Baked Potatoes 🥔 with The Sauce “Al Ragu” / Fennel 🌿 & Green Apple Salad 🍏

A few years ago we were on holiday in Sicily..

A few years ago we were on holiday in Sicily, in a small town near Palermo, right by the sea. After a few days of eating the most delicious seafood (sea bream, oysters, clams, cuttlefish, sardines, etc.), my boys stopped sharing my straight-from-the-sea-food enthusiasm and were looking at the butcher shop with craving in their eyes. It was clear that they wanted meat. And so, not to lose the Italian flair, I made them a big pot of ragu (or Bolognese) sauce with mozzarella, which they happily had with pasta and baked potatoes. As it was super hot, I didn't want to join my beloved meat eaters and made a simple salad with the fresh fennel I'd bought from the market earlier in the day, with a dressing of Sicilian lemon. These two recipes are a little reminder of those holidays. As a meal they provide a good contrast between the hearty ragu sauce and potatoes VS the crispness, freshness of the fennel and lemon.

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INGREDIENTS:

• 🥔 4-5 Potatoes

• 🫒 Olive (or any) oil 

• 🧂 ½  teaspoon salt

•  🌶️ ½ teaspoon black pepper

  Meat Sauce:

• 🫒 1 tbsp Olive oil

• 🥩 1 lb / 450 g lean Ground beef 

• 🧅 1 Onion

• 🧂 1 tsp salt 

• 🌶️ ½  tsp black pepper

• 🌶️ ½  tsp sweet paprika

• 🌿 ½  tsp oregano

• 🍅 1 cup / 250 g Crushed tomatoes

Topping:

• 🧀 6 mini mozzarellas (or 1 large mozzarellas cut into 6 pieces)

• 🧀  1/2 cup (55g) grated mozzarella

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Fennel & Apple Salad INGREDIENTS:

• 🍋 1 lemon, juiced

• 🌊 1/2 tsp sea salt, black pepper

• 🫒  1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil

• 🌿 1 large fennel bulb, thinly sliced

• 🍏 1 Granny Smith apple/ 1 green apple, halved, cored, and thinly sliced

• 🥬 3 celery stalks

• 🌰 1/2 cup toasted walnuts

• 🧀 Top with shaved Pecorino or Parmigiano Reggiano and fennel fronds (optional)

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  🍴 Kitchen utensils: a baking dish, a frying pan, a large bowl for the salad, a spatula, a cutting board and a knife, a cheese grater, a mandoline (optional)  

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METHOD: 

1. Preheat the oven to 190C/380F.

2. Start by cutting 4-5 peeled potatoes in half and then into 2-3mm thick slices. 

3. Grease an ovenproof dish with 2 tablespoons of oil and place the potatoes in the dish. 

4. Season with 1⁄2 teaspoon salt, 1⁄2 teaspoon black pepper and 1⁄2 teaspoon of sweet paprika.

5. Stir and bake in the oven at 190C/380F for 20 minutes. 

6. For the meat sauce, heat a frying pan on a medium to high heat with 1 tablespoon of oil and add 450g (1 lb) of minced beef. Break it up with a spatula. Cook for about 5 minutes. 

7. Finely chop 1 onion and add to the meat. Season with 1 teaspoon of salt, ½ teaspoon black pepper, ½ teaspoon sweet paprika, ½ teaspoon oregano. Mix well and cook over a medium heat for 3-4 minutes. 

8. Stir in 1 cup (250g) of crushed tomatoes and cook for a further 3-4 minutes.

9. By this time the potatoes may be ready. Remove from the oven and top with the Bolognese sauce. 

10. Add 6 mini mozzarellas (or 1 large mozzarellas cut into 6 pieces) and 1/2 cup (55g) grated mozzarella.

11. Bake for 10 minutes. 

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For the salad:

1. Finely slice the fennel bulb - you can use a mandoline or a sharp knife. 

2. Do the same with an apple. 

3. Mix them in a bowl. 

4. Slice the celery stalks and add to the mix. 

5. Add fennel leaves or coarsely chopped parsley.

6. For the dressing, mix the juice of 1 lemon with ¼ cup (60ml) olive oil, ½ teaspoon salt and black pepper. Using a whisk or fork, whisk all the ingredients together to form an emulsion. 

7. Add ½ cup of the walnuts and the dressing to the salad.

8. Top with shaved Pecorino or Parmigiano Reggiano, fennel fronds (optional) and serve.  

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Baked Potatoes With The Sauce Essen Recipes

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NOTES:

Make it in advance: You can make the tray a day ahead and keep it in the fridge before baking. 

Leftovers: The potatoes and ragu sauce will keep in the fridge for up to 2 days. However, the salad will be a little wilted if you try to keep it for later. I'd recommend eating every last bit of it. 

Freeze it: You can make the ragu sauce in advance, freeze it and use it when you have no time to cook. Just boil some pasta, reheat the sauce, mix everything together and grate some parmesan on top. And there you go! 

Choose your fennel: I always go for the smaller bulbs as they seem to have more flavor. The bulb should be white and firm - if you see some yellowish soft spots, the fennel is too old. A good indicator of freshness would be bright green stalks with leaves.

Squeeze the lemon: Try rolling the whole lemon in your hands before squeezing. This will make the process easier and increase the flow of juice.  

Spices/herbs: I like paprika in baked potatoes, but there are countless other possibilities. Try caraway or rosemary, thyme or turmeric, coriander or dried tarragon... As for the spices in the Bolognese sauce, I like to keep it simple and prefer dry oregano, Province herbs, thyme or basil.  

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SUBSTITUTIONS:

Ground beef: You can make Bolognese sauce with practically any kind of ground meat. Pork, beef, lamb, poultry... The fat content doesn't matter, although I like it around 15%. 

Tomatoes: You can use passata, canned tomatoes, fresh tomatoes - anything! But if you're allergic to tomatoes, here's an easy recipe for a mock "tomato" sauce that contains no tomatoes at all, but tastes great and looks like real passata when mixed with the beef in the sauce. Take 1 whole carrot, 1 whole parsnip and 1 beetroot. Boil them and blend them with a pinch of salt and about 1 tablespoon of vinegar. Use in the same way as passata. 

Potatoes: Sweet potatoes, carrots, parsnips, courgettes, aubergines, cauliflower, broccoli, beetroot and even turnips... Almost any vegetable can be baked as a "platter" for the ragu sauce. If you want to use cabbage, I'd braise it first with olive oil and spices and then bake it with the sauce. 

Onions: If you're allergic to onions or just don't like the taste of them, I'd recommend using 2 carrots, grated or finely sliced. This would give the sweetness to cut through the sourness of the tomatoes.  

Fennel: Although the taste of fennel is unique – with just a gentle hint of liquorice – it can be disturbing for people who can't stand liquorice taste at all. But cucumber, radish, celery leaves or kohlrabi, with dill, parsley, cilantro or mint would still make a very good simple salad to accompany your meal. 

Apple: I like how fennel goes with crispy pears - if you want to replace apples with another fruit. 

Walnuts: The salad would be great with roughly chopped almonds or toasted hazelnuts, and of course pine nuts. If you have a nut allergy but still want some crunchiness – croutons, roasted soybeans, peas or chickpeas will work well. 

Lactose-free: Just omit the mozzarella before baking or use lactose-free mozzarella. 

Vegan/Vegetarian: Use a good organic vegan soy or oat-based mince substitute.

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Watch How To Make It: