By Ella Walker
Clodagh McKenna actually did what many of us vaguely imagined doing during March’s lockdown: she went and wrote a book.
During that first never-ending-feeling stint, when many of us were firmly confined to indoors, the Irish cook and telly presenter turned to Instagram. Posting a daily recipe video, she hoped to go some way to answering the many, many messages she was receiving from housebound people across the country in need of lockdown-suitable dishes, non-stressful suppers, family-friendly midweek meals, interesting dinners for one, and more.
“I did them every day,” says McKenna of the videos. “Every single day – I did over 120 of them. It was exhausting, but it was also a real purpose.”
A whole new community sprung up around these brief snippets of chic, blonde-fringed McKenna whipping up a solo bread-and-butter pudding, or a tray of retro chicken kievs. And that community provided real-time feedback that McKenna scooped up and used to help fuel the book: Clodagh’s Weeknight Kitchen. She considers it a “a real community cookbook” – which is what made her blub when she first got to hold a finished copy.
“I wanted to focus on the weeknights,” explains the Ballymaloe Cookery School trained cook. “We’ve got so much going on during the day and it comes to six o’clock, and it’s like, you’re hungry, you’re tired and you’ve had a hard day, how can you put a meal together? Without it getting on top of you?”
The result is a 100-strong brand new cache – McKenna, 45, wrote them on top of all those Insta videos – of recipes she says are “incredibly simple to make with ingredients that are completely accessible; but they’re gorgeous and they’re fun, and they’ll make you feel good about yourself.”
“Some weeks go by and it’s like you don’t have any special moments at the table. It all becomes TV and a takeaway, or heated up food, and you live for the weekend. I’m like, let’s live for every night.
“Only good can come from planning your week and cooking weeknights,” she adds. “Only positive things can come financially, mentally, health-wise, everything.”
Ricotta Meatballs with Polenta
(Serves 4)
200g minced beef
200g minced pork
200g ricotta cheese
2 onions, diced
4 garlic cloves, crushed
1tbsp finely chopped fresh rosemary
80g Parmesan cheese, grated
40g fresh fine breadcrumbs
1 medium free-range egg, beaten
75g polenta
1–2tbsp olive oil
50g salted butter, plus 1tbsp (optional)
400g cavolo nero (or collard greens), roughly chopped
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
For the rosemary tomato sauce:
1tbsp olive oil
1 onion, thinly sliced
2 garlic cloves, crushed
1tsp finely chopped fresh rosemary
400g can cherry tomatoes
1tbsp tomato purée
Place the beef, pork, ricotta, onions, garlic, rosemary, Parmesan, breadcrumbs and beaten egg in a bowl and season with salt and pepper. Mix well. Using your hands, shape into 30 meatballs and transfer to a plate. Cover with cling-film and place in the fridge for one hour to set so that they don’t crumble during cooking. You can also leave the meatballs in the fridge for up to three days, or freeze them for up to a month, until you are ready to cook them.
While the meatballs are chilling, make the rosemary tomato sauce. Place a saucepan over a low heat and add the oil, then stir in the onion, garlic and rosemary and simmer for two minutes. Add the tomatoes and tomato purée, season with salt and pepper and cook for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally.
Next, get the polenta cooking. Pour 600ml water into a saucepan over a medium heat and season with salt and pepper. Once the water has come to the boil, whisk in the polenta. Reduce the heat, cover and cook for about 25 minutes, stirring every five minutes. Once it has cooked, stir in a tablespoon of olive oil or butter.
Now back to the meatballs. Place a frying pan over a medium heat and pour in one tablespoon of olive oil, add the meatballs and brown on all sides. Then spoon the meatballs into the tomato rosemary sauce and cook for 15 minutes.
Place the cavolo nero in a pan over a medium heat with the butter and season with salt and pepper. Cook for five minutes, turning the leaves with tongs so they cook evenly.
Divide the polenta between four warmed bowls, followed by the meatballs, an extra spoonful of the rosemary tomato sauce and the cavolo nero. Serve.
Clodagh’s Weeknight Kitchen by Clodagh McKenna is available now
