Some of you may know that recently my grandfather ended up in hospital, which resulted in him having a pacemaker fitted. It was all a bit scary to say the least, but thankfully he's out of hospital and back in the comfort of his own home. The other day I made him up a bunch of meals to take over so he didn’t have to worry about cooking, and this was one of them. A quick and simple pork ragu with rigatoni pasta. It's packed full of flavour, veggies and calories to get his energy back up. Now i'm not going to claim that this pork ragu is in any way a traditional Italian recipe, more Italian inspired. It's a great midweek meal if you want something fairly quick, because it can be on the table in 45 mins. Also, you can cook it for longer if you have other stuff to do before dinner. You can leave it on low to trickle away until you're ready to eat. You can also do all the prep the night before to make life even easier. You can pre-mix the pork mince and chop all the veggies and just keep them in the fridge until the following evening. It’s also great for batch cooking and freezing any leftovers!

To make my spicy pork ragu with rigatoni you will need:

• 500g of good pork mince

• 2 tsp of fennel seeds

• 1/2 tsp of cayenne pepper

• 1/4 tsp of nutmeg

• 4 garlic cloves (2 for pork 2 for sauce)

• 1 tsp of smoked paprika

• 300-350g of rigatoni pasta

• 1 x 400g tin of cherry tomatoes (or chopped)

• Fresh basil

• Thyme

• 2 bay leaves

• About 500ml of chicken stock

• 1 large carrot

• 1 stick of celery

• 1 medium sized white onion

• 2 tbsp of tomato paste

• Fresh parmesan

• Olive oil

• Salt and pepper