Ingredients: penne, salt, 200 grams diced bacon, 1 zucchini, 1 onion, basil, oregano, pepper, 2 tomatoes, Cook the penne in boiling water with some salt. Bake in a hot frying pan 200 gram diced bacon until crisp. Scoop the diced bacon from the pan. Also remove the fat from the pan. Bake in a frying [...]

I’ve written previously about stuff I have in my kitchen and what I can’t live without. Despite my well-stocked kitchen, I have few things that aren’t useful. I don’t have a blender or a full sized food processor (both broke and were never replaced), and I manage just fine without them. But now the Kitchen Gods are testing me, because my oven hasn’t worked for over a month.

So, you know, this is getting ridiculous. I’ve been a good little cook. I don’t commit a lot of food crimes, and y’all know that I’ve worked hard to become less judgmental about how other people eat and cook. I can respect The Recipe and still make it my own. I’m a good hostess. I take my guests’ likes and dislikes into consideration. I make sure there’s plenty of food for the vegans, and that no one dies from a nut allergy. What else do they want from me? Maybe the Kitchen Gods are Catholic and want to hear a confession. OK, then. “Bless me, Father Keller, for I have sinned. It’s been a gazillion years since my last confession. I eat canned soup and cookies from the grocery store, and I drink domestic beer.” I’ll be happy to say a dozen “Hail Julia’s” and take a trip to Lourdes as my penance, unless going to Tuscany would be more fitting.

Logan has spent a little time working on it, and he’s sure it’s the sensor for the “bake” option, because the broiler works. What he’s not so sure of is whether he can fix it himself. We might have to call someone in to take care of it. I have no idea when that’s going to happen. Logan has told me that I don’t need the damned oven anyway, because it’s August. But he’s also told me that I’ve spoiled him with my homemade bread. Nothing else is as good as what I make.

To that end, I got creative (Note: shameless pimping of my food blog just ahead.), with mixed results. Making bread on the grill is a big, wonderful adventure. It makes me feel like a pioneer woman, which is pretty cool. I need to be more adventurous in my cooking anyway. If it ever stops raining, and if my discs return to their rightful place in my spine (instead of spending time where they don’t belong, like a bunch of kids hanging out at the 7-11 smoking cigarettes, drinking cheap beer and annoying everyone around them), enabling me to pick up my cast iron dutch oven, I’ll try it again. I’m obsessed with getting it right.

Of course, the grill is generally a great substitute for the oven, but it’s not helping with my brownie craving. I’m about ready to mix up a batch of brownie batter, heat it on the stove just enough to coddle the eggs, and freeze it in tablespoon-sized portions.

I’m good at making do with what I have. I mean, how much does one person need anyway? I believe in counting my blessings and putting things in perspective. I know there are people in this country who don’t even have a stove, so it could be worse. But I’m also a fan of acknowledging my pain, literal or figurative, and bitching about it for a while. Not having an oven is making me very cranky. With fall on its way, my mood is just going to get worse. What’s life without lasagna? (Kate obviously agrees.)

If anyone knows the name of the Patron Saint of Modern Kitchen Appliances, please let me know. I’d like to light a candle and pray to her. I might still have a rosary around here somewhere.

This, my friends, is what food blogging is all about. The ability to look at a dish and admire it for simply being what it is. And what this is is pasta sheets layered in sauce, filling, and mushrooms.

I chose lasagna as my first pasta dish because it was likely the first pasta dish created. At its essence, lasagna is a flat bread. This becomes glaringly apparent if you use home made pasta rather than the store bought, as any noodles not covered in sauce or toppings and is exposed to the over air, will have the texture and characteristics of a cracker. Those store bought pasta strips simply do not attain that level of crunchy goodness.

Let's talk about the noodles first, before talking about the dish itself. According to Alan Davidson in his book Oxford Companion of Food, these noodles have been around since before the New Testament. This makes it one of the oldest processed foods in Europe that are still around today. However, there is some question as whether it was a peasant dish, or a dish of the wealthy. As it does require an oven, my bet is that the houses of the wealthy made the noodles far more often than the poor. But as the noodles did have a shelf life, they may have ended up as a commodity sold at market and thus would not have been unheard of to the lower classes.

There has been a recent controversy that the British, and NOT the Italians came up for the concept recipe of lasanga as evidenced by its inclusion in a cookbook dated 1390, but this has proven demonstrably false, as there is plenty of evidence that those in the Italian regions were well acquainted with the pasta.

Many people will say that the word lasagna derives from the latin word lasanum meaning 'chamber pot', but I'm not convinced that this is the case. I'm far more willing to believe that it actually comes from the Greek word for a flat cake called laganon. The later seems more logical to me, and the former seems more like the twenty-first century definition being foisted upon a Roman-era pronunciation of an object that has little to do with a product made from flour and eggs.

So what would have been in those dishes? Well, not tomatoes, as they didn't arrive until the Europeans decided to head to the New World. But meats and cheeses would have been common, as would have honey, rosewater and nuts. The later would have been a treat quite similar to the baklava as we know it today.

As this dish has been around for a millennium or two, there are hundreds of ways in which it has been prepared. What this means for home cooks is that this dish opens itself to both interpretation as well as innovation. The above picture was made with the following:

• Filling made from 1 cup ricotta cheese, 1/4 cup parmesan, 1/4 cup asagio, and 1/4 cup chopped Italian Parsley.
• Meat sauce made with 1 lb Italian sausage, 28 oz of diced tomatoes, 4 oz tomato, and 1 tsp of fresh oregano
• sliced portabello mushooms
• Chunks of mozzarella cheese

Then it was simply a matter layering in a 9"x 9" glass dish.

Layer one - Noodles, filling, meat sauce.

Layer two - Noodles, mushrooms, meat sauce.

Layer three - Noodles, filling, meat sauce.

Layer four - Noodles, meat sauce, chunks of mozzarella cheese.

I put it in the over at 350 degrees F for 40 minutes. After removing it from the oven, I let it set for seven minutes before cutting into it. The result? Pure lasagna bliss.

But the above isn't the way to make this dish. Explore, try something different, have fun!

While at the Willunga Farmers Markets near McLaren Vale, I spoke with Judith McBain from Blue Cottage Almonds about her Australian Almonds. When Judith first started off growing almonds in the Fleurieu Peninsula there were over 70 growers, nowadays there are just 6. 

Blue Cottage Almonds grows three varieties of Almonds, the Johnston, Somerton and Parkinson in either raw, roasted or salted. Every week, Judith sells her almonds at the Willunga Farmers Market as well as via email and direct to restaurants. They sell the majority via the Willunga Farmers Market and has literally saved their business.

I must say that after filming this video, Judith gave me a bag of the Johnston Almonds which were lightly salted and they were the best almonds I’ve ever tasted.

Benjamin Christie's Australian Food, BBQ Recipes and Australian Recipes feature bush tucker ingredients like lemon myrtle and wattleseed. Check out recipes like shrimp on the barbie, anzac biscuits, lamingtons and banana bread. 

Food Service professionals will be interested in his chef blog as well as articles on menu planning, food photography, cooking kangaroo, menu engineering and food costing.

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