Theo says: “I’ve had an ongoing love affair with orzo for quite some time. Incredibly versatile, it’s a tiny pasta shaped like rice that can be used in so many ways. In this salad, it’s the juices from the roasted tomatoes that seep into the orzo and create a sumptuously smart dressing that works for me. Accessorized with pockets of melting feta, it not only looks the part, it also tastes great.”

Serves 2 as a main, 6 as a side dish

Ingredients

• 300g orzo pasta
• a handful of baby plum tomatoes
• a handful of fresh basil, torn
• 200g feta cheese, crumbled
• 2 tablespoons pine nut kernels, toasted
• finely grated zest and freshly squeezed juice of ½ lemon
• salt and freshly ground black pepper
• olive oil, for drizzling

Method

Preheat the oven to 180°C (360°F) Gas 4.

Simmer the orzo in plenty of boiling salted water for about 8 minutes or until just done – don’t overcook it. Drain, rinse under cold running water and tip into a large bowl. Drizzle over a little olive oil to stop the ‘grains’ sticking together and set aside.

While the orzo is cooking, halve the tomatoes, place in an ovenproof dish, drizzle with olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Roast in the preheated oven for about 10 minutes or until they just start to char.

Pour the roasted tomatoes, including any juices, into the bowl with the cooked orzo, then add the torn basil, crumbled feta and a generous hit of ground black pepper.

Finish dressing the orzo with another drizzle of olive oil, then add the toasted pine nuts and lemon zest and juice – taste while you are adding this as you need only a touch of lemon juice.

Theo says: “When my brothers and I were kids, my mum would make pastitsio – a Cypriot speciality, delicious served warm from the oven, or as a cold meze, cut into cubes. Her recipe called for a simple mix of cooked pasta tubes, minced pork and parsley, sometimes with a hint of ground cinnamon, all topped with a white sauce before being baked in the oven. There was always some left over pasta and mince at the halfway stage that we would scoff down in a shot, so this recipe pays homage to that. While I was working on developing the recipes for this book, my children, Eva, Lex and Luca made the best tasters, and this particular idea passed with flying colours. And I completely understand why…”

Serves 4

Ingredients

• 2 large onions, finely diced
• 350g minced pork
• 1 cinnamon stick, about 7.5 cm/3 inches long
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• a handful of freshly chopped flat-leaf parsley
• 400g dried spaghetti pasta
• 1 stock cube (meat or vegetable)
• salt and freshly ground black pepper
• olive oil, for cooking and drizzling
• sea salt flakes, to garnish

Method

Pour enough olive oil into a frying pan to just cover the base and then gently fry the onions on a low heat. You need to take some time with the onions, you want to cook them slowly so they release their sugars and gently caramelize without burning, so this will take about 10 minutes. Once the onions are done, remove them from the pan and reserve.

In the same pan, add the minced pork and cinnamon stick and fry on a high heat until the mince is cooked through and just starting to caramelize. Once the pork is cooked through and some of it starts to look crispy, turn the heat down a little and reintroduce the onions to the pan, followed by the ground cinnamon, a generous amount of salt and pepper and the chopped parsley. Fold it all together and if the pasta isn’t ready yet, turn off the heat.

Cook the pasta in boiling water according to the packet instructions, but with the addition of the stock cube. Once the pasta is cooked, drain it, reserving a little of the cooking water. Add the pasta to the minced pork pan with a few tablespoons of the cooking liquid and be sure to scrape the bottom of the pan to release all the sticky dark bits into the sauce.

Simmer the pasta in with the pork until the liquid has almost all evaporated, leaving just a silky coating to the pasta – this is a dry dish, so don’t expect a ragú.

Serve dressed with a drizzle of olive oil and a pinch of sea salt flakes.

Theo says: “Just the thought of seafood and ouzo, and I am sitting in a beach taverna with my feet in the sand listening to the sound of the waves crashing in the distance. This is a humble dish – a bit of pasta, a bit of seafood, a bit of ouzo.

“But put them together with a little love and an extra dash of this and that, you’ll create a dish worth salivating over. I like this recipe because of its humble origins, not despite them. It simply capitalizes on great flavours working together.”

Serves 4

Ingredients

• 300g dried linguine pasta
• 80ml olive oil, plus extra for drizzling
• 6 garlic cloves, peeled and sliced
• 12 baby plum tomatoes, halved lengthways
• a splash of white wine
• 20 king prawns
• 12 clams, washed and cleaned
• 4 small squid, each sliced into 4
• 50ml ouzo
• a handful of freshly chopped flat-leaf parsley
• a pinch of dried chilli pepper flakes
• salt and freshly ground black pepper

Method

Cook the pasta in salted boiling water according to the packet instructions until al dente.

Meanwhile, heat the olive oil in a pan, add the garlic and fry for a couple of minutes, not letting the garlic change colour. Add the tomatoes and white wine, and simmer for 5 minutes until the tomatoes have softened and the wine has reduced.

Add all the seafood, cover with a lid and cook for a few minutes until the prawns have changed colour and the clams have opened.

Finally, add the ouzo and a few turns of a pepper mill. Simmer for a couple of minutes to burn off the alcohol, then remove from the heat.

Once the pasta is al dente, drain and add the pasta to the seafood, including a couple of tablespoons of the cooking water and half the chopped parsley. Heat the pasta and sauce together for a couple of minutes, then remove from the heat and rest for a few moments.

Pour the finished pasta onto a large platter, scatter with the chilli flakes, the remaining chopped parsley, a pinch of salt and a drizzle of olive oil.

Tip: This recipe works terrifically as a quick mid-week meal, cheating with a ready-to-use pack of mixed seafood. Alternatively, transform this into something extravagant and sophisticated by adding some seared scallops, langoustines or any other of your favourite shellfish.