Our blog

Serves 4

This is a real comfort food dish which goes perfectly with a glass or two of Chianti and a DVD boxset. Enjoy x

For the pangrattato:

•    1 ciabatta loaf, crusts removed
•    3 large cloves of garlic, peeled
•    100ml of olive oil

•    1 aubergine, cut lengthways into 1cm slices
•    2 cloves of garlic finely chopped
•    3 anchovy fillets
•    1 stick of celery, finely chopped
•    1 onion, finely chopped
•    1 small leek, finely chopped
•    1 carrot, finely chopped
•    1 red chilli, finely chopped
•    A few sprigs of rosemary, leaves picked and finely chopped
•    1 tsp of tomato purée
•    1 glass of red wine
•    1 400g can of chopped tomatoes
•    Handful of good black olives, pitted
•    Dash of good red wine vinegar
•    2 sprigs of flat-leaf parsley, chopped to serve
•    350g bucatini or spaghetti

Make the Pangrattato. Pulse-chop the ciabatta to coarse breadcrumbs. In a pan, heat the oil, add the cloves of garlic and cook until golden brown then remove with a slotted spoon. Add the breadcrumbs to the garlic-infused oil and cook until golden and crispy. Remove and blot on kitchen paper. The pangrattato will keep for weeks in your cupboard in an air-tight container.

Heat a griddle pan on the stove until smoking. Oil and salt the slices of aubergine and chargrill on the griddle getting plenty of colour on them. When done, cut into 1cm size pieces and set aside.

In a pan heat some oil and on a medium heat cook the anchovy fillets until they break up. Add the garlic, celery, onion, leek, carrot, chilli and rosemary and fry slowly on a low heat for about 40 minutes, stirring and making sure it doesn’t burn.

Add the tomato purée and cook for a further 10 minutes. Crank up the heat, add the red wine and reduce until syrupy. Add the can of tomatoes and timer gently for 10 minutes. Stir in the aubergine and the olives and add the red wine vinegar. Season.

Cook the bucatini and when al denté, drain (reserving a little of the water) and add to the sauce. Stir in making sure all the pasta is nicely coated and if necessary ‘loosen’ it up with the pasta water.

Serve in bowls with the pangrattato spinkled on top, some grated parmesan (although pangrattato was originally used by poorer Italian families as a cheaper alternative to Parmesan) some freshly chopped flat-leaf parsley and as always, a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil.

OK, so it’s been a while. What can I say? I’ve somewhat neglected the blog over the last couple of months. I’ve had quite a few things on but that’s not really an excuse. Lets just agree that I’ve been rubbish but will try much harder from here on in.

Since we last spoke:

I’ve found out I’m going to be a dad, which is pretty monumental — exciting if a little bit frightening.
It has been confirmed that the Savoy Truffle Supperclub are to (I really want to type the word ‘play’ in here as if we’re an indie band announcing we’re doing Glastonbury) put on five nights at a secret north London location as part of the London Restaurant Festival in October — Watch this space. If I get my act together I will be posting a video blog on the website on the planning and preparation up to the launch night on October 13. Also keep an eye here and at http://www.savoytrufflesupperclub.com/ for how to buy tickets in the coming weeks.
Predictably England have once again spectacularly under-achieved at another World Cup and the charmless, bumfluff-chinned dullard that is Andy Murray convinced us that this was his year and then brought us back down to earth by crashing out in straight sets.
To herald my return to the blogosphere (is that what you say?) here is a simple, fabulously fresh and summery recipe to celebrate the season.
As the last asparagus is pulled the broad beans are here!
I’m a huge fan of the humble and underrated broad bean. They are a vegetable all-too-often missing from most supermarkets but with the arrival of more and more farmers’ markets these be-podded jewels are making a welcome comeback.
In this recipe you might think the preparation of the broad beans is a little tedious but I think it’s well worth taking the time to remove the pale green husks (that can be a tad bitter) to reveal the beautiful green beans — it looks amazing.

Summer salad of broad beans, peas and pancetta

Serves 4 as a starter

•    2kg fresh broad beans
•    500g podded peas
•    A generous handful of freshly grated parmesan
•    A few sprigs of mint, leaves picked and finely chopped
•    100ml extra virgin olive oil
•    1 clove of garlic, finely chopped
•    Zest and juice of 1 lemon
•    12 rashers of pancetta or smoked streaky bacon, cut into lardons
Pod the broad beans and blanch for 1 minute in boiling water. Drain, refresh in ice-water and remove the pale green husks. Cook the peas and refresh as with the broad beans.
Place the beans and peas together in a bowl and set aside.
Make the dressing. In a food processor, whizz the parmesan, mint, garlic, olive oil lemon zest and juice and season.
Fry the pancetta or bacon until crispy, place in bowl with the broad beans and peas and toss with the dressing.
Serve with some freshly picked, torn-up mint leaves a few parmesan shavings and a drizzling of good extra virgin olive oil.

