Original subtitles

Italy is without a doubt one of my favourite countries.

I mean, the food is next level,

the produce,

so many different types of their cuisine

I just absolutely love,

and I'm sure the rest of Australia feels the same, right?

Oh, 100%!

And they do say, the Italians, that they do it better.

But you know what? We're gonna give our little take on Italian today.

Very non-traditional.

I'm gonna make what I call

the 50-50 bolognese,

which is packed with vegetables.

Nice. And you?

Well, I've decided to take on our Tim

and do a three-cheese toastie

and a classic Italian peperonata sauce,

what I think is the world's best toastie.

Oh, that's a bold move. (LAUGHS)

I've had a few of Tim's toasties,

but you know what? I'm here to make an even game.

Show me what you've got.

Let's make this happen. Let's see.

(THEME MUSIC PLAYS)

My 50-50 bolognese

is a super way

to pack lots of vegetables into a traditional bolognese dish,

as you can see.

So, if you could get chopping on the celery and the carrot

to start for me. Sure.

And we still get our, you know, ingredients

like our onion, garlic and extra-virgin olive oil into the pan,

but I really do pump up the vegies

in all parts of this dish.

So, we have celery, carrot,

as well as mushroom and lentils.

And that's our little 50-50 component.

Instead of things being all about meat,

I'm bringing in a mince component

from lentils

because they're so similar in texture, in size

to a traditional mince

that they kind of disappear into the dish...

Yeah.

..and people eating it, in particular, kids,

wouldn't even pick that there's really extra vegies

in there.

I love a classic bolognese, don't get me wrong. Love it.

But, as a parent, it's how I always used to sneak in vegetables.

It's one of those sneaky parent hacks.

So, we'll get our onion, garlic, and our carrot and celery

into the pan first

because we want to cook those down so they're lovely and soft

before getting the rest of the ingredients in there.

And keeping them all of a similar size is really important,

especially if you're trying to make things discreet for your kids.

Yeah! Would you agree?

Because they will pick out things in an absolute heartbeat.

They don't see the clothes they leave on the floor,

but they'll see the tiny, tiny speck of onion in the sauce.

That's so true, isn't it?

Sometimes I like to pop my bolognese sauce into a sausage roll.

You just kind of pump it out with a bit of rolled oats,

maybe some sunflower seeds.

Another one I'm stealing from you, Jac.

Yeah!

So, we've got probably enough carrot in there now.

We need those to saute

and become lovely and soft.

Probably need around

six to eight minutes there before we pop our meat in.

These vegies are looking good.

They've softened beautifully.

There's a nice bit of caramelisation around them.

I love that smell, Jac. It's just... It's a good one.

Ohh! And it's just vegies.

Yeah. Then we'll get our mince in.

So, this is only 250g of the beef mince.

And I've done that because it's 50-50

and I'm gonna split it with the lentils.

We'll add some salt and pepper to the dish.

And, Mike, could you get the stock mixed up for me?

I love adding some good-quality vegetable stock

into a dish like this.

You can see there's no red wine on the table top or bench top.

So, stock is what's going to help enhance all the flavours.

And whilst it's simmering

for that good 45 to 60 minutes,

we want to make sure there's plenty of liquid

so that it simmers and reduces down

and all of those flavours really condense

into this really rich bolognese.

It's so comforting, right, bolognese?

It is. It's a comforting meal.

And it doesn't matter the time of year.

Like, it's just...it's warming, it's....

Yeah. It's one of those feel-good dishes, I think.

Absolutely is.

Some dried Italian herbs going in

because our meat has browned off.

And we'll add in our lentils.

There we go. Thank you.

Now, lentils, I think, surprise a lot of people.

Everyone considers them just as a bean.

But, in fact, when you consume lentils

it counts towards your daily intake of vegies as well.

So, if you get

lentils into a dish like this,

know that you're increasing your daily serves of veg as well.

Then we'll have our tomato paste

and tinned tomatoes as well.

Some delicious rich tomatoes.

You already can't see those lentils.

I know! Like, they're already gone.

They just blend in with that meat so well.

And then our vegie stock is the final component here.

