then I'm going to cut the shallots. Here we are.

Now, the last time you were on,

you were about to close the Waterside down to refit the kitchen.

-Yes, we've done that.

-That's now done?

-We've been there.

-What was that, three months?

Almost four months, but it was all done on time.

They did a very good job.

And we've got a kitchen of the heart, now.

22 chefs working in the kitchen, and it flows. And it's really fantastic.

Alain loves it - my son.

And I said, "Thank God for that,

"because I've signed the cheque, it's still hurting."

But it's a very nice kitchen. Absolutely superb.

You need good tools when you're doing 30,000 covers a year,

you need to invest a bit of money

and make sure your kitchen is the top of the art, and it is.

-OK, so what have we got...?

-Shallots in the pan, sweated.

-There we are.

-That's our ginger, chef. There we are.

We've got to give a little colour, thanks for the ginger.

-That's all right.

-There we are.

-There you go.

-So I'm just giving a little light colour to the shallots,

there we are, with the ginger.

I love ginger.

Immediately when you use it, it brings you the flavour,

clean flavour, fresh.

Thank you for the bananas. Here we are.

So bananas will bring the sweetness

and a bit of body to the sauce as well.

Banana in. We're going to pass this sauce off as well, aren't we?

Yes, we are.

All right.

Voila.

It's got to be softened a bit,

and then, while I'm...

Need to slow down a bit,

Galton's trying to write it down for his menu.

Absolutely. Absolutely.

I want to say...

you always help me so much that I don't know what I've got to do next.

-I'm there, chef.

-OK, good. So now the vinegar.

Raspberry vinegar, just a little bit.

And this is stuff that you've made or...?

We make our own raspberry but you can buy it in a shop,

all the kinds of vinegar.

-So we reduce it a bit and now the stock.

-Put the lid on that.

That'll be on eBay later.

THEY LAUGH

You're keeping my vinegar?

-Yeah, it's gone, chef.

-Naughty, naughty. Here we are, look at that.

I love the vinegar, it's a bit like beurre blanc as well,

-when you've got...

-There's a real sharpness with it.

-Yes.

So, I'm not going to use everything because...

-This is veal stock or beef stock?

-No, this one is a beef.

This one's a beef, and you can buy it.

It's no problem, you can buy that. Now, the veal is cooking nicely.

Can you just go a bit higher for me? Just a touch, and then...

Now this is for our second dish that we're going to do.

-The chocolate sauce.

-Chocolate sauce, so tell us about this, then.

How to make the ultimate chocolate sauce.

Yes, we need milk, to put in there.

A bit of cream, because if we call it rich,

better we put a bit of cream in it, or then it's not rich.

Bit of sugar.

And the butter will be just at the end for buttering it,

-to give the shine...

-Gives it a nice shine.

And the chocolate, we've melted it over a Bain Marie.

Melting it over the Bain Marie, and it's a dark chocolate,

and it's about 70 beans, so it's not too sweet, but it's not too strong.

The secret is, people look at the percentage on the back,

don't go over that because it can be quite harsh.

Sometimes it's too harsh, yes, absolutely.

Now we're cooking these two to celebrate, obviously,

your new book, 200 sauces.

Over 200 sauces, and I've got everything into it.

What I call everything is salsa sauces, I mean bouillon,

there is sauces which are tomato juice.

Lively colour, that's perfect.

By the way, I never put pepper when I'm cooking,

I put the pepper grinder at the end,

because it burns, you lose the flavour.

On sauces, you've got sauces for every occasion and every day.

-Perfect for you, Catherine, every occasion.

-Yeah.

Every occasion, and you can have it for the dessert,

the fish, the meat, everything.

And a sauce can read beautifully well. One and a half minutes, chef.

-One and a half minutes.

-Perfect.

-They've just told me in my ear.

-And I'm going to do the bananas in a second.

-Now I can put a bit of salt.

Are you going to glaze the bananas?

I'm going to do...that's just...I've got one here.

And I'll look after them this time cos I burnt them in rehearsal.

No, you did not. They were a bit too coloured, that's the one.

They were black, Michel.

Can we have that a bit higher because you see,

in my kitchen I've got a lot of cooks around me

and I never know really to move,

ah, which one is which one there?

I will find it.

I know you never stop working, you guys, you and your brother.

And particularly one thing that you're hugely

passionate about is the Roux Scholarship.

