Theo says: “These ricotta pancakes are light yet creamy at the same time and make for a decidedly luxurious brunch, especially when served with a deep purple cherry compote that contrasts in both flavour and colour. A glass of bubbly would not be inappropriate here and is, in fact, actively encouraged!”

Serves 4

Ingredients

• 200g ricotta cheese
• 200ml whole milk
• 2 eggs, separated
• 1 tsp freshly squeezed lemon juice
• 140g plain flour
• 1/2 tbsp baking powder
• 1 tbsp caster/granulated sugar
• butter, for shallow frying

For the cherry compote:

• 400g fresh cherries, destalked
• 30g caster sugar
• a squeeze of fresh lemon juice

Method

To make the cherry compote, stone each cherry by squashing it with the flat side of a knife until you hit the stone then rip open the cherry, remove the stone and chuck the cherry flesh straight into a saucepan as you go. Add the sugar, lemon juice and two tablespoons of cold water to the pan. Bring to a boil over a medium heat, then reduce to a simmer and cook for 10–15 minutes, until the liquid thickens and the cherries are soft, adding more water if it starts to catch during cooking. Spoon into a bowl, cover and set aside.

Put the ricotta, milk, egg yolks and lemon juice in a large bowl and mix until well combined. Combine the flour, baking powder and sugar and then fold into the ricotta mixture. Finally, loosen the egg whites with a fork, no need to whisk them, and fold into the ricotta mixture.

Heat a knob of butter in a frying pan set over a medium heat. Once it has melted pour in about half a ladleful of batter; this will make 10-cm/4-inch diameter pancakes, about 10–12 of them. Leave to cook for a few minutes, until you see bubbles appearing on the surface. This is your signal to flip the pancake over. Use a fish slice to do this and cook for a two to three minutes more. Once cooked remove from the pan. Repeat until all the batter has been used, keeping the pancakes warm in a low oven or on a plate and covered with foil as you go.

Stack the pancakes on serving plates, spoon over some of the Cherry Compote and serve warm. 

From Rustica by Theo Michaels (£16.99, Ryland Peters & Small), out now

Peter says: “It’s important for the cherries to be really sweet and ripe otherwise the highlights of this salad will be less noticeable, so save this dish for summer. I love the butteriness of macadamia nuts, but you could replace them with cashews, almonds or pine nuts. This also works well as a main course if you serve it with a poached chicken breast, steamed fish or thickly sliced grilled aubergine scattered with feta.”

Serves 6 as a starter at room temperature

Ingredients

• 300g cherries, pitted and halved
• 400g cherry tomatoes, halved
• 1 orange, peel and pith removed
• 2 heads fennel, trimmed (about 500g)
• 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
• 50g macadamia nuts, toasted
• ¼ tsp fennel seeds, lightly toasted
• 2 handfuls baby spinach leaves (or other salad leaves)
• 1 small handful coriander, leaves picked off and stalks thinly sliced

Method

Place the cherries and cherry tomatoes in a large bowl.

Cut the segments from the orange and cut each in half. Add to the cherries, along with the squeezed juice from the orange membrane.

Slice the fennel as thin as you can, crossways, and add to the cherries. Add the olive oil and ½ teaspoon of flaky salt.

Pound the macadamia nuts and fennel seeds roughly with a mortar and pestle.

To serve, add the spinach and coriander stalks to the cherry mixture and toss it all together. Put it all on a platter or divide among your plates and scatter with the crushed macadamia nuts and fennel seeds and the coriander leaves.   

From Savour: Salads For All Seasons by Peter Gordon (£25, Jacqui Small), out now

Reynold says: “I’ve matched this iconic flavour pairing with the iconic Aussie pavlova. Australian cherries with a smidge of coconut and chocolate … this is an epic summer dessert. The cherry reduction is an optional extra for those willing to go the extra mile.”

Ingredients

For the Dark chocolate crémeux:

• 150 ml (5 fl oz) full-cream milk
• 150 ml (5 fl oz) single (pure) cream 2 eggs
• 10 g (1⁄4 oz) caster (superfine) sugar 250 g (9 oz) 60–70% dark chocolate

For the Coconut pavlovas:

• 150g egg whites (about 4 egg whites, depending on the size of the eggs.)

• 300g caster sugar
• 10g cornflour 
• 50g desiccated coconut

For the cherry compote:

• 300g cherries, pitted
• 40g caster sugar 
• 150ml water
• 2 pinches of citric acid

For the cherry reduction:

• 300g cherries, pitted 
• 35g liquid glucose 
• Pinch of citric acid, or to taste

To serve:

• 10 cherries, pitted and halved 
• Desiccated coconut, for sprinkling

Method

Dark chocolate crémeux

Combine the milk and cream in a saucepan and bring to the boil.

Meanwhile, whisk the eggs and sugar in a heatproof bowl until fluffy. Whisk in the hot milk mixture, then pour the mixture back into the pan and cook until it reaches 83°C (181°F) on a sugar thermometer. Remove the pan from the heat.

Add the chocolate and whisk until melted and smooth. Strain the crémeux into a container and refrigerate overnight.

Coconut pavlovas

Preheat the oven to 100°C (200°F). Line a baking tray with baking paper.

Combine the egg whites and sugar in a mixer fitted with the whisk attachment. Whisk until medium peaks form. Sift the cornflour onto the mixture and whisk at full speed until stiff peaks form.

Transfer the meringue to a piping bag fitted with a 3cm (11⁄4 inch) round nozzle. Carefully pipe four large dollops of meringue onto the tray, about 7.5cm (3 inches) wide and 5cm (2 inches) high. (Alternatively, spoon the meringue onto the tray and shape it to the desired size.)

