JamieOliver.com

This has to be my favourite ever recipe. I've made this for family, a dozen friends at a time or just for tea midweek and it was the first meal I ever cooked for my better half.

It takes a little while in the cooking, but it's so easy to prepare and the end result - rich, wine-infused chicken casserole - is the sort of dish that reminds you that the humble chicken really can be amazing. I'm also lucky that I get easy access to such good free range chicken at my local market in Cardiff which makes a big difference to the end result.

Either joint a chicken or buy a mix of thighs and legs - this is usually the best option as everyone gets the same then and you also get much better flavour from meat on the bone.

Put the chicken pieces into a bowl and cover with about half a bottle of red wine to marinate with a bay leaf, peppercorns and few cloves of garlic in the fridge. I try and remember to do this in the morning if I'm cooking it in the evening but the recipe works if you forget this stage and start with the cooking.

In a casserole over a medium heat, brown the chicken in batches of three or four pieces at a time and set aside. In the fat that's left, fry some lardons (cubed pancetta, streaky bacon or I even used a slice of leftover gammon last week) until the fat has turned nice and crispy. Remove to a dish.

Now fry some peeled whole shallots in the bacon/chicken fat until brown. All of this is building up lovely layers of flavour for the finished dish. Once starting to brown, add some button mushrooms and a chopped clove of garlic and fry for a few more minutes.

The kitchen should now smell pretty awesome.

Add the chicken and bacon back to the pot and pour in the strained wine marinade. Once this has got up to the boil add about a pint of chicken stock.

Tie up some thyme, parsley and bay and add them to the liquid before popping the pot in the oven at about 170degC for at least an hour - probably and hour and a half.

The sauce will reduce to a rich, winey gravy that takes on all the flavours of the sweet shallots, bacon and chicken.

Great with roast potatoes or mash, some green veg and the other half of the bottle of red. Any leftover chicken is amazing between two bits of crusty bread or good to add to a risotto.

I first posted a version of this on my blog at www.easyteas.co.uk

I've been making beef meatballs with this tomato sauce for ages, but tried pork mince on a bit of a whim and it works really well.

To the pork mince add a good teaspoon of ground up fennel seeds and about the same of chopped thyme. I also fried half a finely diced onion and added that to the mix too and seasoned well. Squeeze the mix together well to form the meatballs there's no need for an egg to bind the mix.

First brown the meatballs and remove from the pan. Next fry a chopped onion, garlic and a diced red pepper (and/or mushrooms) in the fat and juices that have come out into the meatball pan until soft. Throw in a glug of red wine and let it bubble away for a few minutes. At this point, if you’re using a frying pan you need to transfer the mix into a casserole dish.

Return the meatballs to the dish, add a tin of tomatoes and enough stock so that the meatballs are completely covered – for me that’s usually about a 1/4 of a pint but it’ll vary by size of dish. Put a lid on it.

This now goes in the oven (170 C) for about 40 minutes. After that time the sauce should be reduced by about a third. If it’s not thick enough, give it 10 minutes on the stove or turn up the oven and take off the lid.

If you’re feeling fruity, you can tear up a ball of mozzarella, scatter it over the top of the sauce and give it five minutes in the oven with the lid off to melt. It’s well worth it!

We usually eat this with spaghetti or linguine.

I made this after two hours standing at a rather cold and rainy rugby match, spurred on by the need for something rich, warming and appropriately autumnal.

I’m using Toulouse sausages because that’s what looked good at the market this week. In the past we’ve used Lincolnshire and Cumberland – any good, meaty, well-flavoured sausage will work.

First brown the sausages in a little oil. I used a stove-friendly casserole to keep it a one-pot dish. While they’re cooking you can chop an onion and some veg. I used peppers, carrots and what I thought was a round courgette but turned out to be some sort of squash. Mushrooms would have gone in too if I’d remembered to buy them.

Once the sausages have sealed, remove to a clean dish. Into the pan go the veggies and a clove of chopped garlic which you fry for a few minutes then put a lid on the pan, turn down the heat and let them sweat for about 10 mins. This concentrates the flavour of the veg and starts to form the sauce.

Next pour in a glug of booze. I had a bottle of red wine open so that was it.  It needs to cook out for about 5 mins. Stir in a squirt of tomato puree and some herbs – a bay leaf and some chopped sage and rosemary.

Add a tin of tomatoes and enough stock to cover the veg and sausages. I used a chicken bouillon cube, but beef or veg both work.

Once it gets back to the boil, pop a lid on and into the oven it goes for about an hour at 150C.

We ate it with mash and runner beans. Cockles duly warmed