My good friend and sports journalist Neal Collins (you may have seen him on Sky News last week calling Wayne Bridge a wimp) appealed to me for an easy, ‘manly’ recipe that he could cook for his family.
Now while this dish won’t win you any Michelin stars it certainly ticks all the boxes if you’ve got very little time but want to produce a hearty and tasty meal with minimal effort.
BTW check out Neal’s blog at www.nealcollins.co.uk/blog

Serves 4

•    350g penne
•    1 large chorizo sausage (or about 400g), chopped coarsely into dice
•    1 large onion, finely chopped
•    1 400g tin of chopped tomatoes
•    1 tbsp red wine vinegar
•    1 tsp sugar
•    1 tbsp flat leafed parsley, leaves picked and finely chopped
•    Freshly grated parmesan and extra virgin olive oil to serve
In a non-stick saucepan slowly fry the chorizo in a little oil over a low heat for 7 minutes and add the onion. Continue to fry for about another 10 minutes or until the chorizo is crisp.

Add the tin of tomatoes and cook on a low heat for a further 15 minutes. Meanwhile cook the pasta in boiling salted water until al dente.

Add the vinegar and sugar to the tomato sauce and season well.

When cooked, drain the pasta, retaining about a ladelful of the water. Add the pasta to the sauce with the pasta water and continue to cook for another five minutes ensuring all the penne is nicely coated with the sauce. Check the seasoning again and serve in bowls topped with freshly grated parmesan, the parsley and a drizzle of good quality extra virgin olive oil.

Hello, and welcome to my blog — thanks for dropping in.

I’ll be doing my best to bring you interesting and informative ideas, recipes and tips as well as keeping you up to date on all things foodie.

To kick you off, here’s my fail-safe way to cook the perfect pork belly. This cut of meat has become quite trendy of late and has found its way on to many a fine restaurant’s menu — not surprisingly because it is a cheap cut that, if given a bit of love and the right treatment, is a real crowd-pleaser….

Twice cooked pork belly with Madeira jus

•    1kg pork belly. (get a good British rare breed, Gloucester Old Spot is my favourite)
•    1 leek
•    1 large onion
•    2 carrots
•    3 sticks of celery
•    100ml cheap balsamic vinegar
•    2 tbs fennel seeds crushed
•    2 tbs Maldon sea salt
•    500ml good quality cider (not White Lightning!)
•    1 litre good brown chicken/beef stock
•    100ml Madeira

Pre-heat oven to 150c

Roughly chop the veg and place in a deep roasting tray and pour over the cider and the balsamic vinegar.

If the ribs are still attached to the belly carefully remove them with a sharp knife (or get your butcher to do it for you) but keep them and put them to one side.

Crush the fennel seeds in a pestle and mortar with the sea salt.

With a stanley knife score the skin in a criss-cross fashion, about a centimetre apart. Place the ribs on top of the veg and the belly on top of that.

Boil a kettle and pour over the belly so the scores open. Continue pouring the boiling water over until it’s a centimetre below the skin. The boiling water will open up the scores you’ve made. Take the fennel seeds and salt and rub well into the skin.

Cover carefully with foil leaving no gaps and cook in the oven for 5 hours, topping up with water if necessary.

Remove the foil and cook for a further hour or until the skin is hard enough to ‘knock’.

Remove from the oven, leave to cool and then lift off the belly and discard the veg and bones
Put the belly in a fresh roasting tray and place another on top placing substantial weight on the belly (I use loads of books) and press the pork — ideally overnight. This forces out the excess fat that can be the off-putting thing about pork belly. When belly is pressed, portion with a bread knife into 8cms squares and refrigerate.

Make the Madeira jus buy reducing the stock and the Madeira by half and seasoning well. Adjust the flavour with honey if necessary. Keep warm.

When ready to cook place portions of pork belly in a roasting tray with an inch of good meat stock (to keep the meat moist) and cook in the oven for about 15 minutes on 180

To finish place pork under the grill until the skin ‘popcorns’ you’ll see what I mean — perfect crackling! Keep an eye on it though, don’t let it burn!

Serve on buttery mash or dauphinoise potatoes and veg of your choice. Pour over jus