There's a great pullout "Cook" section in the Saturday Guardian, devoted to pasta. Without pasta, I die. My heroine Rachel Roddy has a recipe for braising a lump of beef in a rich sauce for two hours, keeping the piece of meat for another meal and using the ragu for a pasta dish. We're having the sauce tonight with fettuccine and parmesan, and the meat tomorrow with a jacket spud and summat else yet to be agreed.

For two of us I'm using a piece of topside that I happened to have in the freezer (dunno whether topside is quite the right cut - I'll let you know!). It's organic and weighs about a pound.

Chop up one big carrot, one big or two smaller sticks of celery and a large onion (or some banana shallots, my favourites). Meanwhile in a heavy pan with a lid saute four ounces of pancetta or streaky bacon chopped into some extra virgin olive oil.

Add the chopped veg with a handful of fresh chopped parsley. Stir in and simmer gently for ten or fifteen minutes.

Turn up the heat and put the meat in, turning it over to brown it all round. Add half a bottle of red wine (do NOT use "cooking wine" or that which you have condemned as rocket fuel!). Let it bubble for five minutes then add about 400ml passata or a tin of chopped tomatoes or some real ones, take your pick but quality is paramount. I'm using passata, as I'm expecting the sauce to be chunky enough owing to the vegetables. Add two bay leaves. Season.

Put the lid on and simmer for two hours. Half-way through, taste for seasoning and maybe turn the meat over. As I type this, mine has half an hour to go and the house smells gorgeous.

To be continued...