Introduction
If we could ban one food from ever being served in a school canteen, it would be pork chops. It’s no wonder we entered adulthood hating them. This sorry cut of meat wasn’t just beige and tasteless; it was so dry we’d barely chewed through our first bite before lunchtime was over.
If our friend hadn’t served us a beautifully tender, flavourful pork chop al fresco one late summer’s evening, it’s likely that one would have never passed our lips again. Thanks to her, though, we now have such respect for this affordable cut of meat that it’s become one of our mid-week staples.
Whatever pesto you’re using, we recommend searing your chops in oil that has been generously infused with garlic. With that in mind, don’t prepare this dish if there’s any chance of you getting a swipe-right later tonight.
Recommended equipment
Jaccard
Instant-read thermometer
Pro tip
Although its primary function is as a meat tenderiser, a jaccard allows you to instantly punch hundreds of little holes in the meat, which helps the marinade permeate.
Ingredients
Pork chops | x2 |
Pesto | 150g |
Garlic | x4 cloves |
Canola oil | as needed |
Seasoning | to taste |
Method
Confidently season your chops with salt and pepper and marinate them in the pesto for at least an hour, but preferably overnight.
Crush the cloves, skin and all, with the palm of your hand or the side of a knife and add to a pan over low heat with an overly generous glug of oil. Moving constantly so they don’t burn, cook the cloves until the kitchen smells garlicky enough to ward off vampires.
Remove and discard the cloves, and increase the heat to maximum. Shake off excess pesto from the chops and sear on both sides until golden brown on the outside and fully cooked in the middle, about 3 minutes each side. (Alternatively, cook until the internal temperature registers 62°C on an instant read thermometer.)
Rest the meat for 3-5 minutes before serving.
Serving suggestions
Potato and Bramley apple mash
Butter beans with bacon lardon
Squash, courgette, and onion casserole
Sautéed leeks and steamed Jasmine rice
Potato salad with asparagus and capers
Introduction
Americans are fervently proud of their most famous comfort food, so we probably won't be making any friends with traditionalists with our version that incorporates, of course, pesto.
But hey, we figure it must surely be our constitutional right to experiment.
To be completely candid, we’ve never eaten a meatloaf made by an American chef, so we can’t comment on how ours compares. What we do know, though, is that whenever we cook this recipe, it always passes our “recipe request test,” which is to say that everyone we serve it to pesters us for the recipe.
When we want to really impress, we wrap ours in streaky bacon, and to claw back a little authenticity, we brush it in a sticky, and slightly spicy tomato-based, BBQ-style glaze.
Pro tip
Cooking your meatloaf in the oven will yield a traditional texture, but using a bain-marie instead will result in an exceptional tender texture that we rather like but that isn’t to everyone’s taste.
Ingredients for one meatloaf
Mince* | 50g |
Pesto | 190g |
Breadcrumbs | 100g |
Whole milk | 150g |
Celery | 100g |
Onion | 100g |
Carrot | 100g |
Red pepper | 100g |
Garlic | 15g |
Egg | x1 |
Seasoning | to taste |
Olive oil | as needed |
Bacon | as needed |
* Our go-to mince is 50:50 pork and beef, which has a 20% fat content. Go ahead and use lean turkey mince if you’re watching the calories. It’ll just be a little less tasty and not quite as juicy.
Sticky glaze (optional) ingredients
Tomato ketchup | 20g |
Cider vinegar | 15g |
Molasses | 10g |
Muscovado | 7g |
Worcestershire | dash |
Method
Finely dice the carrots, onions, celery, and red pepper and sauté in olive oil over a low heat until nicely caramelised, about 10 minutes.
Add the garlic and cook for another 5 minutes before setting aside.
Meanwhile, use a food processor to make fresh breadcrumbs, soak them in the milk, and set aside.
Place the mince in a large mixing bowl and season generously with salt and pepper.
Mix everything together, but don't overwork it. Transfer the mixture to a loaf tin lined with streaky bacon, pack it down firmly, and smooth over the top.
Cook in a 200°C oven until the internal temperature measures 70°C, about 30 minutes.
Remove from the oven and carefully pour away any excess fat that will have come from the meat. Tip the loaf onto a baking tray and paint with the sticky glaze, if using.
Grill until nicely caramelised. Let stand for 10 minutes before serving, or refrigerate for up to 3 days if using in sandwiches.