So, we'll let this cook for the next 45 to 60 minutes.

Just before it's ready we'll get our pasta in,

and then our dinner is ready.

Alright. The pasta is al dente.

I know you're ready for a taste...

Ohh! ..of this bolognese.

I love, love bolognese.

And it just smells so good.

It does smell good. And it looks good!

It looks amazing. You can see

that it's all simmered down, the sauce is lovely

and thick.

We've created lots of flavour with the vegies.

The mushrooms bring all the umami in.

This is a beautiful-quality pasta too,

and I'll be generous in our serving because we're both tucking in here.

Thank you!

(LAUGHS)

Now, I know I've said it already,

but you talk about the lentils being hidden.

It is something I guarantee my son wouldn't notice.

Ah, that's a win, isn't it? Yeah.

This is turned into the beast bowl.

(LAUGHS) Want me to grate? You go for it.

And some parsley.

Tell me when,

otherwise I keep grading because there's never enough.

Hmm... Never enough.

(BOTH LAUGH)

When!

We drown in parmesan cheese!

And, hey, look, if you are looking to get some vegies

into your dinners throughout the week,

then this is hands down

one of the best, easiest, and tastiest ways to do it.

Mmm!

Mm-mm!

Beautiful. So much flavour.

It's rich, isn't it?

It's rich. It's indulgent. You don't miss out on anything.

Gorgeous. There we go.

A really good recipe to have on rotation to get the vegies in

and a dish that everyone loves.

Including me.

Right. Toastie!

The challenge. Bring it on!

The challenge. (LAUGHS)

Alright, I'm gonna start off with a peperonata,

which is one of my favourite...

..like, it's almost a sauce or a condiment.

Whatever it is, it's delicious.

And I've got some red peppers, some yellow peppers,

which I'm just gonna saute down in a hot pan.

So, I'm gonna start off with the olive oil.

Jac? Yes!

I've got some confit of garlic there.

Can you make me a little garlic butter?

I can! Using all the garlic?

Yeah!

(BOTH LAUGH)

Silly question. No hesitation there.

Yeah. Never too much garlic.

How much butter, Chef? Probably about half a block.

Do you have a preference of salted or unsalted?

Always unsalted. I like to be in control.

Yeah! I wanna add the salt in.

OK. You can never take out

but you can always add in. That's true. That's true.

And go in with all of these peppers.

OK, so, while that starts to saute,

I'm just gonna slice down the shallots

to go with it.

Or the...

What do you call them in Sydney? Eschalots.

Eschalots.

And I've already said, I think, 'peppers' once.

So, 'capsicum'. I'll try.

I'll try and say 'capsicum'. I was going to pick you up on that.

(LAUGHS)

Alright.

So, some nice sliced shallot in there as well.

We're gonna bring that to the heat

and let that all nicely saute down.

Am I putting some parsley in your garlic butter?

Yes, please. Some nice chopped parsley.

And then literally, once that comes to the heat,

saute down, get a bit of colour in there.

I'm gonna add in my tinned tomatoes.

It gives it a beautiful flavour.

Reduce that down.

Season it with a touch of sugar.

And I'm also gonna use chilli.

And this one's hot because, you know me, I like it hot.

We'll let it all cook down,

get it all delicious and sticky and beautiful.

And we'll be back for the toastie.

Alright, our beautiful peperonata's slowly ticking away down the side.

You can take it off, leave it to cool.

Takes about 25, 30 minutes, depending on the size you're making.

Oh, thank you, Jac. Read my mind. My pleasure.

So, for the toastie, for the fun,

I'm gonna cut two nice

middle slices.

Not too thick,

but decent.

And then... Can you pass me a knife, please?

Mm-hm. Thank you.

Your gorgeous garlic butter.

Some of my best work there.

It really is. It looks beautiful.

And obviously with a toastie, guys,

there's no such thing as too much butter, right?

I love my confit of garlic.

Don't have to use confit of garlic.

You can just use raw garlic, just use less

because obviously it's a lot stronger in taste, a lot harsher.

The confit garlic

is definitely your thing, though.

