Karen Martini's old favourites remastered

If I consider what my pantry would have looked like 15 years ago, it would be very different from what it contains today. Yes, it would still have been packed with spices, good pasta, real balsamic and great extra virgin olive oil, but now the range of spices has grown substantially, and the array of bottles, jars and packets has become very international.

We are no less in love with the dishes we grew up with, the food of our childhood homes, but today the home-cooked staples of childhood have been re-mastered, which is what I have done with these classics here from a just-released book, New Kitchen, Pan Macmillan, $44.99.

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Pork schnitzel with buffalo mozzarella, and fennel, apple and sour cream slaw

Mum used to make pretty good schnitzels when I was a kid; she still does.They were usually chicken, though sometimes veal, and almost always with potato mash and roasted peppers. These days, I prefer a fresher side dish to balance the richness of the schnitzel, and this crunchy slaw does the job perfectly. The slaw would also be great with a steak.

4 × 180g trimmed pork loin fillets, beaten out to just under 5mm thick

75g plain flour

2 eggs, beaten

100g panko or fresh white breadcrumbs

100ml olive oil

2 large balls of buffalo mozzarella, cut into 2mm thick slices

lemon wedges, to serve

Fennel and apple slaw

1 large fennel bulb, very finely sliced, fronds picked

1 large granny smith apple, skin on, julienned

½ celeriac, trimmed and julienned

4 mint sprigs, leaves picked

2 long green chillies, finely sliced

1 red shallot, finely diced

2 tbsp finely grated parmigiano-reggiano

Dressing

3 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil

2 tbsp sour cream

1 tbspsherry vinegar

salt flakes and freshly ground black pepper

1. For the dressing, add all the ingredients to a small bowl, season and combine.

2. For the slaw, combine all the ingredients in a large bowl and add the dressing. Mix well with your hands and set aside for 10 minutes before serving.

3. Preheat the oven grill on high.

4. Coat the pork fillets with flour, dust off any excess, then dip in the beaten egg and finally coat well with the panko or breadcrumbs.

5. Heat the oil in a large frying pan over high heat and cook the schnitzels for about 1½ minutes on each side until golden. Transfer to a baking tray, top with the mozzarella and flash in the oven for 1 minute to soften the cheese slightly.

6. Serve the schnitzels with the slaw and lemon wedges on the side.

Serves 4

Sausage ragu with pappardelle

Dad was the bolognesemaker in our family house. Like many dads back then, that was his one dish. This, however, is not his recipe. Sorry, dad. I cook many different versions of a meat ragu, and usually have one on the go ready to toss with pasta or layer into a lasagne, or for many other things too. This one is so easy to make and you get such a flavour punch from the sausages, as they've been seasoned and lightly cured already. This is delicious when it has just been made, but a ragu always improves over a day or so.

3 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil

150g thickly cut pancetta, diced

750g pork and fennel sausages, casings removed

2 onions, diced

6 garlic cloves, finely chopped

1 carrot, finely diced

3 celery stalks, finely sliced

2 fresh bay leaves

1⁄2 teaspoon chilli flakes

2 tsp fennel seeds

2 tbsp tomato paste

400ml red wine

500ml chicken stock

2 × 400g cans diced tomatoes

3 rosemary sprigs

2 oregano sprigs, leaves picked

salt flakes and freshly ground

black pepper

100g pappardelle per person

finely grated grana padano, to serve

1. Heat a heavy-based saucepan over medium heat.

2. Add half the oil and the pancetta and crumble in the sausage meat. Fry, stirring every few minutes, until the meat is golden brown.

3. Add the onion, garlic, carrot, celery, bay leaves, chilli flakes and fennel seeds and stir well – the vegetables will sweat a little and effectively deglaze the pan. Cook gently for 15 minutes, stirring every now and then, until the vegetables are soft and slightly caramelised.

4. Add the tomato paste and red wine and bring to a simmer. Add the stock, tomatoes, rosemary and oregano and continue to simmer for about 45 minutes over low heat until the ragu is thick and intensely flavoured. Adjust the seasoning and stir through the remaining oil.

5. To serve, cook the pasta according to the packet instructions and toss through the ragu in the pan.

6. Take the pan directly to the table and serve with plenty of grana padano on the side.

Serves 6–8

Stupendously good garlic bread

You couldn't walk in to a restaurant in the '80s, Italian or otherwise, without stumbling over garlic bread. And then it was shunned for such a long time, becoming a daggy opening line for a menu, but there's no need to throw out what is a sound idea because it was done so badly so very often. Which is hard to understand really, especially when all you need is good bread, good butter, fresh garlic and parsley and a little seasoning. This version has a few more tweaks to it, but the principle is the same. If you only need one loaf, roll the leftover butter in baking paper and foil and freeze for another time.