Serving suggestions
Buttery mashed potato and grilled maple syrup-glazed Brussel sprouts
Sweet potato, lamb's lettuce, and fig salad
Grilled corn with spicy aioli
Harissa-roast carrots with crushed, toasted pecans
New England baked beans
Introduction
We have a slightly tragic tendency to favour the underdog, and turkey gets such a bad rap that we feel the need to stick up for it whenever we can.
The main issue with turkey is that it’s generally underseasoned and overcooked, which explains its infamy for being “bland and dry.” Maybe the fear of poisoning the extended family at Christmas means people feel the need to cook it to within an inch of its life.
Using a high-fat turkey mince, combined with a generous dollop of pesto, helps ensure your meatballs will be anything but bland. You can shallow fry these meatballs on a gentle heat or simmer them in a sauce, but we like baking them in the oven for ultimate ease.
Recommended equipment
Instant-read digital thermometer
Digital kitchen scales
Pro tip
In supermarkets, you’ll generally have a choice of two types of mince: 2% or 7% fat. Pick the former if you’re watching your weight, but the latter produces infinitely more juicy and flavourful results.
Ingredients for 20 meatballs
Turkey mince | 500g |
Pesto | 90g |
Gruyere | 50g |
Breadcrumbs | 50g |
Shallots | x2 |
Egg | x1 |
Ingredients for the sauce
Onion | x1 |
Tinned tomatoes | x2 tins |
Pesto | 100g |
Garlic clove | x1 clove |
Dried oregano | pinch |
Chilli flakes | optional |
Canola oil | as needed |
Seasoning | to taste |
Method
Beat the egg, dice the shallots, finely grate the cheese, and add to a mixing bowl along with the mince, breadcrumbs, and 90g of pesto.
Gently combine with a wooden spoon, but don’t over-mix. Use too much gusto, and the whole lot will turn into a puree, which is not what we’re after.
Using oiled hands, grab a little dollop of mince and roll it into a ball. We’re perfectionists, so weigh ours with digital scales into 40g patties. If that’s not your style, just make them around the size of a golf ball.
Heat the canola oil in a skillet or frying pan and, in batches, brown the meatballs all over. Set aside.
In the same pan, soften the sliced onion in a little more oil and add the crushed garlic, followed by the tomatoes, oregano, and chilli flakes (if using).
Place on an oil-greased tray and bake in a pre-heated 200°C oven until the meatballs register at least 165°F on a digital thermometer, around 10‒15 minutes.
Serving suggestions
Cold potato salad with a creamy Ranch dressing
Sweet potato mash and lingonberry jam
New York-style subs with curly fries
Crusty bread with chilli-tomato sauce
Polenta and mushroom ragout
Introduction
Virtually every world cuisine has its own version of a schnitzel, which makes it the perfect contender for pairing with our pestos.
You can make a schnitzel with pretty much anything, chicken, beef, cheese, or tofu all work a treat. Ever since we tried our first Wiener Schnitzel, though, in a tiny restaurant in a sketchy neighbourhood somewhere on the outskirts of Vienna, we'll forever seek out veal whenever we get a hankering for some breadcrumb-coated fried meat.
Recommended equipment
Meat tenderiser
Cast-iron skillet
Pro tip
For the crispiest schnitzel imaginable, dip your protein of choice in fine, fresh breadcrumbs, transfer the meat back to the egg-pesto mixture, and then give it a final dip in Japanese-style panko breadcrumbs. Trust us, it’s worth the extra effort.
Ingredients
Veal escalopes | x2 |
Pesto | 50g |
Egg | x1 |
Flour | 40g |
Breadcrumbs | 40g |
Parmesan | 20g |
Unsalted butter | 20g |
Canola oil | as needed |
Seasoning | to taste |
Method
Place your escalopes in-between two sheets of clingfilm and beat gently with a meat tenderiser or rolling pin until super-thin, around the width of a £1 coin.
Season with a little salt and a few cracks of fresh black pepper. Finely grate the Parmesan and mix with the breadcrumbs.
Whisk the pesto with the egg, and set up a workstation consisting of three bowls: sifted flour in the first, pesto-egg mixture in the second, and cheesy breadcrumbs in the last.
With your left hand, dip the first escalope into the flour and shake off any excess. Transfer to the pesto-egg mixture and make sure the meat is well coated. Finally, transfer the meat to the bowl of breadcrumbs and use your clean right hand to coat the meat well.
Put a glug of oil in a cast-iron skillet or non-stick frying pan and heat. When it starts shimmering, add your escalopes, pressing down flat with a spatula to ensure the escalopes are in direct contact with the oil.
