This is one of the simplest and most delicious ways of cooking a whole chicken. Whenever I cook it, everyone wants the recipe. It’s known as buried chicken in my house (others call it Antibes Roast Chicken), a dish I discovered years ago in Elizabeth David’s A Book of Mediterranean Food. The bird nestles upside…

It’s intriguing how a pinch of an unexpected seasoning can lift quite ordinary ingredients. That’s the case with this thick and chunky vegetable soup that sprang into life when the caraway carton fell off the herb rack and scattered its black seed everywhere. Lightly pounded it combined with fresh ginger, garlic and chilli to give…

This is one of the most useful recipes ever. It is such a simple soup and one that you can vary and jazz up with minimal trouble. And so quick. I often add a little mint sauce or a handful of fresh mint but it’s not really necessary. Other soft herbs like basil, chervil and…

I had extraordinarily good spaghetti alla carbonara last winter wedged at the bar of an impossibly busy restaurant in a Rome backstreet. Cooked the traditional way with cured pork cheeks (guanciale) and an excess of golden egg yolks thickened with Pecorino Romano, it needed plenty of red wine to wash it down. My easy-to-eat version,…

Making coq au vin properly, marinating the chicken over night in aromatic concentrated wine, then allowing enough time for the flavours to develop, is not an after work dish. This quickie version for two is one of my favourite comfort suppers. I add peas, sometimes boiled carrot and waxy potatoes too, with a parsley garnish…

Chicken with slippery soft leek, the flavours lifted by the aniseedy flavour of tarragon is a marriage made in heaven, particularly so if everything is held in a creamy white wine sauce and hidden under a buttery pie crust. I like to decorate the crust with faux leaves of pastry and to glaze it with…

Treacle tart isn’t made with treacle but with Golden Syrup from the green and silver tin with its strange lion and fly logo. To achieve the required slightly gooey yet firm texture for the filling, the breadcrumbs must be loosely but generously loaded into the pastry case – and the case should be hot from…

Filets of cod or hake are perfect for this simple supper. The fish is steamed over a pan of creamy, big butterbeans with slippery soft onion, diced tomato and separately cooking little chorizo paella sausages. It’s served with a garnish of coriander or flat leaf parsley, depending on your taste, mood or availability, either bringing…