Recipe: Lentil Ragu Stuffed Marrow

One of the classic seasonal glut recipes, stuffed marrow isn’t a fashionable dish (has it ever been?) but there’s something really pleasing about a golden-topped boat of a vegetable to scoop out.

This would work with your favourite ragu or bolognaise recipe – here’s mine for a vegetarian-option version. It looks like a long ingredients list but it’s a rainbow of larder items to replace meat’s savoury richness, turning the humble lentil into a really satisfying sauce. If you have some stashed in the freezer it makes this an easy dinner, otherwise it’s a good make-ahead dish. Bake the marrow and make the ragu one night, then do the béchamel and finish baking the whole thing the next – the ragu will taste so much better after a rest, and the multiple stages won’t seem like a hassle.

Serves 2 (depending on the size of your marrow)

The ragu and béchamel ingredients make more than you’ll need: perhaps use the rest to make a super quick lasagne? Or freeze to make stuffing the other marrows in the garden a breeze…

Ingredients

1 marrow, around 1kg (though this made enough to stuff my 2kg marrow)

For the ragu:
1 carrot, finely diced
1 onion, finely diced
1 stick celery, finely diced
4 cloves garlic, crushed
200g chestnut mushrooms, sliced
40g dried mushrooms (optional)
200g brown or green lentils, rinsed
100g barley, rinsed
500ml vegetable or chicken stock
1 tin tomatoes
2 tablespoons tomato puree
15g fresh basil, roughly torn or chopped
2 sprigs thyme, leaves picked, or a level tablespoon dried mixed herbs
1 tablespoon miso paste (optional)
2 teaspoons Worcestershire / brown sauce for vegetarian
2 teaspoons soy sauce
½ teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 tablespoon sweet smoked paprika
1 small glass of red wine
Black pepper

For the béchamel sauce:
400ml milk
120g Parmesan / vegetarian alternative, grated
1 tablespoon butter
1 tablespoon flour
1 egg
¼ teaspoon nutmeg or mace
½ teaspoon mustard powder or Dijon mustard
Black pepper

Method

1.      Pre-heat the oven to 180C / gas mark 4.

2.      Halve the marrow and scoop out the seeds. Scrape away and reserve the flesh (keep it) until there’s about 1cm left around the walls – this might be easiest by cross-hatching the flesh with a sharp knife and the using a spoon to scrape it away.

3.      Rub the marrow in oil and bake for around 20 minutes until the flesh is just soft.

To make the ragu:

1.      Pour boiling water over the dried mushrooms and leave to re-hydrate.

2.      Sweat the onion, carrot and celery until soft – about 10 minutes. Add the garlic, cumin, paprika and cinnamon and cook for one more minute, then if you needed to scrape away some of the marrow flesh, roughly chop it and add it now, cooking it down until it’s not releasing water. This is optional - you could keep it for a different dish if you prefer.

3.      In a separate frying pan, fry the chestnut mushrooms until they’re really brown. Drain the dried mushrooms, saving the water, and roughly chop them.

4.      Tip the lentils and barley into the onion pan, add the glass of wine and reduce for a minute. Tip in the rest of the ingredients except the fresh basil, add the mushroom-soaking water and top up with stock to cover the lentils by about a centimetre, adding more water if necessary. Stir well, bring to the boil, then reduce to a simmer. Season with pepper and salt as needed. Gently bubble away until the lentils and barley are soft and the liquid has reduced down to a thick sauce. At the end, stir through the fresh basil.

To make the béchamel:

1.      Heat the butter in a large saucepan (not non-stick or the whisk might scratch it) until it just starts to foam – don’t let it colour or it’ll flavour the sauce. Tip in the flour, and cook it for two minutes over a medium heat to get rid of the floury taste.

2.      Tip in the milk and whisk whisk whisk to get all the lumps out. Add half the Parmesan, mustard and pepper and stir until thickened and smooth. Turn off the heat and leave to cool for a couple of minutes (keep stirring regularly) and then whisk in the egg.

To assemble:

1.      Pre-heat the oven to 180C / gas mark 4.

2.      Fill both halves of the marrow with ragu to just underneath the brim. Top with the béchamel sauce, sprinkle over the remaining Parmesan and bake for 30 – 40 minutes until the top is a deep golden brown.