1. With your sharp knife chop the fresh basil leaves very finely.

2. Seive the flour into the mixing bowl. Make a hole in the centre of the flour. Break the eggs into the hole. Whisk the eggs with the fork, gradually pulling in some of the flour. Throw in some of the basil and keep mixing. After a moment scrape off the fork with your fingers and get stuck in - stirring all the eggs and flour together with your fingers until you have a sticky dough. You'll probably be left with a few floury crumbs in the bowl - ignore them.

3. Scatter a cloud of flour onto your work surface, and turn out the dough. Throw the rest of the chopped basil over the dough ball and start kneading. The dough will pick up the flour and chopped basil from the work surface and gradually become less sticky. If it's still too stick add more flour. Keep on kneading until the dough ball feels smooth and silky. This'll take at least five minutes.

4. Wrap the dough ball in a wet tea towel - and leave for 15 minutes.

5. While the dough is resting - make your sauce! (My simple favourite is chopped Manx mushrooms, fried in olive oil with pine nuts, and then with fresh (bought) pesto added.)

6. Sprinkle more flour on your work surface (don't worry about adding too much flour to the mixture - the flour will help keep the pasta dry and stop it sticking together). Start rolling out your pasta. (You may find - depending on the size of your work surface that you have to break your dough into pieces to work on separately.) Roll it out, turning it over frequently, until it's thin enough that you could put a picture postcard under it - and almost see the picture. Scatter a bit more flour on the top and rub it over the surface briskly.

7. For tagliatelli, use your sharp knife to cut the pasta into thin strips. Take each strip, and lay on to a bread board or over a plastic coat hanger. Keep going 'til you run out of pasta! You can dry your pasta over night - or as I prefer - just cook it fresh - straight away. With the left over scraps - knead them back together and roll them out to cut up again. (If you'd prefer pasta bows - cut you rolled pasta into rectanges - about an inch and a half by an inch. Then pinch each rectangle together in the centre - hey presto!)

8. Get your pan of water boiling briskly - throw in all of your pasta and watch it so it doesn't boil over! After about a minute or two drain it, mix in your sauce - and serve! Mmmm, delicious! If you've dried your pasta over night it'll take perhaps 3 or 4 minutes to cook.

Incredibly flour isn’t just one of the oldest ingredients in the world - it’s also the very rock upon which civilisation itself was formed.

Now hang on there - don’t you go off accusing me of being melodramatic before you’ve heard the evidence.

Long ago - in the dawn of time - (before even Cliff Richard was born) - mankind was a hunter - a gatherer - he moved from place to place as a nomad - using his big brain and his opposable thumbs to get the better of the lowly antelope. In the days before Burger King, man had to use spears and bows and arrows to catch his Big Mac. This meant he had to follow his prey - and that journey - following animals that moved constantly to find greener pastures - or who migrated over mountains and vast plains - meant that he had no time to put down roots and build a home.

For generations mankind continued to grow as a hunter-gatherer - until one day a wise man from ancient Mesopotamia - the fertile-crescent that’s now Iraq - had an incredible idea. He was fed up with chasing antelopes - and of not having time to digest one before having bring down another - and instead he realised that if he ploughed the land, planted wheat seed, waited a few months for it to grow and turn golden brown, reaped it, crushed it between a couple of big stones, mixed it with water and cooked it on this new invention called fire - then he could have himself a fabulous loaf of bread.

The discovery of flour - a food that could be stored and cooked at will - meant that mankind at last could put down roots and build communities - without flour Rome would never have emerged, democracy would never have been invented, the arts, culture, and the Shopping Channel would never have been born.

1. Melt the butter gently in a saucepan.

2. While that's melting sift the flour, salt, caster sugar and baking powder into your mixing bowl.

3. Break in the eggs and add half the milk. Whisk gently, then when you've got a thick paste add the rest of the milk and the butter. Beat it hard until you have a creamy batter.

4. Pour your mixture into a jug.

5. Pop your frying pan on the hob, drop in a little oil and use some kitchen paper to spread it all around so the pan is lightly greased.

6. Let the pan get up to heat, then pour in a little of the batter - about the size of a rich tea buscuit. After a minute little bubbles will form in the batter - at this point flip it over, and let the other side cook for 20 to 30 seconds.

7. Drop the drop scone onto a warm plate - and pour in more batter. You should be able to get three or four drop scones cooking in the pan at once. If the pan get too dry and the drop scones start sticking, ad a bit more oil.

8. Enjoy with Manx butter, jam, cream... - whatever you like! Yum!

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Pizza
This recipe was submitted by I Love Manx supporter: Allison Ratcliffe - thanks to her!
If you have a great recipe - please send it to food@manx-nfu.org

MAKES 2 BIG PIZZAS.
 
You will need - for the base :
12oz Laxey Glen Mills Manx Strong flour
1-2 teaspoons of salt
1 dessertspoon of sugar
1 sachet easy blend yeast
200ml warm water
A good slug of Olive Oil!
 
You will need - for the sauce:
1 tin of tomatoes
3-4 chilli flakes or chili powder or tabasco (optional but gives a bit of a zing)
1 whole clove garlic
Salt and pepper
Olive Oil
 
How you prepare it:
1. Mix the base ingredients - either by hand or in some type of mixer. Put it in the fridge and ignore it. 
(You can make the pizza dough in the morning and put it in a covered bowl in the fridge while you go out to work or whatever - it doesn't have to rise, but if it does that's fine too).

2. Warm a splash of olive oil in your pan.

3. Put all your suce ingredients into the pan, simmer briskly with the lid off until the liquid has evaporated and the sauce is thick. 

3. Before it goes cold add a teaspoon or 2 of sugar (if you want!).

4. Blitz with a hand blender or chop/mash by hand.
 
How to cook it:

1. Turn the oven on to it's very hottest setting e.g. 240C Fan for at least 10-15 minutes THIS IS ESSENTIAL.

2. When you're ready make two large squares of foil and pour oil on one and smooth the other sheet over it (so the are both oiled and your hands are clean).

3. Divide the dough into 2 and roll out the bases - trimming the dough to the right shape - then place on the foil - the foil needs to be as big as your oven shelf and thin.

4. Spread the dough with the tomato mix.

5. Add your toppings, ham, mushrooms, peperoni etc.

6. Sprinkle with grated Manx cheese.
 
7. Put into the oven one at a time for about 5 - 10 minutes depending on the oven. The cheese needs to have melted and the base should still look pale at the edges. (Tip: the more topping you put on the longer it takes to cook, but less is more with pizza's!)

8. When you take the first one out put the next one in.