Lightly coating the tops of the meringues with coconut before and bake for 50 minutes or until slightly beige in colour. Remove the tray from the oven and allow the pavlovas to cool completely. Once cooled, gently poke a hole in the top of each one – the pavlovas should be hollow with a marshmallowy base.

Cherry compote

Combine the cherries, sugar, water and citric acid in a saucepan. Cook over medium heat until the cherries have broken down and the mixture has a jam-like consistency.

Transfer the compote to a container and refrigerate until needed.

Cherry reduction

Juice the cherries in a cold-press juicer. Strain the juice into a small saucepan, discarding the pulp. Add the glucose and citric acid to the cherry juice and cook over low heat until the liquid has reduced to a viscous sauce. Set aside to cool to room temperature.

Assembly

Transfer the chocolate crémeux to a piping bag and pipe it into the pavlovas until they are two-thirds full. Spoon the cherry compote on top. Garnish with the cherry halves, drizzle with cherry reduction and sprinkle with coconut. Serve immediately.

From The Dessert Game by Reynold Poernomo (£18.99, Murdoch Books), out now

Alice says: “Radicchio is one of those bitter leafies that really comes alive when it’s blasted with heat to burnish it, and then teamed with salty, sweet and tart flavours. I love the way that the bright orange zest and emerald-green chives play against the deep purple leaves of the radicchio – and dried sour cherry is such a sharp, syrupy addition to the red wine vinaigrette.”

Serves 6-8 as a side dish

Ingredients

• 2 heads of radicchio finely grated zest and
• juice of 1 orange
• 80ml red wine vinegar
• 40g dried sour cherries
• 200g haloumi, crumbled
• 45g capers (see tip)
• 80ml extra virgin olive oil, approximately
• ½ bunch of chives, finely chopped

Method

Preheat the oven to 220°C. Line a baking tray with baking paper.

Stand each radicchio on its base, then slash a medium-sized cross into the top of the leaves, deep enough to penetrate through the layers, but not so deep that they start to fall apart.

In a small saucepan, heat the orange juice and vinegar until just simmering, then add the dried cherries, mixing well, and stand for five minutes to soften.

Meanwhile, spread the haloumi and capers on a baking tray and drizzle with some of the olive oil.

Transfer to a lower shelf of the oven. Pop the slashed radicchio on a rack above the haloumi, then roast for 12–14 minutes, or until the leaves are very dark and almost burnt, and the haloumi is golden.

Remove the radicchio from the oven and pull at the slashes to separate the leaves a little further. Transfer to a plate or bowl.

Pour the cherry vinaigrette over and scatter with the haloumi crumb mixture, chives and orange zest. Give it all another glug of olive oil and serve.

Tip
If your capers are in brine, drain them well before baking. If using capers in salt, pop them in a colander and give them a quick spray with cold water to remove the salt, then shake off the excess water and drain these well, too.

Shortcut
You can also use a milder radicchio (such as the broader Chioggia) and tear the leaves into more of a salad, drizzling with olive oil, orange juice and red wine vinaigrette.

From In Praise of Veg by Alice Zaslavsky (£25, Murdoch Books), out now

José says: “Many customers and friends are surprised when they learn that gazpacho can be made with such a variety of things, having always thought that gazpacho is just made with tomatoes. And yes, the classic tomato gazpacho is the most popular and well-known, but we love to get creative with it. Gazpacho is essentially a cold soup that can be smooth or textured, thin or thick – you can even get a ‘partridge gazpacho’ (a truly yummy recipe, but probably one for my next book!). In my book Andalusia, I gave a recipe for strawberry gazpacho, because in Huelva the fruit is great. Here, in this lovely book about my home and home cooking, I’m making it with cherries, because I grew up with some of the best cherries in the world. They are a remarkably high-quality product of Jerte, just north of my home village in Spain.”

Serves 2

Ingredients

For the gazpacho:

• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 1 slice of stale white sourdough
• 2 garlic cloves, sliced
• 1 red pepper, deseeded and chopped
• 500g ripe red cherries, stoned
• ½ cucumber, peeled and diced
• 300ml tomato juice
• 2 tbsp sherry vinegar
• 4 tbsp extra virgin olive
• oil, plus 2 tbsp to emulsify

To top:

• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 1 thick slice of stale white sourdough, cut into small cubes
• 1 thyme sprig, leaves picked
• ½ small red onion, very finely chopped
• 50g goat’s cheese, crumbled
• ¼ cucumber, peeled and finely diced
• handful of fresh basil leaves
• extra virgin olive oil, for drizzling
• sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

Method

For the soup, heat the olive oil in a frying pan over a medium-high heat and fry the bread on both sides until golden. Put into a bowl with the rest of the gazpacho ingredients (except for the two tablespoons of oil) and allow to sit for a couple of hours.

For the topping, heat a little of the oil in a frying pan over a medium-high heat. Add the cubes of bread and the thyme and fry until you have golden croutons. Drain on a plate lined with paper towels and season.

Blitz the soup really well with a hand-held blender, then push it through a coarse sieve into a jug. Whisk in the two tablespoons extra virgin olive oil.

Pour into four bowls and top with all the toppings, along with a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil.

Tip
You can can roast the peppers if you’d like the soup to have a softer flavour.

From The Spanish Home Kitchen: Simple, Seasonal Recipes and Memories from My Home by José Pizarro (£27, Hardie Grant), out now