Big warning signs flash when I talk about Negroni. Red alert in terms of alcohol but high up there (after Gin Gimlet and Campari and Soda) with the drinks that, when conditions are right, I would love to have. Warning over and, as my daughter’s twitter informs me, the first week of June was Negroni…

Sometimes a recipe just jumps at you and this is exactly what happened when I was turning the pages of Madhur Jaffrey’s Illustrated Indian Cookery. She writes,’Even people who do not have a weakness for (beetroot), manage to succumb to the charms of this recipe’. No problem for us as we are already converted. This…

Nothing like a wet day to buckle down on the floor to sort through a pile of magazines and recipes. We should have been at the Bath and West Show but were wise to take heed of an amber weather warning. We were very sorry not to have caught up with our friends, Julie and…

This recipe is well traveled. Astrid Øyehaug, who kindly sent it to me, and her family live in Oslo but spend much but time in the house they have restored in Sicily. I was reminded that I had kept an article by Rachel Roddy from The Guardian extolling the virtues of fennel risotto and how…

This is my all time favourite summer comfort food. This sauce epitomises Italian cooking. It is so simple but all the ingredients must be of the best quality, used generously and cooked with feeling. Take about 20 ripe tomatoes. Cut off the tops where the stems had been and place the tomatoes flat side down…

This dish is perfect for an easy summer dinner. It need only go in the oven when the first course is being eaten.. Serve with new potatoes and a green salad. ‘Chips’ of polenta would make a good accompaniment. 4 swordfish steaks Olive oil 75g black olives, pitted and chopped 300g plum tomatoes, peeled, chopped,…

Friday evening and a horrible drive back from riding in Wells. Met our neighbour, Roger, as I got out of the car who invited us into the Marlborough Tavern for a drink, Yes! Too late to cook the supper I had planned when we got back but this quick recipe from Claudia Roden’s The Food…

It’s April and at last spring is in the air. My best allotment crop is lovage. Beware lovage! A little goes a long way but it can make a meal. Eleanor Perenyi in Green Thoughts even advises against accepting the gift of a lovage plant. It has a celery flavour and can be added to…

I have just discovered a classic recipe from Elizabeth David in her, Spices, Salt and Aromatics in the English Kitchen, 1970. This is a great dish to accompany lamb or beef kebabs and is perfectly good eaten on its own (ED suggests adding either toasted pine nuts or almonds, or soaked then cooked sultanas or…

I really enjoy the blood orange season and have a very vivid memory of eating blood oranges for the first time when I was five years old and we were in France at Easter. Excited to be using my new orange juicer for this recipe. Very sticky, very moreish; the glaze almost has a taste…