Original subtitles

Well, our theme today, Mike, is one of my personal favourites,

and that's really a pasta bake.

What can be better for feeding the family?

So I'm going to use a really interesting pasta shape.

It's called fusilloni,

and the 'oni' basically just means a bigger version,

so it stays really intact.

And that's what you want in a pasta bake.

So I've got a kick of chilli in there.

It's basically chicken, veggies, pasta all into one pot,

into the oven.

I absolutely love this.

I do so many versions of this dish.

Sounds delicious. What are you gonna make, Mike?

I'm gonna do my version of a carbonara gnocchi bake.

It's simple.

It's delicious. It's unctuous.

Everything you want in that midweek meal.

It's sounding rich. Are you going to...

It's not too rich. It's not too rich.

Maybe for you.

Not for the rest of us.

Let's see. It does sound delicious, I admit.

Pasta tray bake is honestly one of my go-to dishes.

I think I make this at least once a week.

So have you seen these?

I'm really, really loving this particular type of pasta.

Look at it. I mean... It looks beautiful.

Fusilloni. So this is fusilli basically bigger.

That's what the 'oni' means.

I think the only thing that can go wrong with a pasta bake

is if the pasta is too well cooked.

100%. When it's almost gloopy and like, soft and falling apart.

Nobody likes an overcooked pasta. Yeah.

So that's my top tip, is to cook your pasta before

obviously it's going into the bake,

and almost sort of even slightly before al dente.

So don't cook it all the way through because it's going to keep

cooking in the oven in the sauce.

So then just while our pasta is getting cooking,

we can start putting the rest together.

So, Mike, can we put those amazing cheffing knife...knife skills...

Flattery will get you everywhere. ..to work?

Thank you very much.

I love nice skinny slices, please, of that.

And then I'm using chicken thighs.

I use chicken thighs, I've got to admit, more than I use breasts

because I think they're more flavourful, basically.

Do you know what? That surprises me and makes me incredibly happy,

because it's so much more flavour.

I'm very glad I'm making you happy, Mike.

It is more flavour, but you know what?

It's also got more iron, more zinc.

And I do agree with you. I think it tastes better.

So I'm just going to brown my chicken.

So I pack in my veggies.

So we've got the red onion. We've got the capsicum.

We've got some zucchini going in here and some broccoli

and tomatoes and garlic plus the chilli.

What I'm loving about this chilli product though, is that I know

if you've got really young kids

or you've got people who just don't like chilli,

then you can add a little bit to the dish.

Or you can then just pop the jar on the table so people like me

who love their chilli can then just add a bit more at the table.

OK, I reckon our chicken is about ready, so I'm going

to remove the chicken from the pan and then saute our veggies.

And you can use the same chicken bowl here because we're going

to recook the chicken.

Our veggies can all go in.

You want me to do the courgette? Yes, please.

'Courgette'? Oh, zucchini.

(SPEAKS INDISTINCTLY) Zucchini.

It's a courgette to me, guys. I'm English.

But it's OK. I understood your language.

OK.

So, saute off all the veggies in the extra virgin olive oil.

Right. So we're doing the zucchini.

I was going to do the broccoli, but you know what?

I'm going to pass it to you... (LAUGHS)

..to do that because you're doing such an amazing job, Mike.

Do you know what?

Will I get a job for you?

(BOTH LAUGH)

In goes some garlic.

Give that all a really good stir.

I'm going to add some salt.

And some black pepper.

And I am going to put fresh herbs in here, but I try to do them

as close to the end as possible.

So we'll add those just as we bring it all together.

So loving my black pepper.

Oh, I love that you've chopped me up the broccoli stalk.

Use everything. No waste.

Because so many people chuck the stalk away.

And it's so nutritious.

Super tasty. No food waste.

Super tasty.

So I'm going to pop in my chilli, and I'm loving this chilli.

It's Australian made.

It's all natural ingredients.

It's gluten free and you can add as much or as little as you like.

I always add lots because I'm a bit of a chilli lover.

Looks so delicious.

I'm going to put a good teaspoon full of that in there.

Give it a stir.

We can return the chicken to the pan along with any of the juices.

Some fresh just half cherry tomatoes.

Or if you want, you can use a can of cherry tomatoes.

Could you use tinned tomatoes if you didn't have any fresh?

Yeah.

Well, I've been buying those cans of cherry tomatoes

Yeah.

..in a can that are really, really good.

But yeah, it could just be a can of chopped or plum tomatoes.

So here's our pasta.

It's just not quite cooked.

So just be careful that you're watching it, not overcooking it.

Pop it into the pan.

Don't worry if a bit of that pasta water goes in there,

that's totally fine.

Some white wine.

And don't worry if you're cooking for kids.