I love it. It's everywhere,

but it's great and it's such a good one to actually have on hand at home

because you DO use it if it's there.

That's it.

Make it in a big batch,

stick it in a nice little jar in your fridge in the oil.

Forget about it.

Yeah! Do you know what I mean?

Lasts so long.

That's a lot of cheese for one toastie!

Never too much. It's like butter -

there's no such thing as too much!

Really?! No!

So, I'm starting with my cheddar.

Doing my three cheese -

cheddar,

mozzarella and pecorino.

OK.

Never too much cheese, Jac.

Never too much cheese. So you say!

(LAUGHS)

That's beautiful. Thank you.

Now, some of the pecorino...

..I'm actually putting down in the pan first.

Ooh!

Tim, take note.

Eh? Yeah! (LAUGHS)

And I'm putting that on top.

And then I'm gonna build

in the pan

so there's less places to move.

And you've got a lot of that peperonata there.

What would you suggest to store it? Oh, again, mason jar...

Yeah. ..put it in the fridge.

Little liquor of olive oil on top and it will last.

Look at that.

Wowee. Alright.

And then all of this cheese...

..here...

..we're just gonna gather in.

Look at that.

And that's just gonna give us that extra layer of cheese crust.

This bit that's on the pan, though, is definitely my favourite part.

I love it.

That crispiness you get in there. Crispy, crunchy.

It's the part of the lasagne that everyone fights for, right?

Yeah! Those crispy, crunchy corners.

The corner bits.

That's how I like to do my toasties.

Do the flip. Wow.

It's almost like an envelope

of cheese

around the toastie.

We're just gonna let that finish cooking.

Toasting away.

A little bit of olive oil.

And we'll be back to cut it

and enjoy.

Look at that!

That is one heck of a toastie.

If you're gonna do a toastie, do it right.

You know what I mean? Well, apparently so!

I always find, like, a straight knife is easier than a bread knife.

It's just a story of cheese, isn't it?

With a bit of pepper and a bit of chilli.

It's a three-cheese peperonata sandwich, you know?

Look at that. Oh, wow!

Beautiful,

crispy,

crunchy deliciousness

with a good hit of chilli.

Yeah. Exactly that.

Tim, I give you permission, yeah?

You can use this one.

(BOTH LAUGH)

I'm in! Go on. You've got to.

Where does it start? Where does it end?

(LAUGHS) Really!

Who knows?

Look at that. That gooey cheese.

Mmm!

There's no way you can eat this and still look good on TV.

But, my word, does it taste amazing.

So flavoursome.

That hint of chilli in there, it's the right level of chilli.

The cheese and the capsicum.

I'm speechless.

(LAUGHS)

OK. We're gonna turn down the lights.

This is an adults-only dessert.

Sorry, kids. This is just for your parents.

This is a spiked coffee sundae.

So, we're going to make a whisky coffee cream

and all sorts of other amazing stuff.

But first for the whisky coffee cream

we've got to make a caramel.

And we're going to use these coffee sugar crystals,

which are full-bodied and gonna give our caramel a great flavour.

We're going to go in with a cup

of these beautiful coffee sugar crystals into our pot.

Now I'm going to turn on the heat.

This is a dry caramel, OK, guys?

So, we'll turn on our pot

and we're just going to slowly melt down this sugar

and stir it until it becomes a beautiful amber colour.

I don't really have a big sweet tooth,

but I am a sucker for a good caramel

and, especially when we've got some coffee and some whisky in there,

I'm sold.

Alright, our coffee sugar crystals have dissolved

and we've got a beautiful colour there.

Now what I want to do is...

We've got butter. One cube at a time.

I'm just going to add and just whisk

as we go. This is the fun part.

Just keep adding one cube

at a time.

Keep stirring because it'll burn really easily at this point.

And the last cube.

Alright, that's all mixed in.

I'm going to turn off the heat now,

and then we're going to add our cream...

..and a double espresso shot...

..and a shot of whisky.

You could use Scotch or bourbon.

Whatever tickles your fancy.

Be careful. It might splash a little bit.

Alright, our coffee whisky cream is done.

Nice and smooth.

