AUTUMN COLESLAW

I adore this dish. The colour kicks us straight into autumn - bright pink and vibrant. It keeps to all the promises of a perfectly constructed salad: sweet crunch from the roots, creaminess from the yoghurt, citrus to cut through, a light nuttiness and a well-balanced freshness from the herbs.

It works wonderfully well alongside meat, hot or cold - a classic pulled pork, leftover roast ham or crispy chicken wings - or seasonal fruits - pears, apples or plums.

I could eat this for every meal. Even breakfast.

BEETROOT, CELERIAC & CABBAGE COLESLAW

serves 8

ingredients

1/2 white cabbage

1/2 celeriac, peeled and grated

3 small beetroot, peeled and grated

finely grated zest and juice 1 large lemon

2 tbsps greek yoghurt

sesame seeds to garnish, optional

large handful mint, finely shredded

large handful coriander, finely chopped

olive oil to dress

Add the grated beetroot to a large bowl (not the one you are going to serve the coleslaw from). Finely shred the white cabbage, discarding the tough core and slicing up any large pieces, and add to the beetroot with the celeriac. Add the lemon zest and juice, and lightly toss - you want to avoid over tossing the beetroot at this stage as it will stain the other vegetables.

Keep covered in the fridge until you are ready to eat it. Just before serving, stir through the yoghurt so that it is evenly distributed. Move to a clean bowl, then dress with the sesame seeds, mint and coriander. Drizzle, generously, with olive oil.

* If you are not going to eat all of the coleslaw, leave aside some of the salad after adding the lemon juice. Any leftovers can keep for up to three days or can be cooked up as an autumn gratin. Butter an oven-proof dish and pour in the lemony root vegetable mix. Pour over cream, season, grate with parmesan and bake for 25 minutes in a hot oven (200°C/fan180°C/gas 6). Heaven.

PRUNE AND RICOTTA FROZEN YOGHURT

PRUNE AND RICOTTA FROZEN YOGHURT
Not too greedy.

SERVES 4-6

ingredients

250g ricotta

200g natural yoghurt

250 prunes, pitted and chopped

1 tbsp dark brown Muscovado sugar

pinch salt

Blend all the ingredients together until almost smooth. You want 70% of the prunes to dissolve and the rest to keep a bit of shape.

The prunes will be sweet already so there is no real need for added sugar in this recipe, but I think a spoonful of dark brown muscovado really enhances the flavour.

Now, for freezing. If you have an ice cream machine, turn for 45 minutes before transferring to the freezer for a couple of hours. If no machine, place the blend in a metal boil with tin foil as a lid and stir every half hour for 3 hours.

Serve as a sticky after dinner desert with a shot of coffee, or piled on pancakes for breakfast.

SUMMER SAUSAGES

I spent a very wet Saturday stomping around Broadway market, sheltering under green-striped tarpaulins, standing nose to nose with the marketeers. I scooped up two old cushions, a greedy burger form Lucky Chip, two corn on the cob and a couple of peculiarly shaped courgettes. Despite the sodden shoes and soggy mop, it was quite a perfect day. 

This sausage dish is a great cheerer on a wet day and needs very few ingredients to give a great supper. Get bonne saucisse, a bunch o' cherry tomatoes, strange courgettes and an onion. And that's pretty much it. I love it. 

SUMMER SAUSAGES

serves 4

1 tbsp olive oil

8 pork sausages

1 large echalion shallot, sliced

3 garlic cloves, crushed 

20 cherry tomatoes

2 courgettes (custard white are fun)

1 tbsp passata

50ml water

salt and pepper

handful sweet basil, torn

Heat up the olive oil in a large, deep frying pan over a medium heat. When hot, add the sausages and cook for 10 minutes with a lid on, turning occasionally to brown evenly.

Chop the sausages with a wooden spoon and add the onion and garlic. When the onion has softened, throw in the tomatoes. Cook for 5 minutes and add the courgettes. Season and stir.

Now add the passata and the water and simmer for 5 minutes. When the sauce has reduced, tear up the basil and stir through. Serve with a well-dressed salad and a hunk of bread for mopping. Dead cosy like.

PASTA AL POMODORO

Emily picked this recipe up from her days as a nipper in Naples, one of those 'gran segreti dalla nonna' that no-one who'd tried it would dare forget. We ate the sauce - fat ripe tomatoes simmered down into a rich, sticky, and oily passata - tossed through beautifully formed Umbrian pasta and mopped up the remainder with hunks of bread.