I've only got a tiny amount of white wine,

and the alcohol all cooks off when you're cooking with wine.

And then something I use all the time...

Do you ever use this?

It's like cooking cream.

It's like a cream cheese.

Ah, yeah.

Bit lower in fat because I want the fat

to come from my extra virgin olive oil and from the parmesan.

So it just gives a nice creaminess.

If you want to use a little cream, then that's fine by me.

I love that. I actually do that.

I use it for like my youngest for some of his pasta sauces.

Yeah. Nice.

Obviously not for myself.

I use full fat cream for me.

I suspected as much.

I'm just going to take it off the heat now and add...

Oh, look at your beautiful chopping.

..your fresh herbs in there.

Lovely. Thank you, sir.

We'll pop that in. So I'm using basil and parsley.

But, you know, whatever fresh herbs you've got.

I do think fresh herbs make a big difference.

And now I'm going to ask you a question about that. Yeah?

Why is it that sometimes you're told,

"Don't slice basil. Do it, rip it with your hands,"

and then you just sliced it, which I do?

So I'm really happy to see you do that.

It bruises very quickly.

Obviously you take out some of the natural oils from the herb,

so ripping it is definitely better for it.

But something like this, the chiffonade, it doesn't matter.

It's going to break up.

It's just going to become part of that beautiful pasta.

I love how I learn something every time I'm on set.

OK, so how good does that look already?

Smells amazing. Yeah, beautiful smells in there.

All those veggies are packed in.

And all I'm going to do is top it with...

Could you pass me the microplane?

One of my favourite cheeses.

Parmesan over the top.

But you could use cheddar, tasty cheese, mozzarella, whatever,

whatever you've got in the fridge.

And that's it.

So easy to throw together.

All I'm going to do now is pop it into the oven,

180 for about 20, 30 minutes, and that's it.

Awesome.

So out of the oven, it's ready to serve.

How good does that look?

It smells incredible.

Do you know what, I actually quite like when the pasta bits...

See how they go a little bit crispy on the top?

Yeah! Ooh, those chewy bits of pasta.

That's the best bit of any bake or lasagne is the crispy corners.

The crispy edges. Oh! Yes. Couldn't agree more.

You have to fight over those toppings.

Yeah! (LAUGHS) Beautiful.

Should we have a sneaky taste? I can't wait.

I'm dying to try this big pasta.

Mm. That's awesome.

And the cheesiness is... it's not cheesy,

but it's...it's that subtle

sort of creamy sort of texture to it.

That's just a go-to dish in my house.

Always a winner. I can see why.

(LAUGHS) Yum.

So, I'm doing a gnocchi carbonara.

Not a classic carbonara.

So settle down, all you people that are going to be judging me.

I'm doing my version, which is great for the oven.

So it's a really good bake version. OK?

So for you, can you chop the leeks, the onion

and then grate me some cheese?

So we're basically going to make like a white sauce. Alright.

And the base is going to be the bacon first,

because I want that to bleed into the pan.

And I want to get all that beautiful fat and deliciousness

into the sauce.

So that's the base of our flavour. Trying to wind me up.

So, yeah.

So, veloute, basically it's one of the oldest sauces you can have

and it translates as 'velvet'.

So it's like rich and creamy but not too rich,

which is... I know you were worried about.

We're going to like almost soften it with a chicken stock. OK?

So it's not just milk and cream.

It's a little bit of milk, a little bit of chicken stock.

So what is the difference then, Mike, between a veloute sauce

and a bechamel sauce?

So bechamel is just milk and cream. OK? So a white sauce.

Well, bechamel is technically with cheese as well.

Um, but a white sauce is butter, flour, milk, cream, cheese.

Um, and a veloute is a stock base.

Usually a classic veloute actually doesn't have any milk in it at all.

You make it with just stock,

and then you can finish it with a touch of cream at the end,

if that's what you want.

We use them a lot in restaurants.

It does look like a lot of butter to me, Mike.

But you've got to remember,

basically the butter and the flour is going to be the base of the veloute.

So we're going to cook the bacon. Yeah. OK.

Take the bacon out, cook off the onions and the leeks.

Take that out.

And then add in our stock and our milk

and make a beautiful sauce and add everything back in.

And it is going to fill this whole...

It's gonna fill the whole tray.

And it's going to feed the family, guys.

It's going to feed your friends.

It's going to feed everyone with a bit of love.

Totally relaxed over here. It's good. Go for it.

(LAUGHS) OK.

So we can grate some of the cheese. Want me to grate cheese? OK.

Do you mind that they're mixed? Are they all going to go in together?

No, that's absolutely fine. They're all going to go together.

Same family of vegetables. Exactly.

I like that you're using leek.

I think leeks are so underused.