Tell us about this then.

The Roux Scholarship, we started it 27 years ago, and it was to

help the young chefs develop further, but to develop further

on the, well, on the level of Star Michelin, so they are between 22

to 28 years old, the young guys and girls entering in the competition

and we just now have found the dish which they've got to do.

They've got to do a rice dish with seafood.

So the competition has been launched just now, which is lovely news.

And we've got 26 young scholars

and we take them every two years around the world.

We took them to Dubai a few years ago,

we took them to Tuscany and next year I'm taking them to Germany.

But it's regarded as the biggest competition of its type.

Certainly the most serious, yes, prestigious,

and the winner will get three months in any three-star

Michelin of his choice, all paid, anywhere in the world.

Is that you writing the cheque for that?

Well, the family and the supporters, we've got supporters.

But I can tell you one thing which is superb,

is that my current winner is going to Thomas Keller in California.

I think that's the greatest restaurant in the world.

I think it's my favourite one too, so...

It's called the French Laundry, by the way.

-..that a little bit higher, the French Laundry.

-Right, OK.

-Can I have that a bit higher?

-You can have it higher. Right, so...

He thought he was off the hook, suddenly. No way, no, no, no.

-I haven't got the bananas.

-Ah!

-Right, chocolate sauce.

Ah, chocolate sauce, going back into the pan for a couple of minutes.

-Then you've got the butter in there.

-And the pan there...

Bananas are in the oven.

The sauce is going to be sieved in a minute.

-Hold the veal like that, yeah?

-Where's that pan? That pan is there.

-Can I have the heat on the...?

-Yes, you can have the heat on there,

-and you want me to pass that as well?

-Yes, exactly, why not?

-This is for professional chefs, the Roux Scholarship?

-Yes, it is. Yeah.

-Before everybody starts writing in.

-No, no, it's for professionals.

We might do something else later on, but it's professional at the moment.

And that's lovely. Now, the plate. You've got the plate ready?

-Got the plate.

-Where is the presentation plate, chef?

Ah, it's in there. Is that my plate?

That's your plate, and we've got one for the chocolate sauce as well.

And one for the chocolate sauce, for the meringue, OK,

-and now we're going to sieve butter in the sauce.

-Yeah.

Move that to there, that's on there, full speed.

-That's on there, bananas are under the grill.

-Good Lord, look at that.

That's active now. It is the service time!

We're sounding double pour, double pour for one!

-Right, you're going to pass that through with the sieve?

-Exactly.

There's your meringue, there you go.

-Bananas, I'll get out from under the grill.

-Allez, allez.

So chocolate, look at that.

Oh, dear, dear, dear. OK, so that goes behind. Good, good.

-Bananas are here.

-Then the chop goes on the plate.

-Oh, look at that.

-So we just put some icing sugar

on these little bananas.

You have, well done, that's what I needed, yes please.

That goes there, that goes there.

So they're just coloured nicely.

Now, the sauce book, you've got some classic sauces in there,

some that you've invented yourself.

Yes, indeed, I've got the sauce Bois Boudran,

I've got the sauce, which is a very interesting sauce,

tomato and water as well, I've got parmesan to water,

I've got a lot of salsa, I've got so many things there which, in fact,

there is for every taste, because there is a need of a sauce

every day, even for vegetables, you know.

Vegetarians sometimes look at things and say,

-"I would love a sauce with that."

-Exactly.

-And why not?

So we've got our chocolate sauce over the top, look at that.

Pure chocolate, rich sauce, remember that recipe this Christmas.

-And the vegetable on that side.

-And we're reducing this down...

I can't help it. Well done, and then the sauce, with a clean spoon.

-Et voila.

-Now, you only want a small bit of this, you say.

Oh, very little. A drizzle. A sauce must always be like a jus. Light.

It should complement and not take over, that's what I was taught.

-Here we are.

-So Michel, remind us, what that is again?

Well, pan-fried veal chop with Buccaneer's sauce and chocolate,

rich, classic chocolate sauce with meringue.

-The meringue I didn't make, meringue I think you made it.

-Easy as that.

I suppose it's a little lie.

There you go, well, I have to say it smells delicious, this sauce.

There you go, which one do you want?

You've gone for the chocolate one!

Right, guys, dive into that, tell us what you think? Michel, have a seat.

I'm going to eat my meringue with a fork.

-Yeah, sorry, I'll get you a spoon.