(PUFFS)

Yes!

Now I need to cool this coffee whisky cream down

before we go on with the rest of the sundae.

Alright. Our caramel has cooled down. It is absolutely delicious.

I had a cheeky taste.

Now we're going to pour about half of it into a bigger bowl.

And then we're going to add one cup of cream.

And we're making a caramel whipped cream.

So, I'm gonna use a bit of elbow grease here

and just whisk that till we get some nice soft peaks.

Alright. Our caramel whipped cream is done.

Let's build some sundaes.

Got a couple of classic sundae glasses here.

Let's get a good drizzle of our caramel around the edges.

Then a nice good-quality vanilla bean ice-cream.

A warm ice-cream scoop.

A couple of good scoops of our ice-cream.

Then some of our caramel cream,

a nice dollop of that on top.

Yes!

Some dark chocolate. Let's grate that on.

Another drizzle of our caramel.

And here I've got some toasted slivered almonds

for a bit of crunch.

Maybe a little bit more chocolate

just for good luck.

But there you go, guys -

my spiked coffee sundae.

This one is just for the grown-ups.

If you've got people coming over,

it's really nice to serve a dip and, you know, some nibbly things

while you're having a drink,

either pre-dinner or if it's just in the afternoon.

And, of course, you can buy those things as a shortcut,

but it's so much more delicious to just make it yourself at home.

So, this is a really quick and easy one

using fresh avocado, some fetta

and the secret ingredient is to add a few vegies into there.

So, have a look at what we do.

Avocado and olives

are the only two fruits that have a significant fat content

and they're both really healthy monounsaturated fats.

So, avocado is not just healthy fat

but also fibre and folate and loads of other nutrients.

So, avocado is just a brilliant food to get into your day.

Now, a traditional guacamole, you might mash your avocado,

but, actually, for this dip

I think it's nicer if you leave it a bit chunky.

So, I'm just gonna chop my avocado

into sort of small dice.

OK, in goes our avocado. And I'm going to use two.

OK, then some fresh cucumber.

A nice firm cucumber.

So, cut it first into batons

so that you get them

into relatively small dice.

I'm leaving the skin on.

All I've done is chop the ends off.

And the smoothness, somehow, the fresh crispness of the cucumber

just works beautifully

with the creaminess of the avocado and the fetta.

And then we've got some finely chopped celery

and capsicum.

And then our fetta.

So, I'm going to use the traditional fetta

because I just want this to be nice and crumbly.

And you can just use your hands here.

Take the fetta...

..and just using your fingers

crumble it into the dip.

So, we've got some nice chunks.

It's a beautiful, textured sort of dip.

And the whole pack is going to be used. In it goes.

And then all we need is some fresh lemon juice.

And I'm just gonna put in half,

then have a taste, and you can always adjust the seasoning at the end

because you do have some sharpness to the fetta,

so, I don't want it to be overly lemony.

So, I'm just gonna put in half to start with.

Then some fresh coriander.

I'm gonna use about half of this bunch.

Just pick out the leaves from the sort of tougher stalks.

It doesn't matter if the smaller stalks go in.

Oh, I love the smell of fresh coriander.

If you're not a coriander lover, and you know that that's genetic,

you could use some fresh parsley or, you know, some more fresh oregano.

Really, any sort of fresh herb is going to work in here.

OK.

Give them a rough chop.

In that goes.

And then just a pinch of salt.

The fetta is fairly salty,

so, again, don't be too generous with the salt, just a pinch.

And then plenty

of black pepper.

Now, if you like, you could put some red chilli in here.

Play around with the sorts of ingredients

and the amounts of ingredients.

Sometimes I blend half of it and put that back in

if I want a wee bit more smoothness.

But we're gonna leave this fairly chunky today.

Spoon that onto our bowl.

And then serve that

with whatever kind of chips that you like.

I've just got a really nice wholemeal flatbread

that's nicely crisped up.

Serve it with a little teaspoon on the side

so people can grab their little cracker of bread,

spoon onto the top.

And that is so quick and easy.

And I tell you - this is so much more delicious than a bought dip.

Captions by Red Bee Media