A new vegan cookie appears

We are slowly increasing our range of vegan sweets and cakes, and this month are pleased to announce the arrival of a new contender. Please welcome the peanut butter dark chocolate cookie!

At Loaf we believe vegan cakes shouldn’t be a lesser choice. We work hard to ensure they’re as good, if not better, than those made with dairy. Our goal is to have a vegan option on the sweets board each day so make sure you ask next time you’re in.

Ragu Time!

In a couple of weeks, on Sunday 27th June, we’ll be running a special takeaway of fresh pasta dishes, prepared for you to cook at home. Here’s what’s on offer!

Meaty lasagna: Mamma Franca’s ragù (see below) made with organic beef and pork from Rossiters butchers in Bournville, layered with fresh handmade spinach pasta, béchamel sauce and Parmesan cheese. Serves two (£12) or four (£24).

Vegan lasagne: vegan ragù made green lentils, tomato sauce and mushrooms layered with fresh handmade vegan semolina pasta, vegan béchamel sauce and nutritional yeast. Serves two (£10) or four (£20). **

Meaty ragù & tagliatelle: Mamma Franca’s ragù with Rossiters’ organic beef and pork. Served with fresh handmade spinach tagliatelle. Serves one (£5.50).

Vegan ragù & vegan tagliatelle: fresh pasta made with semolina flour and vegan ragù made with green lentils, tomato sauce, mushrooms and vegan béchamel sauce. Serves one (£4.50).

Pistachio or chocolate cannoli: a tube-shaped fried pastry shell filled with sweetened ricotta. £3 each.

The secret origins of Ragù Time…

A sauce is what makes a pasta dish memorable, and every recipe has its own secrets!

Mamma Franca, the Italian mother of Phil’s partner, graciously lent us her delicious authentic recipe. The vegan ragù meanwhile is a Valentina special inspired by Betti Taglietti, a vegan cook campaigning for inclusion of affordable and vegan options to school pupils and workers.

The pasta itself has been developed over the last few months by Val and Phil who had been working together on the food bank donation bakes. Sharing a passion for pasta, sorely missing from Loaf since the pandemic cancelled our classes, they got talking and worked on some recipes.

A big challenge was perfecting really good vegan pasta and we hope you agree that they’ve cracked it!

We haven’t done a series of pop-ups for a while but with the popularity of Lap’s sausages last December, not to mention the fun we had running it, we all agreed a pasta night was in order.

Molly, our sweets guru, joined in with some cannoli – shells of fried pastry dough, filled with a sweet, creamy ricotta filling – to top it all off and we were ready to go!

As we get closer to re-opening the cookery school we’ll be rehearsing the recipes and sharpening our skills so expect more takeaway nights, particularly from Lap and Hassan. Stay tuned!