Credit: Lizzie Mayson
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Tucking In: 3 weeknight meals to make this summer (no matter what the weather’s doing)
9 months ago
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8 min read
Come rain or shine, these simple and comforting recipes are sure to please this summer.
You don’t need us to tell you that the weather so far this summer has been far from perfect. Grey skies, stubborn winds and temperatures barely above 15ºC are far from the start to June that we imagined, but with sunnier skies (hopefully) on the cards this week, we’re all too ready to have a roster of picnic food, barbecues and summer salads on heavy rotation.
Credit: Ebury Press; Lizzie Mayson
When the weather does inevitably change (or on those days when we get all four seasons in one), it’s a good idea to have some recipes up your sleeve that work no matter what it happens to be doing outside. Whether the sun is shining or it’s feeling more like the start of autumn rather than the beginning of summer, we’re sharing three recipes from cook and recipe writer Sophie Wyburd’s debut cookbook, Tucking In, that are sure to satisfy.
Having trained at the famed Leith’s Cookery School and after working with cult food and recipe platform Mob for several years, Sophie well and truly knows what kind of food we all want to be eating – and it’s evident in her book. With a focus on comfort food, the recipes are simple and hearty, working for everything from a Wednesday night after work to having friends round at the weekend, come rain or shine.
Harissa-braised cod and giant couscous
Sophie says: “This is a dish I first cooked at my friend Tom’s family house in Devon. We’d spent a scorcher of a day stomping along the cliffs, swimming in the sea and eating sandwiches while wrapped up in our beach towels. I cooked this dish for dinner with veg from the garden when we got home, and our salty skin and rosy cheeks were nourished by steaming bowls of soft white fish poached in a lightly spiced tomato broth. It’s a simple one to rustle up on a summer’s evening, and would be equally soul-soothing in the depths of winter – although you may want to swap out the fresh cherry tomatoes for tinned ones in this instance.”
Serves 4
Cook time: 40 minutes
Ingredients
- 1 large onion
- 1 red pepper
- 4 garlic cloves
- 400g cherry tomatoes
- 1 tsp ground cumin
- 1 tsp ground coriander
- ½ tsp ground cinnamon
- 2 tbsp rose harissa paste
- 400ml vegetable stock
- 225g giant couscous
- 600g cod loin
- small bunch of parsley
- 1 lemon
- salt, pepper and olive oil
Method
Peel, halve and finely slice your onion. Finely slice your red pepper too, discarding all the seeds and the stem.
Heat 4 tablespoons of olive oil in a large sauté pan over a medium heat. Add the onion and pepper, and cook for 15–20 minutes until really soft.
While the onion and pepper are cooking, peel and finely chop your garlic. Halve your cherry tomatoes.
Add the garlic to the pan, along with the ground spices, and cook for 2 minutes until fragrant. Tip your cherry tomatoes into the pan and squish them up a bit with your spoon. Cook for 5 minutes until they are nice and jammy, then add the harissa paste and vegetable stock, and bring the mixture to a simmer. Season with ½ teaspoon of salt, reduce the heat to low and leave to simmer gently while you prep the rest.
Bring a medium-sized saucepan of water to a boil. Add the couscous and simmer for 8 minutes until tender.
Meanwhile, cut your cod loin into large chunks, about 5cm big. Nestle these fish chunks into your sauté pan with all the veg, then reduce the heat to low. Pop a lid on the pan and let it gently poach for 7–8 minutes. The fish should turn opaque and easily flake when it is cooked, but you don’t want the pieces to fall apart too much.
While the fish is cooking, roughly chop the parsley and cut the lemon into wedges.
Once your fish is cooked, drain the couscous and tip this into the pan around the fish, then season the broth to taste. Ladle everything into bowls, then scatter with the chopped parsley. Serve with lemon wedges for squeezing.
Chicken and ricotta meatballs with green spaghetti
Sophie says: “Red sauce has dominated the meatball market for too long, and I say enough’s enough. Okay, I also love the classic tomato sauce and polpette combo, but there is something lighter and fresher about this version that I sometimes prefer. The leanness of chicken mince enriched with milky ricotta and Parmesan creates an impossibly tender little thing to stab with your fork and twirl around in a silky green spaghetti skirt. Maybe you’ll twirl around the kitchen a little, you’ll like it that much. The meatballs can be prepared a day in advance, so you can whip this up in no time.”