-My sauce with a fork!

The veal will be a little pinkish in the middle, obviously.

Tell us what you think about the home-cooked meringue,

but that veal is cooked if you're worried about it.

Nice and pink in the middle, yeah?

Mmm, it's got to be a little pink in the middle.

Probably seven minutes like that, nice and...?

Yes, seven, eight minutes maximum. The meringue is...

What do you think of banana and veal?

Banana and veal is definitely going to go on the menu at Morston!

Exactly, that local ingredient to Norfolk!

Well, if I can get it...yeah, I can get hold of British veal, I'd use it.

Bananas might be an issue, though.

Now tell me something, yeah, but tell me something.

If you couldn't get hold of veal, what could you use that sauce...?

That's a very good question,

because...for white meat it's a perfect sauce.

And in fact, for turkey, very often I will serve it,

because it's got a bit of bite, and partridges as well.

That's gone straight over your head, you're just diving into

your meringues and chocolate. Easy as that.

I was truly exhausted at the end of that, but it was well worth it.

That Buccaneer's sauce would be great with leftover turkey.

Now it's time for Sophie Dahl to share some of her favourite

celebratory recipes with us.

My mood is celebratory.

It's all about a celebratory dinner, but what's lovely about this

is it's celebration for the sake of celebration.

I'm throwing a dinner party but it's not a classic,

buttoned-up dinner party.

The sort of party I like to have is where there's lots of options,

there's lots of choice, people can serve themselves.

It's the sort of feast aspect to it that I like. Nice trembling table.

I think the biggest thing I've learned

is to remember that it's meant to be fun.

And cook something you know how to cook.

You want the culinary equivalent here of a little black dress.

That's what's going to get you through.

I've made a lot of puddings in my time, but the one that really,

really works for me again and again is a flourless chocolate cake.

I'm making two because two looks generous and beautiful

and also then people get to take some home.

The brilliant thing about this cake is it's actually better

if you make it the day before because you pop it in the fridge,

it then gets particularly dense, particularly fudgy.

So, for cake number two...

..I'm going to start with 300g of chocolate.

It really is three bars.

There's something about dark chocolate for a pudding,

it just feels celebratory.

There is really no flour at all in this cake.

It works because of butter and sugar and eggs

and tonnes and tonnes of chocolate.

225g of golden caster sugar joins the chocolate.

BLENDER BUZZES

Next you're going to separate six eggs,

the yolks are going to go into the blender.

My family is very big on celebration,

from birthdays to doing well in a test.

There always had to be lots of pomp and circumstance around it.

I think basically we were a bunch of gluttons

and any excuse for a good feast was the order of the day.

Got 225g of butter here,

going to add a teaspoon of instant coffee.

No posh espresso from far-away lands, bit of good old instant coffee.

Two teaspoons of vanilla extract.

Because I'm such a chocolate fiend, this is something I have

tried and tried and tried and have eaten the failures,

have eaten the successes, and the thing that I discovered is that

you don't need to faff around with the Bain Marie,

you don't need to melt the butter,

it's all going to happen in the blender

with the aid of a little bit of boiling water.

BLENDER BUZZES

Mmm.

When you blitz the chocolate, you do occasionally get the odd chunk

of chocolate, but that's a wonderful thing because then when it goes into

the oven, that melts and you discover it when you bite into the cake.

SPLASHING AND JANGLING

You have to have something with this cake to aerate it,

because you don't have flour, you don't have baking powder doing

that job, so you want your egg whites like little fluffy clouds,

and at this point is when you gently fold them in

to the cake mix, cos you want to keep that air.

So, rather than just being thick and battery, it's now quite mousse-y.

Quite light still.

Springform pan, buttered, baking paper on the bottom.

The thing to remember with this cake is you're not going to have a sponge.

Don't put this in the oven and think a sponge is going to come out.

You're going to have something that has cracks, fault lines,

it's like an old movie star.

So you're going to put it in the oven, 180 for 45 minutes.

MUSIC: "Atomic" by Blondie

I am picking some music, making a playlist for my dinner.

MUSIC: "Crazy In Love" by Beyonce feat. Jay-Z

The thing that I miss most about music being on computers or iPods

is the days of the mix-tape, that thing of being 15

and sending your friends mix-tapes or making a mix-tape for a boy,

where you would sit there and press record

and the people who were bad at it, you'd hear this kind of "Eurgh!"

where it stopped and then a new song would come in

sort of quarter of the way through,

so I think the idea is to make a mix

that's as thought out as a mix-tape used to be.

