I had to give it a go

We've been watching a bit of Jamie Oliver's 15 minute meals lately, so I thought I'd give one of this week's recipes a go.  The ricotta fritters looks good, so I popped into the IGA on the way home to get a few bits a pieces I'd need.  I have to confess, it didn't take 15 minutes, but I wasn't multi-tasking and I was carefully going back and forward to the recipe, but I still think a meal in 35 minutes is pretty good.

It has three parts to it, the ricotta fritters, the sauce and the little side salad.  Relatively simple.  But what surprised us the most was the amazing depth of flavour that such a simple meal has and it was possibly one of the tastiest things I've ever turned out of my kitchen. And cheap as chips to boot.



http://www.jamieoliver.com/recipes/cheese-recipes/ricotta-fritters-with-tomato-sauce-courg

Sauce
25g dried porcini mushrooms 
optional: 4 anchovy fillets 
1 dried red chilli 
2 cloves of garlic
700g passata 
8 black olives (stone in) 
½ a bunch of fresh basil

Fritters
1 large egg 
400g ricotta cheese 
1 whole nutmeg, for grating 
1 lemon 
40g Parmesan cheese 
1 heaped tbsp plain flour 
olive oil 
balsamic vinegar

Salad
400g firm green or yellow baby courgettes
1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil 
1 fresh red chilli 
½ a bunch of fresh mint 
1 lemon

Put the porcini into a mug and cover with boiling water • Crack the egg into a mixing bowl, add the ricotta, finely grate in ¼ of the nutmeg, the lemon zest and Parmesan, add the flour, then beat together • Put 1 tablespoon of olive oil into the frying pan, then use a tablespoon to spoon in 8 large dollops of the mixture, turning carefully when nice and golden

Put the anchovies (if using) and 1 tablespoon of olive oil into the casserole pan, crumble in the dried chilli, and squash in the unpeeled garlic through a garlic crusher • Finely chop and add the porcini with half their soaking water and the passata, season with salt and pepper and bring to the boil • Squash and add the olives, discarding the stones • Pick and reserve a few basil leaves, then chop the rest and add to the sauce

Grate the courgettes in the processor (you could use a box grater here) and tip into a bowl with a pinch of salt and pepper, the juice of the zested lemon and the extra virgin olive oil • Finely chop and add the chilli and the top leafy half of the mint, then toss together • Place the fritters on top of the sauce, then scatter over the reserved basil leaves, drizzle with balsamic and serve with lemon wedges