I had extraordinarily good spaghetti alla carbonara last winter wedged at the bar of an impossibly busy restaurant in a Rome backstreet. Cooked the traditional way with cured pork cheeks (guanciale) and an excess of golden egg yolks thickened with Pecorino Romano, it needed plenty of red wine to wash it down. My easy-to-eat version,…

Making coq au vin properly, marinating the chicken over night in aromatic concentrated wine, then allowing enough time for the flavours to develop, is not an after work dish. This quickie version for two is one of my favourite comfort suppers. I add peas, sometimes boiled carrot and waxy potatoes too, with a parsley garnish…

Chicken with slippery soft leek, the flavours lifted by the aniseedy flavour of tarragon is a marriage made in heaven, particularly so if everything is held in a creamy white wine sauce and hidden under a buttery pie crust. I like to decorate the crust with faux leaves of pastry and to glaze it with…

Treacle tart isn’t made with treacle but with Golden Syrup from the green and silver tin with its strange lion and fly logo. To achieve the required slightly gooey yet firm texture for the filling, the breadcrumbs must be loosely but generously loaded into the pastry case – and the case should be hot from…

Filets of cod or hake are perfect for this simple supper. The fish is steamed over a pan of creamy, big butterbeans with slippery soft onion, diced tomato and separately cooking little chorizo paella sausages. It’s served with a garnish of coriander or flat leaf parsley, depending on your taste, mood or availability, either bringing…

This is one of the easiest, quickest and most delicious soups I know and it’s as painless to make for one as it is for a crowd. You need leeks, potatoes, water, salt and pepper and a knob of butter. If there’s some thyme around, it lifts the soup slightly but is not essential to…

     Simon Hopkinson came up with saff-mash in his early days at Bibendum. It is rich, bright yellow, soft and fluffy and makes a stunning topping for fish pie but suits this supper of roast hake with tiny tapas chorizo (sold in sets of twelve) and juicy, cabbagey chard. A lovely plateful (thank you Simon)….

I sometimes buy ingredients out of curiosity and that was the case with the artichoke puree I bought at www.bayley-sage.co.uk . I had no particular end in sight for it but one night when I’d defrosted chicken thighs for supper and was looking around for something to go with them, the puree popped back into…

This soup is a variation on a theme, something I often make when I see bunches of attractive scabbard leaf spinach on special offer at my favourite high road fruit and veg stall. It’s quick and simple, starts, as so many soups do, with a softened onion, a hint of garlic with potato to thicken…

I love skirt steak and often get up early to be one of the first at my Farmer’s Sunday Market (close to Edensor Road, off the 316 to Richmond www.dukesmeadowstrust.org) to buy it. www.marchhousefarm.co.uk generally have several pieces, usually about 500g apiece, bagged up sous vide style ready for the freezer. Skirt needs to be…