As I was searching in Mum’s Recipe Book for something for dinner tonight I stumbled across a recipe for ‘Mezzetti’. What is Mezzetti I hear you ask? Well I think it might actually be ‘Marzetti’ or ‘Johnny Marzetti’ which is a Midwestern Italian American pasta (I found this out through a Google search!). This makes me laugh because my mum would have thought she was being quite cosmopolitan cooking a dish like this and yet she got the name wrong! She probably heard it on a radio program and copied it down. She did this a lot, back in the day when radio was a helpful companion!

I think this dish landed on our dinner table in the early 1970’s, a time when our simple suburban lives started to spice up a little, or at least at dinner time anyway! I wasn’t a fan at the time because Mezzetti had ingredients in it like celery and mushrooms. I had been raised on chops and three veg ( which I hated with a passion!) and so the taste buds needed a little training. Now I look at the recipe and think – how can I spice it up a bit more?

I am just about to answer by giving you my new jazzed up version that includes Essential Oils!

This recipe is from mum’s oldest recipe book. But this one I have updated the measurements to metric and added a few extra tasty ingredients.

You will need:

1 kg minced beef

200 g pack of bacon

1 diced onion

1 clove of garlic, chopped

Olive Oil for browning

1 jar of Passata 

 1 sachet of tomato paste

About two handfuls of baby mushrooms, sliced thinly

4 x sticks of celery, sliced

1/2 red pepper, chopped

Mixed herbs

2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce

Salt and Pepper to taste

I drop of Basil Essential Oil

A toothpick* of Oregano Essential Oil

1 drop of Black Pepper Essential Oil

1x Packet of Wide Noodles or any kind of pasta, cooked and drained

2-3  tomatoes, sliced

Soft bread crumbs (equivalent to 4 slices of wholegrain bread) (Optional)

1 cup grated cheese

Method:

Chop the bacon and brown in a large frying pan. Remove from pan and set aside.

Also in the frying pan, brown the onion , garlic and mince in the Olive oil. Remove the fat from the pan. 

Add the mushrooms, celery and red pepper. Cook for 1 minute.

Add the Passata, tomato paste, herbs and Worcestershire sauce and mix through. Cook for 5 minutes. 

Take off the heat and mix through the bacon, noodles and the Essential Oils and season to taste. 

Place into a large, greased ovenproof casserole dish. Cover with tomato slices, breadcrumbs and cheese.

Cook in a Moderate oven ( 180 C) for around 20 minutes until the cheese has browned. 

Thermomix Adaptations:

Break the bread slices into two and place in bowl. Blitz on Turbo for 2-3 SEC.

Remove from bowl and set aside.

Wash and dry the bowl.

Chop the bacon and brown in a large frying pan. Remove from pan and set aside.

Also in the frying pan, brown the mince in the Olive oil. Remove the fat from the pan. Set the pan + mince aside.

Add garlic and onion to the bowl and chop 3 SEC,  Speed 7

Add celery and red pepper to the bowl and chop 3 SEC, Speed 4-5 

Add mixed herbs and olive oil, saute 3 MIN – 100 DEG,  Speed 1

Add Passata, Worcestershire sauce, and tomato paste to bowl. Cook 3 MIN, 100 DEG,   Speed 1

Add browned mince, bacon and Essential Oils and mix 5-10 SEC,   Speed 3.

Place mushrooms and noodles around a large, greased ovenproof casserole dish and pour over the meat sauce over the top. Cover with tomato slices then bread crumbs and cheese.

*Tip: Oregano is a very potent oil and too much in this recipe would be disastrous! So put a drop of the oil onto the end of a toothpick and dip the toothpick into you mixture.

Enjoy!

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If you are ready to enter the world of essential oils and you decide to go the doTERRA way, I would love to help you get started and support you if you want some help. Here is how you can do this: go to my doTERRA website to find out about the range of oil and oil based products available for purchase. You can also sign up to become a member on this site. Once signed up you can purchase oils for wholesale prices! But if you would like some more information click on the Contact Me on the doTERRA website and I will respond to your questions.

 

Until next time,

Gillian (and Andrew)