Seven meals with Giovanni Rana's pasta sauces

Leek & mushroom pie

Giovanni Rana is a well known Italian brand of fresh chilled pasta. It is synonymous with authentic, classic Italian dishes, which you can so easily recreate in the comfort of your own kitchen. To offer a perfect pairing of fresh pasta and pasta sauce, Giovanni Rana have expanded a range of its Italian flavours by adding six new pasta sauces to their Simply Italian and Italian Indulgence range.

If you visit my blog regularly, you would know how much we enjoy the Italian cuisine. I often cook Italian meals, though I am yet to master the art of making my own pasta from scratch.
But then, even in Italy nowadays, the homemade pasta is often bought from the dedicated pasta-makers. My mother-in-law doesn't make her own pasta, but buys it from a little pasta shop in the neighbourhood.
And though I can make my own pasta sauce, and I often do, life is sometimes too hectic to spend hours in the kitchen. Open the fridge, and choose a pasta sauce from Giovanni Rana, especially that the selection of pasta sauces is inspired. I recently received a full range of new sauces from Giovanni Rana, and was asked to test them in a series of meals (anything but pasta). And here is a week of meals, where I used the different fresh sauces.

Lemon sole in tomato and basil sauce

Lemon sole in tomato sauce
Ingredients:
2 fillets of lemon sole
2tbsp olive oil
a handful of baby tomatoes
1 red pepper, sliced lengthways
1 tub of Giovanni Rana Simply Italian Tomato & basil pasta sauce
a handful of green olives
Place two fillets of lemon sole in a deep ceramic dish, slightly oiled. Scatter baby tomatoes on top, as well as a sliced sweet pepper. Season well. Pour the tomato and basil sauce over the fish and vegetables. Bake at 180C for about 20 minutes. Add the olives in the last 5 minutes of cooking.
Serve hot, with salad.

Simply Italian Tomato & Basil sauce is a classic combination of flavours - sweet tomatoes, subtle peppery basil, extra virgin olive oil. Perfect as a base for any pasta dish, or a pizza.

Lemon sole in tomato and basil sauce

Squash risotto with crispy sage was cooked with a delicate and flavourful Simply Italian Butter & sage sauce. This is probably my most favourite sauce from the range. It is simple yet sophisticated, velvety-smooth and creamy. Pure indulgence. This risotto could also be cooked with porcini mushroom sauce, or creamy carbonara sauce.

Squash risotto with crispy sage

Pesto sauce is another favourite of ours. I buy both fresh and jarred varieties. It is a versatile ingredient, which could be used in a wide range of recipes. This time I used it in a all-in-one chicken and sweet potato tray bake, a kind of meal, where you chuck in all the ingredients and put in the oven.

Chicken and sweet potato in pesto sauce

Chicken and sweet potato in pesto sauce
Ingredients:
400g chicken fillets
2 sweet potatoes, cut into wedges
3tbsp olive oil
sea salt
1 tub of Giovanni Rana pesto sauce
wedges of lemon
1 head of garlic

Cut the chicken fillets into thin strips, and the sweet potatoes into wedges (with the skin on). Pour the olive oil over the chicken and sweet potatoes, and arrange both in a deep ceramic dish or roasting tray. Season well, Scatter the garlic cloves and squeeze some lemon juice over. Pour the contents of the pesto sauce over the meat and vegetables. Roast at 180C for 35+ minutes, until cooked.
Serve hot with a salad.

Simply Italian Pesto sauce is a classic dressing for pasta, a base for many Italian dishes like pizza, salads and antipasti. It is made with basil, extra virgin olive oil, pine nuts and hard cheese. For a fuss-free dinner, just swirl a generous spoonful into a bowl of pasta like spaghetti or trofie, grate a bit of parmesan or grana over the pasta, and imagine yourself in Italy.

Chicken and sweet potato in pesto sauce

For leek & mushroom pie I used the Italian Indulgence Cream with Hard Picked Porcini Mushroom sauce. I used plain chestnut mushrooms, and the porcini sauce has added an extra oomph and flavour to this easy recipe.

Leek & mushroom pie

Leek and mushroom pie
Ingredients:
2 medium leeks, about 250g
3tbsp olive oil
300g chestnut mushrooms
1tsp dried basil.
1 tub of Giovanni Rana porcini mushroom and cream (250g)
puff pastry (I used Jus-Rol puff pastry sheet, 320g)
Chop the leeks and mushrooms, and cook in a deep frying pan with the olive oil. Season well. Sprinkle with the dried basil or oregano. Add a tub of porcini mushroom and cream sauce.
Cut the ready-made pastry into two discs, one slightly larger. place the bigger one inside a pie dish, and bake for about 10 minutes before taking out and filling with a mix of mushrooms and leeks. Top up with a smaller circle of pastry, which has incisions on it for the steam to escape.
Cook at 190C for 15+ minutes, until the pastry is golden.
Serve hot with a dollop of the soured cream.

