As Strong As Soup

I've just been listening to someone on the radio wittering on about how terrible British restaurants were back in the 1960s and 70s. This version of history seems to be accepted as the official narrative today. I admit that many of the restaurants back then were pretty bad. In fact some of them were laughably awful such as the trendy restaurant that served only tinned food. But there were very good places to eat if you looked hard enough in the right places. I was lucky because the right places were often in London and that's where I happened to be living. If you headed for one of the simple trattorias scattered around town then you could get decent, straightforward Italian food at a reasonable price as well as encountering waiters with comically large pepper grinders. There wasn't a huge choice of food in those bygone tratts but some options were very similar to what's on offer in restaurants today. For instance, I swear I had crushed avocado on toast in a little pla...

OK, I know it’s getting a bit late to be posting this but I don’t have the patience to wait until next spring. These sauces will each serve 2 people who are feeling greedy or more than 2, if you happen to know restrained people. Spring Pesto Assuming that you can still find some wild garlic, then you can make a wild garlic pesto and very good it’ll be too. But if you happen to be growing radishes and maybe have some sorrel somewhere in the garden then this is a useful, fresh-tasting variation. I hate wasting anything that I’ve grown and making use of the abundant radish leaves has to be good. Make sure all the leaves are fresh and good-looking, of course. Generous handful of radish leaves, torn up Handful of sorrel leaves Handful of wild garlic leaves Handful of hazelnuts Generous handful of parmesan 1 tsp lemon juice extra-virgin olive oil and cold-pressed rapeseed oil Just whiz all the ingredients together in a processor with some salt and pepper, adding as much oil as ...

About this time of year I begin to really miss the days of summer when I can wander out to the garden and pick fresh veg and herbs. There's not much out there at the moment but two things that have survived the winter and are still looking good today are the Cavolo Nero and some late-sown chervil plants. It was too tempting to ignore. So this recipe is loosely based on a River Café pasta dish combined, probably rather inelegantly, with a French sauce made of chervil, garlic and walnut oil. A week or so ago I heard a pompous Italian gentleman saying that all civilised people would agree that Italian olive oil is the best in the world and buying anything else would be a form of madness. A few days later I heard a pompous Frenchman saying pretty much the same thing about French olive oil. As a result I used Spanish olive oil for this dish. This should be enough for 2 people. Italian varieties of kale aren't essential for this recipe, but the flavour and colour of cavolo nero ...

It's definitely the time of year for game and I felt like making something with venison. I also felt like eating pasta and so this is the result. A simple enough recipe that doesn't need a lot of effort, but it takes a while to make, especially since you need to put the venison into the marinade the day before. Marinade:     150 ml red wine     50 ml gin     30 ml blackberry vinegar 300 g venison – the sort sold for casseroles – cut into cubes of roughly 2.5 cm 1 small onion, finely chopped 1 carrot, finely chopped 70 g small pancetta or bacon chunks 3 tbsp tomato purée A generous pinch of sugar 2 sprigs of rosemary, tied up in muslin A squeeze of lemon Mix together the marinade ingredients and pour over the venison. Cover and leave in the fridge for 24 hours. When the time's up, drain the venison, reserving the marinade. Pat the venison dry with paper towel. Gently fry the onion and carrot in a little oil for 10 minutes wi...

Duck can be expensive, but the legs seem to be the best value bit.  I’ve been told that duck sauces should be served with tagliatelle and, since I don’t want to argue with an Italian, I couldn’t agree more. (Although I’m sure that a different pasta of the same general type and shape might do instead). 2 duck legs (fairly meaty ones) 1 medium carrot, very finely chopped 1 shallot, finely chopped 2 garlic cloves, crushed ½ glass red wine 400 g tin of chopped tomatoes Pinch of sugar ½ tsp dried oregano or about 1 tsp of chopped fresh leaves Season the duck legs all over and roast at 180°C (in a fan oven, a little hotter otherwise) for 50 minutes. Set them aside until they are cool enough to handle, remove the skin and strip all the meat from the bones, getting rid of as much fat as reasonably possible as you go. Hopefully you should be left with small but irregular bits of meat. In the meantime, heat a little olive oil and fry the shallots and carrots gently for 7 or 8 minutes. A...

This dish might sound as if it just wouldn't work, but oddly it does – as long as you like plums. I came across a French recipe using chicken and plums and since there were plenty of cheap plums around, I thought I'd try something along the same lines. It might sound a little complicated, but it's not really and can be prepared largely in advance. This recipe serves two hungry people, but the size of plums and chicken thighs will vary a lot so you might want to vary the amount of pasta or other ingredients to suit your appetite. 3-4 chicken thighs, skin on and bone in 3-4 plums, ripe but preferably still on the firm side 2 medium courgettes, topped and tailed Zest and juice of 1 small lime 150 g (or thereabouts) tagliatelle – or use whatever pasta you have Balsamic vinegar, olive oil, dried chilli flakes, salt and pepper and maybe a little sugar Cut the courgettes into thin slices lengthways. Dry these slices out by placing them on silicone sheets on baking tray...