For my starter I'm going to make a borscht,

otherwise known as a beetroot soup.

It's the most ravishing pink, the beetroots really retain their colour.

So for its very pinkness, its lighting up the room-ness,

that's why I've decided to serve it for my dinner.

This is like cooking for an army mess,

I've got 15 spring onions, 18 beetroots

and the process of this is all about batches.

I think, in the grand tradition of my cooking, I've sliced this down

and simplified it, so rather than it having ten stages, it has three.

I wonder if other people are snooty about that,

I think it's something quite positive.

So you're just softening these up,

and I've got my pot of chicken stock here, merrily bubbling away.

So, that's all going to go into the blender with the beetroot.

The beetroot, which you've boiled beforehand,

20 minutes to half an hour.

I think people get frightened by the slightly grizzled look of it.

What's amazing is the moment that skin comes off,

you have these beautiful, perfect, dark pink orbs.

I'm going to put this in in batches, however it fits.

Once you've pureed it, added a few extra little bits, that's it.

I'm the queen of soups in the blender.

BLENDER WHIRRS

See, immediately, that bright, bright pink colour.

Add the juice of half a lemon...

..some creme fraiche, big generous spoonful.

Bit of salt, pepper, another whiz.

BLENDER WHIRRS

With each blender full, you want to do the individual seasoning,

so all you do at the end is just miniature corrections.

I love that you can taste each flavour individually.

The sweet earthiness from the beetroot,

that sourness from the sour cream

and a bit of citrus from the lemon.

I love that hot '50s pink.

And now, it's just the batches.

I keep going until my beetroot pile is gone.

Or until I invest in a bigger blender.

So, there is one more ingredient that I've yet to mention.

I'm going to add the equivalent of about three shots of vodka

to the soup. So you've got this sweet earthiness.

And whereas vodka normally makes things blurry and not so clear,

here it makes it sharp and crisp.

So, all you need to do now, put it in the fridge and then tomorrow

when you're about to serve it, some chopped dill

and another big dollop of creme fraiche.

It does look lovely and it's slightly eccentric,

it's slightly retro, but in the best possible way.

Perfect for a dinner. So...

we will see it tomorrow and be charmed.

I guess the real trick to a party is making sure that it feels

utterly natural.

You want everyone to feel that they've arrived

at this place of abundance and generosity.

And that doesn't mean that you need to do it with money,

but you just want to have the feeling of expanse.

With flowers, I always like to go for things that aren't

kind of manicured and kempt.

I like wild, blowsy, you could almost say tarty flowers.

I like flowers that look like they've come out of the garden.

So, the cakes are ready.

After a night in the fridge, don't be alarmed by the cracks.

They're meant to be there.

And in any event, it's going to be covered with creme fraiche.

I think the thing I love about this cake is that it is decadent

and it looks decadent.

Raspberries, strawberries, some redcurrants.

It's blowsy.

It's not a stark, little cake.

# Have you seen her

# Dressed in blue? #

Here I have a mixture of blueberries and blackberries

and a few blackcurrants.

There's something triumphant and celebratory about them.

They look like they belong in a Rubens painting

with a plump, firm lady lying amidst it.

It won't be me.

# She comes in colours everywhere

# She combs her hair

# She's like a rainbow

# Coming, colours in the air

# Everywhere

# She comes in colours... #

The reason shellfish works for a big dinner party is twofold.

It's magnificent to look at. Heaving platters of oysters,

langoustines, samphire.

'It's a bit like going into an underwater mermaid's cave.

'It's also messy and there's nothing worse than tidy,'

neat, dinner party food to make you feel kind of neurotic

and nine years old. You want to have things that...

You can get your hands dirty, get food round your mouth

and not care a hoot.

The joy of it is it's not remotely complicated.

Easiest, easiest thing in the world.

'I have got my eye on some oysters.'

Mmm. Delicious.

'And also a couple of sea trout

'because I love the idea of serving a whole fish.

'It's generous, its abundant, it's the opposite of meagre.'

# I wanna hold you

# Wanna hold you tight

# Get teenage kicks

# Right through the night... #

Bye.

When I was 21, I cooked a dinner party for my older boyfriend

and his friends.

The truth of it is, I was desperately, desperately showing off

and wanted to make this cordon bleu extravaganza

so that they would all think I was marvellous.

It went horribly wrong. All ended in tears.

But the moral of the story is that when you're cooking for a lot of people,

make it as straightforward as possible.

You don't need the hassle.

In the spirit of that, I'm going to make a stuffed sea trout.

I've got these beautiful, whole, sea trouts here.

I had the fishmonger fillet them so they're ready to go.

Start with my stuffing.

I've got some blanched almonds.

About three handfuls of those.

Generous bunch of parsley and then a good juicy handful of basil.

So you've got your almonds, basil, parsley.

Zest two lemons.

This filling that I'm making is half a pesto, really.

And I'm obsessed by this Italian dip called bagna cauda

and that's with a very creamy base and anchovies and nuts.

I wondered if that might be good in a fish.

It's the sort of thing I think about late at night.

Two cloves of garlic in there. Six anchovies.

I love anchovies in sauce cos they just give this salty,

musky depth to it.

Goats curd.

Goats curd is very soft goats cheese.

It's really creamy and great for a sauce.

# Wanna hold you tight

# Get teenage kicks

# Right through the night... #

Immediately, you've got that pesto waft. It's like spring. Some salt.

A squeeze of lemon and a dash of olive oil.

One last whizz.

That's the most complicated this recipe gets.

That is good on its own. It'd be great on bruschetta.

It'd be delicious with pasta. But even more delicious cooked

and slightly crispy round the edges in the trout.

Here, I haven't got a home crafts experiment going on,

I've cut a few bits of string which is going to keep the filling inside.

If you wrap anything in a bow, it looks like a present. So...

I'm going to take the filling,

spread it on.

The colours of this are so pretty too.

That pale pink of the trout with that springy green.

I think there's something really lovely and old-fashioned,

the day after a dinner, to get a phone call or used to be a letter,

my granny used to call them bread-and-butter letters,

to say thank you for dinners. But somebody saying,

"I loved what you cooked and I'd like to make it myself."

And that's the hostess's badge of honour.

So, there it is. So easy.

All that's left for you to do is preheat the oven, about 200.

They go in for 20 minutes.

The delight of it is, they can be served hot, room temperature,

even cold the next day.

So quite liberating for you cos you're not having

to desperately worry about timings.

So all I'm going to do now is pop them in the fridge

until this evening.

There will be more great recipes from Sophie on next week's show.

We're not cooking live in the studio today.

We're showing you some of the tastiest recipes

from the Saturday Kitchen archives. Still to come on today's Best Bites,

we relive the match between Rick Stein and Stephane Reynaud

at the hobs for the Saturday Kitchen Omelette Challenge.

Nick Nairn shows us the best recipe he's ever found on a food packet.

He steams a marmalade sponge pudding

while I make some warming Drambuie custard.

And the goddess of home cookery, Nigella Lawson,

faces her Food Heaven or Food Hell.

Would she get heaven, a chocolate tart with glace chestnuts?

Or hell, soya milk pancakes served with sauteed apple and pears?

Stay with us and see what she gets at the end of today's show.

Now, when you put Gennaro Contaldo and Bruno Tonioli in the same room,

things are going to get loud. Add a festive lasagne to the mix

and it's more Italian than the Leaning Tower of Pisa. Have a look at this.

-Good to have you on the show, boss.

-Thank you very much.

Good to have you on the show. Now, explain to us what we're doing.

-Right. What we are going to do...

-Yes?

-We're going to do a dish

which is called a lasagne, but the way I cook it will be a festive lasagne.

A lasagne which is only for a special occasion. Christmas! Why not?!

Turkey... away. They're well away. Just cook a lasagne.

Cook a lasagne your way. Now then, this is meatballs, isn't it?

Can I speak? You have to speak proper English with me

because your strong northern accent, I don't understand a word.

-BRUNO:

-Yeah, you're quite right! Can't get a word.

James, I think you speak very well!

-What have we got in here then?

-We have minced pork. Perfect.

Minced beef. Perfect.

We have a garlic. Egg.

Parsley. Onions. Flour.

Olive oil. Beautiful tomato. Mozzarella.

Parmesan cheese. Ricotta. Again, some eggs.

And it's me, Gennaro, who's cooking. Oh, yes!

-What's it called? This is... We have a beautiful lasagne.

-There you go.