Italian Indulgence Cream with Hand Picked Porcini mushroom sauce is made with champignon mushrooms, porcini mushrooms (17%), cream, onion, white wine, full fat hard cheese, parsley, garlic and more. This will be a good base sauce for the mushroom risotto.

Leek & mushroom pie

These sauces could be added to a lot of side dishes as well, like fennel in tomato and basil sauce.

Fennel in tomato sauce

Fennel in tomato sauce
Ingredients:
2 fennels about 430g
2tbsp olive oil
1 medium tomato
1tub of Simply Italian Tomato & basil pasta sauce
sea salt, pepper
(a side dish for sausages)
Slice the fennel thinly and place in a baking/roasting dish with a dash of the olive oil. Slice the tomato and put over the fennel. Empty the contents of the tomato and basil sauce over the fennel. Season with sea salt and pepper. Roast at 180C for half an hour or so.

Fennel in tomato sauce

One more side dish - potato gratin, cooked with Simply Italian Butter & Sage sauce.

Potato gratin

Potato gratin
Ingredients:
2 medium potatoes
2tbsp olive oil
sea salt
1 tub of Giovanni Rana Butter and sage pasta sauce
3tbsp milk
50g Cheddar cheese, grated

Peel the potatoes and thinly slice. Arrange layers in a gratin dish, slightly oiled. Season well each layer. Empty the contents of the pasta sauce over the potatoes. I have slightly thinned the sauce with milk, to make it more runny. Bake for half an hour at 180C. Sprinkle some grated Cheddar in the last 5 minutes of cooking.
I served it with the chicken breasts wrapped in prosciutto (with sage leaves tucked under the ham).

And the third side dish made with Giovanni Rana sauce is one of my staple recipes, variations of which I cook weekly - stuffed peppers. I use different kinds of rice, and different fillings like herbs, sweetcorn, peas, minced meat etc. This time I mixed the pre-cooked rice with Simply Italian Sun Ripened Tomato & Mascarpone sauce to go with the hake, cooked in banana leaves (courtesy of M&S Dine for two offer).

Sweet peppers stuffed with rice
Depending on the amount of peppers you want to use (a half is enough as a side dish for one), use 3tbsp of cooked rice mixed with 3tbsp of tomato and mascarpone sauce for each pepper ( so about half of the mix for each half).
This thick sauce, with its wonderful mix of flavours from creamy mascarpone to sweet tomatoes, will be fantastic with pasta.

I still haven't tried Italian Indulgence Creamy Carbonara Sauce, so watch this space for more recipes and recipe suggestions.

Alison from Dragons and Fairy Dust has cooked a delicious Chicken and bacon Tortelloni Salad, perfect for a dinner in the garden, weather permitted.

What would you cook with this range of pasta sauces?

Disclosure: I received a selection of Giovanni Rana products as well as some vouchers to buy the ingredients. All opinions are mine.

Squash risotto with crispy sage

National Vegetarian Week which runs this week of 18-23 May is actually in its 23rd year. And though we're not a vegetarian family, we do eat a lot of meat-free meals as well. Butternut squash risotto is one of my top favourite vegetarian dishes.
Usually I cook a risotto with the butternut squash, but today all the squashes were ginormous, so instead I got a round-shaped Queen squash, which has the similar amber-coloured sweet flesh.

Squash risotto with crispy sage
Ingredients:
1 Queen squash
1 onion
2tbsp olive oil
1 clove of garlic
50g butter
200g arborio risotto rice
100ml white wine
2tbsp soured cream
1 mug of vegetable stock
1 tub of Giovanni Rana Butter & Sage pasta sauce
parmesan, grated
sage leaves, fresh


For the ease of handling, pre-bake the squash in the oven at 180C for half an hour. I was actually baking some potato Smiles for my sons, so put all the bits in the oven at the same time, and once the Smiles were off, I left the squash in the oven. It was still quite firm to the touch when I cut it into halves, scooped out the seeds, peeled and cubed the squash.
Finely chop the onion and fry in the deep frying pan for 5 minutes, stirring regularly. Add the chopped garlic, butter and arborio rice, and cook stirring for another 5 minutes. Add the wine, stir. Once the wine evaporates, keep adding ladles of the stock, keeping an eye on the rice absorbing the stock and adding more of it. Keep stirring. Add the soured cream and Butter & sage sauce.
Cook the risotto for about 20-25+ minutes, depending on how al dente you like your risotto.
Fry the fresh sage leaves in a bit of olive oil, until they turn crispy, but don't let them turn too dark.

