Serves 4-6

Ingredients:

  • 2 tbsp Simply Better Extra Virgin Olive Oil
  • 1 carrot, diced
  • 1 celery stick, trimmed and diced
  • 2 garlic cloves, crushed
  • 1 x 428g Jar of Simply Better Italian Tomato & Basil Pasta Sauce
  • 1 tbsp tomato purée
  • 600ml vegetable stock
  • 100g fine green beans, cut into 3cm pieces
  • 120g Simply Better Italian Bronze Die Spaghetti, broken up into short pieces
  • 1 x 400g butterbeans, drained & rinsed
  • 1 tbsp fresh basil, shredded
  • 1 tbsp Simply Better Italian Pesto Alla Genove
  • sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

Method:

Heat the rapeseed oil in a large pot and add the carrot, celery and garlic.
Sauté for 5 minutes, until softened but not brown.
Stir in the tomato sauce, tomato purée and vegetable stock and stir
Add the broken spaghetti pieces
Bring to the boil and then reduce to a simmer for 10-15 minutes, until the liquid has slightly reduced, and the vegetables are tender.
Once the pasta is cooked add in the fine green beans & stir to combine
Stir in the basil then season to taste with sea salt & freshly ground black pepper and cook for another minute or two, until the beans are just tender.
Ladle into a bowl & spoon over some fresh basil pesto

Serve with sourdough bread, if desired

Sweet potato soup with ginger and coconut

Coconut milk has to be one of my favourite ingredients. It makes a fantastic creamy base for all the other robust flavours in this Asian-style soup and the sweet potatoes give it a vibrant orange colour.

SERVES 4–6

  • 450g (1lb) sweet potatoes, peeled
  • and cut into cubes
  • 2 tbsp sunflower or rapeseed oil
  • 1 onion, finely chopped
  • 1 leek, finely chopped
  • 1 lemongrass stalk, trimmed
  • and halved
  • ½ red chilli, deseeded and
  • finely chopped
  • 1 tsp freshly grated root ginger
  • 1.2 litres (2 pints) chicken or
  • vegetable stock (page 434 or 437)
  • 1 tbsp tomato purée
  • 250ml (9fl oz) coconut milk
  • sea salt and freshly ground
  • black pepper
  • toasted pumpkin seeds, to garnish
  • 4–6 fresh basil leaves, to garnish

1 Preheat the oven to 200°C (400°F/gas mark 6).

2 Place the sweet potatoes in a baking tin, drizzle over 1 tablespoon of the oil and roast for 20–30 minutes, until tender. Set aside.

3 Heat the remaining oil in a large pan. Add the onion, leek, lemongrass, chilli and ginger and sweat for 4 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add the reserved roasted sweet potatoes with the stock and tomato purée, then bring to the boil, stirring. Reduce the heat and simmer for 10 minutes, until the liquid has slightly reduced and all the vegetables are completely tender.

4 Pour the coconut milk into the pan and cook for another 5 minutes, stirring constantly. Season to taste. Remove the pieces of lemongrass, then blitz with a hand blender until smooth.

5 Ladle the soup into warmed bowls and scatter over the toasted pumpkin seeds, then tear the basil leaves into small pieces to use as a garnish. Serve immediately.

Brown wheaten bread

This is the first thing we make every morning at the restaurant so that the guests who have stayed overnight wake up to the smell of freshly baked bread wafting around the house. It is delicious sprinkled with a couple tablespoons of sesame seeds or sunflower seeds before baking. If you don't have any buttermilk in the house, you can easily sour ordinary milk with the juice of a lemon.

MAKES 2 X 450G (1LB) LOAVES

  • rapeseed oil for greasing
  • 450g (1lb) strong white flour, plus extra for dusting
  • 450g (1lb) wholemeal flour
  • 1 tbsp light brown sugar
  • 2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
  • 2 tsp fine salt
  • 4 tsp melted butter, plus extra for spreading to serve
  • 600ml (1 pint) buttermilk, plus extra if needed
  • 3 tbsp sunflower seeds
  • 1 tbsp golden syrup
  • handful of porridge oats
  • 1 tbsp pumpkin seeds
  • 1 tbsp sesame seeds

1 Preheat the oven to 200°C (400°F/gas mark 6). Lightly oil 2 x 600ml (1 pint) loaf tins.

2 Sift the flours into a large bowl, then stir in the brown sugar, bicarbonate of soda and salt. Make a well in the centre and add the melted butter, buttermilk, sunflower seeds and golden syrup. Using a large spoon, mix gently and quickly until you have achieved a nice dropping consistency. Add a little bit more buttermilk if necessary, until the dough binds together without being sloppy.

3 Divide the mixture equally between the prepared loaf tins and sprinkle over the porridge oats, pumpkin seeds and sesame seeds. Bake for 40 minutes, until cooked through and each loaf has a slightly cracked, crusty top, checking halfway through the cooking time to make sure that the loaves aren’t browning too much. If they are, reduce the temperature or move the loaves down in the oven. 4 To check that the loaves are properly cooked, tip each one out of the tin and tap the base – it should sound hollow. If it doesn’t, return it to the oven for another 5 minutes. Tip out onto a wire rack and leave to cool completely.

5 To serve, place the brown wheaten bread on a breadboard and cut into slices at the table. Hand around with a separate pot of butter for spreading.