I've just made Ministry of Food spag bol, and I'm not impressed

[bran]

Those of you who have made quite a few things from MoF can you tell me is this just a duff recipe and therefore it's worth my while trying a few others, or is it fairly typical of the whole book in which case it's just not to my taste.

I thought it was fairly bland and tasteless, and it may just be that my palate is used to stronger flavours than JO caters to in this book.

That does sound good, but I wonder if they people sitting close to you at work the next day thought the same. Did you miss out a word or do anchovies really melt?

I think anchovies would be good in pretty much anything

Mmm, not sure about that really. I rarely eat things that I feel have been improved by having anchovies added to them. I particularly dislike anchovies in caesar salad.

With MoF I've found that some recipes, like the bolognese, are more geared to people who can't cook at all. If you have your own tried and tested bolognese it's bound to be way nicer. That said, I used my bol. recipe and converted it into his quick lasagne and it was delicious. Also loved the sweet and sour pork. Not so much the beef stew - too bland. His beef stew in Jamie's Dinners was much better.

ok, then, I'm mainly thinking about pizza

Jamie's MOF stuff is for people who missed proper '80s Dom Sci lessons, & did 'Food' instead in 40 minute chunks.

There's the bland recipes, & then there's the ones which involve using Patak pastes, but you'd be better off reading the side of the jar.

Shame though, his heart's in the right place.

it's decent everyday healthy quick stuff.

my kids like bland

they do indeed melt. i loathe anchovies, really. apart from fresh ones with their little silvery skins. particularly hate the brown ones on pizza and caesar salad.

but in a sauce... essential.