Serves 4
Cook time: 35 minutes, plus resting
Ingredients
- 400g skinless chicken thigh fillets
- zest and juice of ½ lemon
- 250g ricotta
- ½ small bunch of parsley
- 70g fresh white breadcrumbs
- 80g parmesan, plus 20g for sprinkling
- 100g watercress
- small bunch of basil
- 50g sunflower seeds
- 1 garlic clove
- 400g spaghetti
- salt, pepper and olive oil
Method
Chop your chicken thigh fillets into pieces, then add these to a food processor. Add the lemon zest and 120g of the ricotta, as well as 1 teaspoon of salt and 15 twists of black pepper. Pulse until you have a smooth paste. Grate in 30g of your Parmesan, then finely chop your parsley and add this too, as well as your breadcrumbs. Give it a stir so it’s all combined.
Roll your mixture into 12 even-sized balls. Pop these on a tray, and place them in the fridge for 15 minutes to firm up.
Meanwhile, give your food processor a clean, then move on to making your pesto. In the food processor, combine the watercress, basil, sunflower seeds, peeled garlic clove and remaining 50g of parmesan. Whizz it up to form a smooth green paste, then drizzle in 50ml of olive oil so that you have a smooth sauce. Add the lemon juice and the remaining ricotta, pulse the machine briefly, then season to taste with salt.
Bring a large saucepan filled with water to the boil, and season it with salt as though it were a soup you were about to eat.
Heat 2 tablespoons of olive oil in a large sauté pan over a medium heat. Add your meatballs to the pan and cook for about 10 minutes, turning them frequently so that they cook evenly and take on some colour on the outside.
Meanwhile, add your spaghetti to the pan of boiling water. Cook your pasta for a couple of minutes less than the packet instructions require, or until it is just al dente.
Once it’s cooked, tong your spaghetti directly into the meatball pan, along with a ladleful of the pasta cooking water. Add your pesto to the pan, and give it a good toss so that each strand of spaghetti is coated in the green sauce. Add as much pasta water as you need to get the sauce glossy. Adjust the seasoning if needed.
Divide the spaghetti and meatballs between plates, and serve it up with a little extra parmesan.
Chipotle tomatoes with white beans and feta
Sophie says: “Bean-based meals are a staple of my midweek life. They provide a perfect blank canvas for loads of flavours and ingredients, depending on the season and my mood. This is a dreamy way to eat them in the summer months. Sweet little tomatoes are the belle of the season: delicious on their own, but also capable of holding some pretty bold flavours, like the smoky chipotle paste here. Onions are a waste of space when not properly cooked – if they’re crunchy and raw in the middle, yet slightly burnt on the outside, they add nothing. By adding splashes of water to the pan, you can speed up what can be a tedious process, and get dinner on the table quicker.”
Serves 2
Cook time: 25 minutes
Ingredients
- 1 large red onion
- 3 garlic cloves
- 250g cherry tomatoes on the vine
- juice of 1 lime
- 1 tsp cumin seeds
- 400g tin of cannellini beans
- 1 tbsp sour cream
- 1 tsp chipotle paste (I like the Gran Luchito one)
- ½ small bunch of coriander
- 50g feta
- salt, pepper and olive oil
Method
Peel and finely slice your onion and garlic, then halve your cherry tomatoes.
Add a quarter of your sliced onions to a small bowl. Squeeze over half the lime juice, as well as ½ teaspoon of salt, then scrunch them up to lightly pickle them.
Heat 2 tablespoons of olive oil in a frying pan over a medium heat. Tip in your cumin seeds and toast them for 1 minute until fragrant.
Add the remaining sliced onions to the pan, and fry for 15 minutes until they have totally softened. If it looks like they are catching on the bottom of the ban, add a little splash of water – this will help to steam and soften them.
Drain your cannellini beans and give them a rinse. In a separate frying pan, heat 2 tablespoons of olive oil over a medium heat. Add half the garlic and fry for a minute until fragrant, but don’t let it brown.
Tip in your drained cannellini beans, along with 100ml water, and bring the mixture to a gentle simmer. Cook for 5 minutes, squishing about half the beans down with your wooden spoon as you go to create a creamy texture. Add the sour cream, then season the beans to taste with salt and 10 twists of pepper. Set aside and keep warm.
Once your onions are soft, add the remaining garlic to the pan. Cook for 1 minute, then tip in the cherry tomatoes. Fry for 5 minutes, bursting a few of the tomatoes with the back of your spoon to get it nice and saucy.
Squeeze in the remaining lime juice, then stir in the chipotle paste. Season to taste with salt. Roughly chop the coriander.
Spoon your cannellini beans into bowls, then top with your saucy tomatoes. Crumble over some feta, and sprinkle on your pickled onions and chopped coriander to serve.
Tucking In: A Very Comforting Cookbook by Sophie Wyburd (Ebury Press, £22) is out now
Photography: Lizzie Mayson
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