All right. Now, what I want you to do... You have to listen to me.

-Lasagne sheets, yes?

-Of course. It is lasagne. Would you say lasagne?

He can't say sheet!

-Go on. Go on.

-Lasagne "sheeet". LAUGHTER

-Moving on.

-Don't talk about Italian food like that!

I want you to... Can you do me a favour?

Can you put this inside a bowl here while I mix it.

-You've done it anyway.

-Mix it.

-You want me to make the meatballs, yeah?

-Make the meatballs.

-Can you chop very fine garlic...

-Garlic.

-..and parsley

while I make a lovely tomato sauce.

-I'll do that. No problem.

-OK. No trouble at all.

-Is this traditional around Italy at this time of year?

-It is indeed.

Oh, my God. Can you imagine Italy without the lasagne?

-No, I can't.

-You can't.

-But this is no bechamel sauce as well.

It is not indeed. Bechamel sauce, it makes the lasagne ever so heavy.

At the end of the day, you put milk, you put onions...

-It's so simple.

-It's too heavy.

-It's too heavy.

-What you do, you have some nice olive oil.

-You're making the sauce?

-Oh, yes. I'm going to make the sauce. You're going to make the filling.

-I feel at home already.

My spirit is lifting. This is real heaven.

-Go, Gennaro! Go, Gennaro!

-Thank you. Thank you.

GENNARO LAUGHS

The Italians are taking over the world.

There's nothing better. Look. All fresh.

-Look at this. Oh, it's fantastic.

-My Yorkshire pork was fresh!

No, you prepared it earlier. You had half of London Zoo in it.

-My mussels were fresh.

-But it's not quite the same.

-Not quite the same.

-I fully agree with you.

-No garlic.

-No garlic.

-What did he do?

Olive oil. Garlic. Straight away. We are at home.

-We are in the race, Gennaro.

-I know. I know. Listen.

I love you. You have no chance to win anything. Have you done the garlic?

-I've done the garlic.

-OK. Mix it. Salt and pepper. Mix properly.

And in the same time, I sweat nice onions.

You can see. Sweat small pieces.

Then I'm going to have some tomato sauce inside.

As simple as this. You can see everything. It's crystal clear.

Everything inside. You know what?

I'm going to put three tins, four tins of tomato.

Then don't do anything. Look. Basil. You don't have to chop it.

-Just goes inside.

-Look at that!

-Just a little bit more olive oil, just on top.

-Now, last night...

-Yeah?

-You were made a grandad.

-Yes. It's the right word.

Dominic! Bless you.

-What time last night?

-It was about half-past three in the afternoon.

LAUGHTER

-You forgot to put your clock back.

-She had a lovely baby boy.

I am so pleased. Bless you. Debbie, love you very much. Awwww. Sweet.

-I can't forget to say hello to Chloe and Olivia cos they're watching.

-You've said hello to everybody...

-How many tomatoes have you got in there?

-Four tins of tomato.

Then you cook them slowly, slowly, slowly

until you make beautiful sauce. Blessed with the lovely sauce.

The secret of this is you cook it for a long time, don't you?

-Yes, for a long time.

-Most people think you make tomato sauce and it's quick.

You need to cook it for a long period of time, don't you?

Usually, to cook tomato sauce, I usually take about...

..half hour to do a quick one which is not...

Three quarters of an hour, nearly two hours,

you make a fantastic tomato sauce.

-Really, really good.

-So in here, I've got garlic,

I've got the minced pork, the minced beef, the onion...

Sorry, the parsley. Salt and pepper and an egg yoke.

And egg yolk which you mix and sweat it nicely.

If I can get this gas going... Fantastic.

At the same time, I have this beautiful lasagne dish

which I will put the sauce on top here and then...

Look at the way I'm running around after you. Just put them inside.

-Don't worry, chef. I'm going as quick as I can.

-OK.

Then I will put some sauce underneath. Crystal clear.

Everybody can see what I'm doing. Then I will put some pasta...

What do you call them?

-LAUGHS:

-Lasagne.

-Lasagne just inside, fantastic, like that.

And then I put again a little bit more sauce on top.

Nice, grated Parmesan.

Gennaro, you don't pre-scald the lasagne.

-You put them in dry?

-Do you know what...

My grandmother used to put them in the water first before...

It is indeed.

But I've found if you put enough sauce inside your dish, it will cook.

-It will absorb it nicely.