6 garlic cloves

300g unsalted butter, softened

2 tspwhite miso paste

2 tbsp finely grated grana padano

½ bunch of flat-leaf parsley, leaves picked and finely chopped

3 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil

1 tbsp salt flakes

20 grinds of black pepper

½ tsp cayenne pepper

2 loaves of white sourdough bread

1. Preheat the oven to 180C fan-forced (200C conventional).

2. Finely grate the garlic into a medium bowl. Add the butter, miso, grana padano, parsley, oil, salt, black pepper and cayenne and combine well.

3. Slice the loaves most of the way through in conventional slices, or both lengthways and across the loaf to make thick garlicky chunks.

4. Butter the inside of the loaves generously with the garlic butter and wrap in foil. Bake for 15 minutes. Unwrap the foil slightly to just expose the top of the bread and bake for a further 5 minutes to crisp up the crust and serve immediately.

Makes 2 loaves

Tiered sponge cake with raspberry jam and whipped cream

During my childhood, at the slightest sniff of an occasion, sponge cakes would magically appear. Mum made a good sponge, but her mum was the real expert, her wares regularly lining trestle tables at church and school fetes. It was also the essential dessert – along with lemon tart and chocolate cake – in restaurants when I did my apprenticeship.

This recipe produces a slightly stronger crumb than some other recipes, but it's almost foolproof, taking the temperature vagaries of domestic ovens in its stride.

180g self-raising flour

½ tsp baking powder

1 tsp custard powder

6 extra-large eggs

185g caster sugar

40g unsalted butter, melted

180g raspberry jam

350 ml thickened cream, whipped

icing sugar, to serve

1. Preheat the oven to 185C fan-forced (205C conventional). Grease two 16-centimetre springform cake tins and line with baking paper.

2. Sift the flour, baking powder and custard powder into a medium bowl.

3. Add the eggs to the bowl of a stand mixer and whisk until foaming.

4. Gradually rain in the sugar while mixing, until thick.

5. Fold in the dry mix by hand, and then fold in the melted butter.

6. Pour into the prepared tins and bake for 20 to 25 minutes, until springy to the touch.

7. Set aside for five minutes before turning out onto a wire rack.

8. Carefully slice the cooled sponges in half horizontally.

9. Layer the base of one sponge with a third of the jam and cream and top with the other half. Top with another third of the jam and cream, then the other base, followed by the remaining jam and cream, and finally the last layer of sponge.

10. Dust with icing sugar and serve.

Serves 8

A note on pork

Sadly, like chickens, pigs are easy targets for factory farming. They can be raised in limited space and the economics of doing so are sometimes a competitive necessity for farmers. But the increase in demand for ethical meat products has seen a real demand for pork that has been reared sympathetically. Free-range pork is more expensive, but the meat is so much better and the moral equation has a lot more balance. Free-range pork producers often specialise in rare breeds, ones that typically have a good (and delicious) layer of fat and a deeper flavour profile. And if you're concerned about depleting the stocks of rare breeds, don't be. Ethical commercial farming is the only way they won't disappear – perversely their only lifeline – having been abandoned by conventional farmers many years ago.Unless you're slow cooking the fattier parts until meltingly tender, pork doesn't need to be cooked through. Convention has always dictated that pork needs to be cooked completely, but this just isn't the case. Pork cuts that don't have much fat, like those of many other animals, really benefit from being cooked just enough to still retain a good blush of pink. This may be a bit confronting for people who have been repeatedly told the opposite, but trust me, the difference is amazing.

A note on garlic

There is actually a bewildering array of garlic cultivars grown around the world, probably (according to the incredibly informative australiangarlic.net.au website) numbering over a thousand.

To the untrained eye, most Australian garlic looks pretty much the same, perhaps some bulbs have more pink or red tones, some with larger or more compact cloves, and some hotter on the palate or more pungent than others, but more or less similar. And although the subtle differences are really pretty interesting for the garlic-obsessed, for most people this kind of detail is too much information.

What is important, though, is making sure the garlic you are using has been grown and stored correctly.

Australian garlic is typically of very high quality and, if dried properly and stored cool and dry, will last well. When not available, imports from places such as Mexico and Argentina can be good substitutes, but I never buy the ultra-white garlic bulbs from China, and under no circumstances would I ever buy garlic in a jar. Chinese garlic has often been chemically treated to increase its shelf life and the brilliant white skin has more to do with chlorine bleach than variety. When selecting garlic, choose bulbs that are firm when squeezed, and make sure that there are no green sprouts emerging from the top of the cloves. Also, pull back some of the skin and smell the cloves – if they are at all musty or damp-smelling, choose another bulb.

New Kitchen by Karen Martini is out now, Pan Macmillan, $44.99.