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…

I have a new gadget, a Hackelmann slicer – a present from Bärbl brought back from Germany. Brilliant for making very thin slices of vegetables. Just tonight we are having beetroot slices (6mm thick) roasted, left to cool and then topped with hummus with our drinks before the meal. I also sliced fennel (5mm thick)…

This recipe comes from Clarissa Dickson Wright who tells the story of how her mother cooked duck for the son of the famous Russian opera singer, Feodor Chaliapin. It is quite delicious and Chaliapin’s son ate a whole duck to himself, much to the chagrin of the youthful CDW as duck cooked this way is…

Midway through Holy Week when leeks are in season is a splendid time to make this pie. I didn’t use puff pastry but the pastry I make for quiches (and much more) on page 209 of The Allotment Kitchen. It worked very well. I was pleased to use my first picking of chives from the…