-OK.

It all depends how much sauce you're actually doing.

So if you have a very rich... a lot of water in the sauce,

you don't need to actually pre-boil them.

No, if you do... Yes, it is because...

-If you put bechamel in, you don't need to boil them.

-Come on! Come on!

Excuse me, make up your mind.

-I listen to you, Gennaro, anyway.

-Thank you very much, Bruno.

Tell us about the cheese you're putting on.

I just put some nice, lovely, ricotta cheese.

Ricotta cheese stays all together and mozzarella would melt.

So we give a lovely flavour. Easy peasy. Just do me your eggs.

-Doesn't take very long.

-Ricotta's from what animal?

What animal?! What do you mean, ricotta from animal? Moooooo.

-All right.

-Or baaaaaaa.

-OK.

-Then, why not use some beautiful eggs inside to enrich the dish.

You have some nice, small eggs everywhere you can put it.

That's good. Carry on cooking.

Then again, season a little bit more just in case.

You want everything even.

-Then you put another one.

-Yup.

Then you put this one.

Sorry, after you do this.

This one. And again.

Just a little bit more sauce. Can you understand me when I talk?

-Yeah, I can understand.

-Bruno, can you understand me? I'm sure you can.

-Perfettamente. Perfettamente.

-Grazie. Sei molto gentile. Non ti dico niente.

Ma queste lasagne... I'm sorry. Have you...?

LAUGHTER

Queste lasagne... Are these home-made lasagne?

Yes. No. We bought this lasagne.

-What did you call this one?

-Fresh lasagne.

-What did you call this one?

-Sheets.

-Sheets of lasagne. You can buy.

You can make easy. One egg, 100 grams of flour.

You mix together and you make a beautiful... Roll it out.

You make a beautiful lasagne sheet. That's the right word?

Eggs inside, then the ricotta.

Then again, ricotta. A little mozzarella. That's good.

You know how to do it. I've shown you before. That's fantastic.

-Then again, you cover again. Another one.

-One final layer.

One final layer. And then, you put just again plenty, plenty...

You have to have plenty tomato sauce on top.

How beautifully choreographed. Do you think?

-There you go.

-Put them all on top.

It really is!

That's good.

-A little bit more mozzarella.

-Apart from making lasagne, what are you doing for Christmas?

-For Christmas...

-What are you doing for Christmas?

For Christmas, we're having a family lunch which is fantastic.

And I'm going to go away for a few days.

-A few days?

-A few days. Not very much.

One point deducted. You dropped your thingy.

There we go. A bit of Parmesan cheese. The great thing about this, you bake it in the oven.

Don't forget the eggs! Come on. Just a half. That is good.

Just a little like that. Just a little more olive oil. Come on, now!

-Bake it in the oven.

-The olive oil! Come on.

-Just bake it in the oven!

There you go. Get it on the plate.

You've got a plate here.

Can I plate it? Leave it! I've got to plate it. I've got to plate it.

Bless the lovely dish.

Oh, my goodness me. Thank you.

Don't worry. I'll take him over after. One...

-Yeah...I think you should have let me do it.

-That is nice. Come on.

-Come on.

-He's happy with that. Remind us what that dish is again, please?

Gran lasagne. Festive lasagne. With minced meat inside.

-Well, mince and then it's mozzarella...

-It's as easy as that.

Gran lasagne will do.

Right. Let's have a dive into this and taste it. Well done. Right. Now.

Come on over here. We'll miss you and then go straight over here...

No! No, I'm not having that!

-Dive into that.

-Oh, look at this! Yummy!

Can I have it all and bring it to Strictly?

I can feed all the judges.

-The crew will nick that afterwards, but dive in.

-This is fantastic.

A bit hot? With that mixture of pork...

Pork and beef is quite important.

I just... Don't go away, don't go away. Don't worry, my Parmesan...

My Parmesan. Come on. Ah!

-There, that's it. That, that, that...

-What are you doing?!

-Pass it down.

-Excuse me, you are teasing me. I can't get anything!

-Dive into that, tell us what you think.

-It's a con!

-It's good.

It is good, that's why I want some more. Sorry, I'm greedy.

The mixture of pork and beef is really important.

It is important, you know, it's flavours.

Pork has got a nice flavour and also a little bit of fat in there as well.

The mince, which is very nice as well,

the two together combine well with the parsley and garlic, which is marvellous.