Serve the risotto with crispy sage leaves on top, and grate a bit of parmesan (it's not a vegetarian cheese, but you can find a vegetarian version).

In this recipe I used Giovanni Rana Butter & Sage pasta sauce, which is a creamy pale sauce with a distinct sage flavour. It is a tasty pasta sauce, and could be used in a variety of recipes.

Giovanni Rana Simply Italian and Italian Indulgence pasta

La vita è bella with an authentic fresh filled pasta brand Giovanni Rana. Do you love fresh pasta, but don't have time or skills to make your own? You are not alone. 
Many Italians don't make their own pasta from scratch either. Nonni (grandmas) of the past would spend hours, lovingly slaving over the kitchen table, rolling and cutting fresh pasta, but nowadays it is an almost forgotten art. My Italian mother-in-law buys the homemade pasta from the corner shop that sells fresh pasta made following the traditional local recipes. 

We eat lots of pasta, but I confess, I don't make my own pasta from scratch either. I cook both dried and fresh varieties, and there are some superior brands that I cannot compete with anyway (I did make my own batches of pasta on a few occasions, it was not bad, but not better than the branded varieties).

Giovanni Rana is a well known brand of pasta, which is much loved beyond Italy. It has recently expanded their Simply Italian range and has also launched a new Italian Indulgence range. Their new recipes would satisfy the most discerning pasta gourmand.

A bit of background information:
"For over 50 years, Giovanni Rana has been recognised as a symbol of good taste and quality products, creating fresh pasta for people to enjoy at home since 1962.
Giovanni’s own culinary journey began as a young boy whilst working in his family’s bakery, taking care of the production and the distribution of bread. With the gradual movement of women into the workplace in the late 50s, however, Giovanni recognised that women increasingly had little time to make fresh pasta at home. Sensing an opportunity, the then baker began crafting hand-made pasta in his own kitchen, using the very best ingredients to create a diverse variety of flavours. With his skill, technique and “obsession” for quality, he perfectly replicated homemade Italian pasta.
His products quickly became “Italy’s Most Loved” and today Giovanni Rana is a trusted source of delicious, classic Italian dishes, which can be easily prepared in the comfort of the home kitchen".

I have been buying Giovanni Rana's pasta before, and was pleased to see some new varieties added to his range.
Have you tried Giovanni Rana's Italian Indulgence Gorgonzola & Crunchy Mellow Walnut Ravioli? A beautiful pasta for cheese lovers. Gorgonzola works really well with walnuts, and the combination of flavours and textures is totally first-rate.

I made a simple mushrooms sauce for this pasta, with a few quickly fried mushrooms, a dollop of cream and a bit of grated parmesan. A quick and delicious midweek dinner is guaranteed.

Giovanni Rana Simply Italian tortelloni/Italian cured ham & cheese is one of six recipes in Simply Italian range. It is a fresh egg pasta filled with three cheeses - ricotta, mozzarella and mascarpone and Italian cured ham, all much loved and pried Italian flavours.
You can eat it with just a drizzle of olive oil or some melted butter, with parmesan or grana grated on top of pasta.

Or turn a simple pasta dish into something more spectacular. I have an old Italian recipe magazine which featured a stunning pumpkin filled with pasta and vegetables. I didn't follow the recipe but used the idea of the pumpkin container.
First you need to cook the pumpkin. Cut the top off, and scoop out the seeds. Drizzle the inside of the pumpkin with the olive oil and season. Wrap it in foil and place in the oven preheated to 180C for about half an hour. Take the pumpkin out, unwrap and let it cool before carefully scooping the pumpkin flesh, and chopping it into cubes.
Cook the pasta in the salted boiling water, drain and set aside.
Fry a couple of finely sliced garlic cloves in the olive oil, add a handful of raisins, a bit of butter, a dash of marsala. Add the cubed pumpkin and give it a toss in the garlic and raisin mix. Add the pasta, mix well and put all the mixture in the pumpkin.
Place the pumpkin in the oven for another 5-7 minutes.
Serve with shavings of parmesan.

Both Italian Indulgence and Simply Italian ranges are available from major supermarkets at £2.49 and £1.99 respectively.
Go on, bring a taste of Italy to your own table! Buon Appetito!

Disclosure: I received two packs of new pasta for the purposes of testing and reviewing. All opinions are mine.