I love leeks. Don't you think?

I love it like a really nice caramelised leek

with my cheese toastie.

Do you know what I mean? Cheese and caramelised leeks in there.

A little bit of garlic.

Oh, delicious!

Oh, I like it.

Fancy. Fancy toasty.

Right. You can see now your bacon is looking beautiful in there.

So we're just gonna like tilt that forward.

And you can see the butter has almost doubled in volume...

Yeah. I'm noticing.

..from all that gorgeous bacon fat.

You see?

Nice and crispy. Oh, good. Good.

We've got the butter and the bacon fat together.

That's what you said. OK. (LAUGHS)

And we're just going to take that out and pop that straight into our tray.

You want that texture and crunch later on.

So now all of our leeks and onion we're going to saute off.

And then we're just going to do the same with this.

Get it nicely caramelised.

And then we're going to pop it back out again.

There you go. You can see it's nicely softened.

So you don't need it to brown?

No, don't...don't... doesn't need to be brown.

Just nicely like you've got a golden nugget starting to come through.

But I also don't want to overcook it,

because obviously it's going to cook again now.

We're just going to take this out now as well.

Pop this in there.

And you see now, Jo, a lot of that beautiful butter and fat

has already been taken up.

Like, it's actually used too much.

Like it's all been absorbed in the gorgeous leeks and onion.

So I need a bit more butter.

(BOTH LAUGH)

OK, Mike.

It's simple, classic cooking. Do you know what I mean?

This is really beautiful flavour. That's all you get.

That's all I need. I'll take it away. It's all I need.

So now we just render that down.

I love a dish that's not using too many pots and pans.

100%, 100%.

We've all got enough to go on...

..enough work to do in our lives without cleaning up half the night.

You know?

I used to be terrible when I was younger.

You know, young chef cooking at home.

Oh, the mess! The mess I used to create in my kitchen.

Oh, I can't cope.

I've got to have everything clean. I'm a clean as I go kind of a cook.

OK, so the butter is in and the flour is in now.

And basically we make a roux. OK?

Which is when the butter and the flour comes together.

OK. Am I passing you milk?

Yes, please.

I'm just guessing. I've made a white sauce before.

I know what I'm doing with this.

So we're going to go with 500 milk first.

You can measure it out at home.

I do this quite a bit so I know by eye.

And then you can just start to use your whisk now

to bring this together.

The idea is to get rid of the lumps as quickly as possible.

Can I get the chicken stock, please?

Chicken stock. Yes.

And now this is our hot chicken stock

which we're just going to add a little bit at a time.

And then we're basically going to repeat this process.

Whisk it through until it's all absorbed.

So you can see that sauce is all coming together now,

and we're just going to let it bubble away.

Keep whisking it.

You don't have to be as continuous with the whisking now.

And I'm just going to blanch the gnocchi.

And obviously this is a ready-made gnocchi.

So it's super easy for home, yeah?

So I'm just going to give it, like, 30 seconds, maybe a minute tops.

Let it come to the heat, take it out

and we're going to mix it all together.

So I'm actually really relieved to see a chef cooking a packet gnocchi.

So they are pretty good to cook with at home?

They are, absolutely.

You can get some really good ones.

You know, you can get some really good quality ones.

I always, you know, like the more artisan versions.

Yes. But absolutely.

Alright.

So gnocchi out.

Straight into our sauce.

Do you want this? Should this have gone in?

We can add it now.

English mustard powder. Stir it through.

It felt left out, sitting on its own.

(LAUGHS)

And now we'll bring that over.

Thank you.

We're gonna pop that all back into there just to help with the mixing.

A bit of salt, not too much,

just because of the amount of bacon in there.

Nice, generous amount of pepper.

Give that all a nice mix.

And you can see the colour of the sauce is a lot more golden,

because it's not just made with milk.

Is that the butter that's giving it that golden...?

I was thinking... It's the stock.

It's the stock, of course. It's the stock.

Yeah, yeah. So we just pour that all in.

And I do think adding the stock makes it lighter.

Right? Instead of just milk. 100%.

Yeah. Absolutely.

Alright, give that a final mix.

OK. Would you like me to sprinkle cheese on top?

You can sprinkle.

I'll put you to too much use today. Mix them up.

(BOTH LAUGH)

I feel sure that you will.

(LAUGHS)

Right. Looking beautiful now.

We're going to pop it in the oven for 15 minutes at 200 degrees.

And then we're back with one more surprise element.

I mean, that smell.

Look at your face. No, I know, I feel...

I feel like we're about to tuck into a really decadent mac and cheese.

That's what it's feeling like.

Alright... It's definitely luxurious.

You promised us a secret ingredient, Mike.

To give it that little bit more of a carbonara feel,

we're going to add these beautiful egg yolks on top.

