Such a simple but wonderful taste of summer, the tomatoes lifted by salt, pepper, a hint of sugar (in my case), splash of best olive oil and shredded basil, the whole lot piled over garlic-rubbed, toast annointed with olive oil and eaten with burrata or mozzarella. Quite delicious. Doesn’t really need a recipe. Use a…

This velvety, dark green nectar is thick with spinach, the intense iron flavour softened by peas. It’s finished avgolemono-style with egg yolks and lemon, imparting a creamy richness to texture and flavour. For a dramatic finish, I’ve added a swirl of pureed roasted red pepper, a new favourite fridge food. It brings class to almost…

It’s taken me years to learn to love courgettes and now I can’t get enough of them. Mostly, I cook them quickly, usually fried or griddled to retain their juiciness and subtle flavour. This, though, is a favourite recipe when courgettes are glutting. It’s a Greek way of dealing with courgette gluts, cooking them, chopped,…

This recipe is for a lovely rich but light ragu freshened up with cherry tomatoes. I don’t know about you but I love ragu and often make it to stash in the freezer for no-cook nights. Here it’s served with crusty slabs of polenta and a generous dusting of Parmesan. Full instructions for the polenta…

There’s nothing like a splash of white wine, squeeze of lemon and fresh herbs to cheer up a chicken fricassee. This one gets rosemary and black olives to give it a South of France flavour but served over sloppy polenta laden with Parmesan and butter. The result is rich and luscious and very, very moreish….

My local fruit and veg stall (on Chiswick High Road) have a £1 table and they often sell bowls of wonky, different sized pointed Romano red peppers which I can never resist. I buy them, plonk them in the bottom of the salad drawer and decide what to do with them later. Usually I roast…

I love peas, fresh, frozen and tinned. The best peas for this delicate, elegant take on mushy peas are frozen petits pois. The peas are boiled as usual then liquidized with a little of the cooking liquid, some fresh mint and a dollop of something creamy. The consistency you are after is slack hummus because…

I spent quite a long time trying to hunt down a South American recipe with avocado that would go well with simply roasted cod. I didn’t want a sauce or guacamole and in the end did my own thing, making a chunky salsa, adding a few black olives to cheer things along and basil (prolific…

This recipe for lamb kebabs is adapted from an Elizabeth David essay in the Fresh Meat: Kebab Cookery section of Spices, Salt and Aromatics in the English Kitchen.Originally published in 1970, at a time when spices like cumin and caraway had to be searched out, it shows how diverse we’ve become with our cooking. I…