Wait until the breadcrumbs have turned a wonderful golden brown, about 3 minutes. Flip your schnitzel and add the butter, basting the top while the underside cooks.
Serve immediately with side dishes of your choosing and a wedge of lemon.
Serving suggestions
German-style warm potato salad
Sautéed mushrooms, chips, and capers
French onion-potato bake
Herbed polenta chips with caramelised aioli
Mashed potatoes and braised red cabbage
Introduction
Pesto-stuffed chicken breast must be one of the most adaptable dishes of all time, a delicious, quick, and healthy weeknight meal with the kids, or a decadent, blowout feast to share with your nearest and dearest. For this recipe, though, we’re focusing on the technique and leaving the fillings up to you.
Pro tip
Trimming the flattened chicken into a perfect rectangle is the best way to make stuffing and rolling easier.
Recommended equipment
Meat tenderiser
Ingredients for two
Chicken breasts | x2 |
Pesto | 50g |
Serrano ham | 12 slices |
Fillings | see below |
Method
Slice each breast in half, leaving a “hinge” as if you were cutting open a croissant that you want to put back together for baking.
Season with salt and pepper, sandwich between two sheets of clingfilm, and beat lightly with a meat tenderiser or rolling pin until the meat is a uniform thickness, about a centimetre.
Layer the ham on a long sheet of clingfilm, making sure it’s at least 1 inch taller and wider than your flattened chicken.
Place the chicken on top and stuff with your pesto and fillings. Don’t go over the top with quantities, or they will spill out the sides when you roll.
Using the clingfilm, roll away from you, encapsulating the stuffed chicken in the ham. Once you’ve used up all the clingfilm, pinch both ends and twist them to tighten the sausage. It should end up looking a bit like a Christmas cracker.
Tie the ends off and refrigerate for at least an hour or up to overnight. This will help the breast "set" in its new shape.
Bake at 200°C for 20‒25 minutes until the ham has turned crispy and the breast is perfectly juicy.
Stuffing suggestions
Mozzarella, sun-dried tomatoes, and basil
Red onion, sage, and Roquefort
Black pudding, mushrooms, chestnuts, and chives
Asparagus and roasted red pepper
Artichokes, olives, and capers
Serving suggestions
Parmesan and lemon zest-roasted cauliflower
Cucumber and potato salad with creamy Ranch dressing
Creamed spinach, Brussel sprouts, and broad beans
Cheesy Hasselback potatoes
Grated carrot and sugar snap salad with cumin and mint
Introduction
Although this recipe is particularly stunning with lamb shank, any cut of meat that benefits from a low and slow cook will work. Beef shin, diced goat, and pig cheeks are among our favourite alternatives.
A tagine’s conical shape isn’t just for decoration; as your meat cooks, the steam rises to the top, condenses, and trickles back down again, creating a uniquely moist environment in which to cook your “tough” cut of meat. No tagine? No cry. Your standard Dutch oven or casserole dish will work almost as well.
The long cooking time means you can throw it in the oven at lunchtime and serve it to a fanfare in the evening.
Recommended equipment
Tagine
Pro tip
Switch the canola oil for the oil from a tin of anchovies. Add a few of the fillets while you’re at it too. It will dramatically enhance the complexity of the dish without, believe it or not, adding any fishiness.
Ingredients for two
Ingredient | Quantity |
Lamb shanks | x2 |
Pesto | 1 jar |
Shallots | x3 |
Garlic cloves | x3 |
Coconut milk | 1 tin |
Tinned tomatoes | 1 tin |
Tomato puree | 50g |
Lamb stock cube | x1 |
Salt and pepper | as needed |
Canola oil | as needed |
Natural yogurt | optional |
Method
“French” your shank by removing the fat and flesh to expose the end of the bone. It’s optional, but it adds theatre.
If there’s time, you can marinade the shank overnight in yogurt, buttermilk, or anything else with mild acidity to tenderise the meat, but this recipe uses such a low-and-slow cooking process that the results would be negligible.
Season your shank well (we weigh our shanks and season them with 1.25% of their weight in salt) and sear in a ripping hot pan of oil until nicely browned all over. Set aside.
Soften the onion and garlic in the same oil and transfer, along with the shanks and all other ingredients, to your tagine. Cook in a 125°C fan oven for 4-5 hours.
Serving suggestions
Couscous with pomegranate seeds, almonds, and coriander
Lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers, onions, and olives
Pearl barley with molasses, pistachios, and parsley
Rice with harissa, dates, and orange segments
Roast carrots with garlic, lemon zest, cumin, and chives