It looks rich.

It looks really indulgent,

but it's made with half chicken stock, remember?

So it's a lot lighter than it looks.

I mean, there you have it.

The beautiful Australian eggs on top

just give it that real carbonara feel.

My gnocchi carbonara bake

with bacon, leeks, onion and a gorgeous veloute sauce.

Are you ready to try it?

I sure am. Ready as ever.

(LAUGHS)

So you're just going to literally stir that yolk through at the end?

Yeah, I'm gonna stir it at the end in the bowl.

So we'll serve a portion first. Yum.

I mean, look at...

Look at that. That beautiful gnocchi.

Gorgeous sauce.

And then you just stir that egg yolk through.

I mean, it just looks so inviting, so comforting.

This is like classic comfort food.

Oh, absolutely proper comfort food.

And I think this is going to be a hit with the kids too,

I've got a feeling.

Oh, it's a staple in my house.

Absolute staple.

But that beautiful gnocchi, gorgeous sauce.

Oh, the leeks are amazing.

It's kind of... it's got that salty, creamy,

but then the flavour of the leek,

that is absolutely delicious.

Yeah. I mean, it's just...

It's creamy. It's inviting.

You get those crispy, crunchy bacon pieces.

OK. There you go.

I'll give you it. I'll give you it. Jo approved.

(BOTH LAUGH)

Chia puddings, a great meal prep hack

if you want to set yourself up well for the start of the week.

For me, it's generally a pretty busy time,

so I love having a breakfast like this on hand in the fridge,

ready to grab and go if I need.

To make this chia pudding,

we obviously need our chia seeds as the base.

They're a lovely source of fibre

and those healthy omega-3 fatty acids,

but I'm going to get lots of spices into my chia pudding today

because I love their anti-inflammatory

and anti-oxidant-rich properties in.

So I've got some cinnamon,

which adds a natural source of sweet as well,

and some turmeric,

which has all the beautiful anti-inflammatory properties.

But it'll also bring that beautiful golden colour

to this chia pudding too.

Then some vanilla, because it's my ultimate favourite

to add into these sorts of foods.

And I'm going to do a mix of both coconut milk and almond milk.

So there's lovely sources of fats going into our chia pudding.

So this is a good one to keep you feeling satisfied

all throughout that time.

So coconut milk and some almond milk.

If you didn't have either on hand,

you could use whatever milk is your preference.

It really doesn't matter.

Then to sweeten it, we've got a manuka honey

which is full of anti-oxidant,

anti-inflammatory and antibacterial properties.

So a couple of teaspoons of manuka honey.

And this one is an MGO 100+.

So it's got some great active compounds in there to support

your immune health.

But it also tastes absolutely delicious.

And that's it.

We get all of our ingredients into the bowl.

Give it a good stir,

let it sit for a bit and then give it another stir.

Alternatively, you could get all of your ingredients into a jar,

shake it up, leave it on your bench top,

shake it up again after 10 minutes or so,

and then get it in the fridge to set overnight,

ready for breakfast the next morning.

Our chia pudding has set in the fridge overnight.

You can see it's a beautiful, golden and vibrant colour,

and we're going to serve it up.

I love this one with some fresh seasonal fruits.

Anything really that you have on hand to add that little bit of extra

bonus flavour and, you know, variety in your meal.

You could add a little bit of coconut or regular yoghurt to the top

and top it with some nuts and seeds,

and maybe a little bit of an extra drizzle of honey too.

It's a good one if you want to pack it into jars so that you can

just grab and go in the morning.

It can also be a really great snack.

If you're someone that gets hungry in the afternoon,

it's a great way to pack some plant protein as well as fibre

into your afternoon as well.

I always feel like, you know,

you can portion these things down to as big or as little as you like.

So, for breakfast, you might have a bigger portion.

If you were having a snack, it might be a little smaller snack jar.

Just do whatever suits your lifestyle and your health needs too.

So with the berries on top,

we're adding in lots of beautiful vitamin C,

other vitamins and minerals too.

And I'm going to get some pistachios,

but use whatever nuts you have on hand

if you want a little bit of crunch factor in there,

because chia pudding is naturally...

..has, I suppose, a bit of a gelatinous, uh, texture.

So adding some crunch can just vary the texture in your breakfast.

And then I'm going to get a little extra drizzle

of our manuka honey to finish.

You could again add your yoghurt or almond milk

or a little drizzle of coconut milk if you needed to loosen it as well,

which is something to think about.

So there we have it, a chia pudding,

which you can make a big batch of at the start of the week

and eat all throughout the week as well

for some easy breakfasts on the go.

Plenty of different ingredients,

lots of great nutrition and it tastes delicious too.

Captions by Red Bee Media