The nearer to Christmas it gets, the further East I travel for recipe inspiration. I suspect that this is greatly influenced by the boxes of dates we used to be given as a child. You may know the ones I mean, the box had a lacy paper lining and a bright label depicting the three…
Tag: Extra Virgin Olive oil
La Cecìna Toscana, a Fermented Chickpea Flour Pancake with Rosemary
In pre-Covid times, it always amazed me that having eaten breakfast in England we can be enjoying a late lunch in Italy looking up to the sun and taking in the aromas of the streets: jasmine blossoms and linden trees fighting for our olfactory attention against smokey Vespas, buttery patisserie, melting chocolate, over-ripe peaches, the…
Revithada, Greek Slow-roasted Chickpeas with Rosemary and Bay
Paros is calling me. It seems as if every magazine I open lands upon an image of the out-of-this-world beautiful Greek island sat within the glittering Aegean Sea, a radio presenter name checked it late last week and, this weekend, a postcard fell out of an old Greek cookery book upon which I had written…
Harissa-braised Hispi Cabbage with Cannellini Beans and Smoked Chilli
This is one of those recipes that came to me during the night – I’m not even joking. It’s not that I dream about food – unless it’s one of THOSE dreams where I have agreed to cater for a great number of people only to forget to buy the ingredients (that’s a recurring one),…
Pera Garlicky Spinach with Yoghurt and Biber Salçası
After a bone-chilling day we literally fell through the doorway of Asmalı Cavit, a treasured wooden-fronted traditional meyhane in the centre of Pera in Istanbul. Here, the walls are lined with photographic portraits of people from a more glamorous age alongside vintage posters promoting wine, long forgotten theatre productions and the seaside resorts that were…
Caldo Gallego, a Spanish White Bean Soup with Sherry Vinegar
A beautiful dish for early autumn evenings, this beautiful aniseedy broth with lightly braised haricot beans, tomatoes, courgette and fennel is seasoned with a really good Spanish sherry vinegar, chilli and fennel seeds but it’s the punchy mojo verde – a garlicky green herb and garlic sauce originating from the Canary Islands – that makes…
Tarifa Leek and Artichoke Tart, Tarta de Puerros y Alcachofas
The stunning whitewashed town of Tarifa forms part of the glittering municipality of Cádiz where the Atlantic and the Mediterranean meet – known as Costa de la Luz, the coast of light. Here, the winds can be phenomenally strong so, by day people head to the stunning windswept beach to surf – by board or…
La Belle Salade Niçoise with a Green Olive Tapenade Dressing
Named ‘La Belle’ after the frequently used nickname for the city of Nice which lies in the French Riviera on the Mediterranean Sea, this salad typifies for me the fresh seasonal beauty of the local cuisine. This simple plate of summer is inspired by Richard Olney’s musings on Lulu Peyraud who, with her husband Lucien,…
Tuscan Cannellini Bean and Cipolla Rossa di Tropea Salad
Here’s another lovely salad recipe designed to enjoy outside on sultry summer evenings such as we’re experiencing now. Whenever I come across the universally loved cipolla rossa di Tropea – sweet red onions from the Calabria region of Italy – I am in first in line to buy them. I love their incredible sweetness which makes them perfect for adding to frittatas,…
Provençal Potato Salad with Green Beans, Asparagus, Peas, Mint and Chervil
Imagine a French summer garden filled with tall cypress trees and blooms of the brightest hues with their faces turned to the sun. A weathered white dovecote is home to a pair of doves that coo above the thousands of geranium flowers – pink, white and red – that tumble over the edges of old…