REAL ITALIAN TOMATO SAUCE

with flat pasta

serves 8

ingredients

250ml extra virgin olive oil

4 cloves garlic, sliced

15 very ripe, fresh plum tomatoes, peeled and left whole

handful basil leaves, torn

salt and pepper to taste

large jug water 

700g good quality pasta - this sauce works particularly well with flat or tubed pasta.

Parmesan to serve

Gently warm the oil in a large saucepan and add the garlic to infuse. Leave it to soak up the flavour for 3 minutes, without burning the garlic. Add the peeled tomatoes and basil to the pan, season, and leave to simmer over a low heat with the lid on. After about an hour the juice of the tomatoes will have thickened. Add a generous splash of water and leave to reduce for another 45 minutes. You want to cook down the tomatoes for a total of three hours to get the maximum flavour, so every time the sauce thickens add a little more water - you may only need to do this once more but keep an eye. As you reach serving time, make sure the sauce is thick enough to coat the pasta and is not watery. If in doubt, simmer a bit longer without adding more water. Taste for seasoning.

Bring an extra large pan or two medium sized pans of salted water to the boil and add the pasta. Cook as the packet suggests, and drain when al dente. 

Transfer the pasta into the tomato pan and mix through evenly adding a little sprinkling of salt. Pour the pasta into a big serving dish and take to the table. Divide into smaller bowls and scatter with Parmesan.

GAZPACHO

CLASSIC GAZPACHO

serves 8 bowls

ingredients

1kg ripe plum, beef, and cherry tomatoes, peeled and chopped

3 large red peppers, cored and chopped

1 large cucumber, peeled and chopped

200g white breadcrumbs

3 cloves garlic, chopped

500ml iced water

150ml white wine vinegar

150ml olive oil

salt and pepper

for garnish

3 pink echalion onions, very finely sliced

handful basil leaves

2 small dried red chillies, crushed

24 ice cubes

Place the tomatoes, peppers, cucumber, breadcrumbs and garlic into a food processor and blitz until smooth, adding the water a little at a time. You may have to do this in batches. Once smooth, add the vinegar and olive oil and season to taste. You want the soup to taste fresh, a little sharp from the vinegar, and rich with flavour. 

Leave the soup to chill in the fridge for an hour and serve ice cold with a scattering of the onions, basil and chilli. Season with salt, drizzle with olive oil and a few ice cubes. 

MELANZANE PARMIGIANA

I'm drawn to vegetables of unusual colour and size. Bulbosities stare at me from shop shelves and I can't help but stretch out for them. They make great paintings - you can get away with wild imperfections on the canvas too - and become beautiful ornaments for the middle of the table. 

The best thing is, once you've had enough of painting, you can cook them.

Umbria has buckets of choice with local farms and Agriturismi pushing forward the overripe uglies - long pointy radicchio, tiny green figs and bunches of scarlet onions stalks still on. My baskets are breaking at the straps. 

These fat and round aubergines - pale pink, mauve, deep purple and deadly nightshade - are my favourite and make for a wonderful Melanzane Parmigiana, dished up for lunch with salad and ham. 

MELANZANE PARMIGIANA

Baked aubergines

serves 6-8

ingredients

1 red onion, finely chopped

2 cloves garlic, crushed

2 tins good quality chopped tomatoes

dried herbs, chopped (oregano, rosemary, thyme)

salt and pepper

5 tsps olive oil

2-3 large round aubergines, sliced

large handful basil leaves, torn

200g block Parmesan, grated

100g breadcrumbs

200g mozzarella

Preheat the oven to 180C. 

Add a little drizzle of olive oil to a saucepan and add the onion. Fry over a medium heat until soft. Add the garlic and dried herbs and tomatoes and cook for 10 minutes until the sauce has reduced and tastes sweet. 

Add the olive oil to a large frying pan or griddle and whack up the heat. Lay on the aubergine - cooking in batches if necessary - and fry evenly on both sides. You want to char slightly. Once you've done the lot, set aside. 

Once you have cooked down the tomatoes, ladle a layer of the sauce into the bottom of an oven-proof dish (I used a 30 x 30cm dish). Follow with a layer of aubergine and a layer of grated Parmesan. Continue this process until you use up the remaining sauce and aubergines, finishing with a generous layer of Parmesan. Evenly scatter over the breadcrumbs. Tear up the mozzarella over the crumbs as a final layer. 

Place the dish in the oven and bake for 25 minutes until the top is golden and bubbling. 

POSTCARDS FROM ITALY

For the next four weeks I will be stationed in Italy, writing, painting and gearing up for joining the delicious. team as their cookery assistant in September. I'll be posting recipes with an Italian feel no doubt and, due to the amount of food I intend to eat, there'll be coming through fat and often. Stayed tuned and let me know of any Umbrian specialities I should be on the scout for. A dopo!