Georgina says: “I’m not very on top of things like social media. I’m hopeless at jumping on bandwagons, always late to the party, trend-wise. However, one thing I did share on social media several years ago now, was my method for scoring and grilling a whole block of halloumi with apricots – it took off. I’d never seen halloumi cooked this way before, and now it’s being recreated far and wide and I do feel a bit proud. While the flavour combination is a family standard, I attribute using the whole block to my dear friend Iain, who would eat an entire block of halloumi in one sitting, because ‘it looked like a chicken breast’. I thought, well, why can’t it be treated like a chicken breast or any other form of protein…? Score, season and grill! Iain, this one’s for you.”

Serves 2–4 (or 1 Iain)

Ingredients

• 1 x 250g piece of halloumi
• Olive oil
• 4 apricots
• 2 tablespoons honey
• A few sprigs of oregano or thyme

Method

Preheat your grill to medium-high. Carefully score the top of your halloumi in a criss-cross pattern — don’t cut too deep, you want to keep it intact. Rub the cheese with olive oil, in between the cuts, too. Halve the apricots, remove the stones, and halve again into quarters. Place the halloumi in a snug dish (ideally metal) and nestle around the apricots, drizzling them with olive oil, too.

Pop under the grill, not too close, and grill for 8–10 minutes, so that the fruit starts to caramelise and the halloumi is tender and charred on top. The success of this recipe depends on having the right distance from the grill and heat, so check a few minutes into cooking and see if you need to raise the temperature or lower the grill bars. It’s quite a forgiving technique, so take your time and see what works with your grill. When the halloumi is ready, drizzle with honey and scatter over the thyme or oregano. Serve immediately.

Georgina says: “Riganada is a popular Kefalonian snack, and you’ll find variations of it across Greece — it’s not dissimilar to the more well-known dakos from Crete. It is usually a piece of stale bread, toast or a rusk, that is topped with seasoned tomatoes and a variety of extras including capers, olives, sardines or feta. It will always include lots of oregano, for which the Greek work is rigani, hence the name. This tart is my riff on this dish. I like to prepare it ahead of having people round. It’s simple and meditative to make (lining up those tomato rows) and it is exactly the kind of thing I want to snack on when having a drink — satisfyingly salty.”

Serves 8 as a snack

Ingredients

• 400g ripe vine tomatoes
• Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 1 red onion
• 500g puff pastry
• 1 large egg
• 30g anchovies or sardines, in oil (or capers for a vegetarian version)
• 1 teaspoon dried oregano
• Olive oil (optional)
• A few sprigs of oregano or basil

Method

Preheat the oven to 210°C/190°C fan/gas mark 6½ and line a baking sheet with greaseproof paper. Finely slice the tomatoes with a sharp knife (I find a small serrated knife is best), so they are less than 5mm thick. Place in a large colander and toss the tomato slices with ó teaspoon of sea salt.

Leave the colander in the sink. Peel and finely slice the red onion. Roll the puff pastry into a rectangle, about 32cm × 25cm, and score a border 2cm from the edge. Transfer to the lined baking sheet.

Whisk the egg with a splash of water and brush the border of the pastry twice. Lay three or four rows of the sliced tomatoes inside the pastry border, nestling in slices of onion as you go. When it’s all done, lay on the anchovies or capers. Sprinkle over the dried oregano and drizzle with

two tablespoons of the oil from the anchovy tin or jar (or use olive oil). Pop the tray in the oven for 25—30 minutes, until the border is golden all over and nicely risen. Leave the tart to cool, then tear over the oregano or basil leaves and cut into thin slices. Serve at aperitivo time — basically, this is really nice with a glass of something very cold and a bit fizzy.

Georgina says: “When I started writing this book, I set myself a challenge: to make much-loved Greek dishes more achievable. To be fair, a lot of our recipes are pretty straightforward, but one request that came up time and again is pastitsio (or as Cypriots call it, makaronia tou fournou). Pastitsio isn’t particularly tricky, but it is laborious. There’s the slow-cooked ragu, the cooked pasta, and then a béchamel. How can we strip this back? By making the whole thing using only one pan. You read that right. One. Pan. Ragu, pasta and sauce. Of course, it’s not the same as classic pastitsio in terms of layers and drama. But I think it has its own dramatic appeal; the whole thing is cooked in a large frying pan and that looks pretty epic.”

Serves 4

Ingredients

• Olive oil
• 500g mince — ideally beef, perhaps some pork too
• Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 2 onions
• 4 garlic cloves
• 1 teaspoon dried oregano, plus a pinch
• ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 2 tablespoons tomato purée
• 250g pastitsio pasta, bucatini or even penne (gluten-free if needed)
• 1 litre beef stock
• 300ml crème fraîche
• 2 egg yolks
• 100g graviera, kefalotyri or pecorino

Method

You’ll need a wide, deep frying pan for this dish. If you don’t have one you confidently think will fit all the ingredients then make it in a large saucepan. Place your pan on a high heat and drizzle in a good few tablespoons of olive oil. Add the mince to the pan, and break it up well with a wooden spoon. Season generously, and fry for 5–8 minutes, so that any liquid evaporates and the mince starts crisp. Meanwhile, peel and finely chop the onions and garlic. When the mince has started to brown,

stir them in with the oregano and cinnamon. Fry for a further 5 minutes, reducing the heat a little, stirring everything together (add a touch extra olive oil if it looks dry). Stir in the tomato purée, fry off for a minute or two, then add the pasta to the pan. If you are using traditional pastitsio pasta or bucatini you may need to snap some of the pieces in half to fit them all in. It’ll be snug in the pan, but try to fit them all. Pour over the beef stock, season and bring to the boil. Cover the pan, reduce the heat to low and simmer for 20 minutes, stirring once or twice.

While the pasta is cooking, mix together the crème fraîche and egg yolks. Finely grate the cheese and stir in most of it with a generous pinch of salt and pepper. When your pasta is ready, turn your grill to high. Gently toss the pasta and sauce in the pan together, trying not to disturb it too much. Spoon the crème fraîche mixture over the top and sprinkle with the remaining grated cheese, plus an additional pinch of dried oregano. Place under the grill, not too close to the bars, and grill for 3–5 minutes, until golden and bubbling on top. Keep an eye on it as how long it takes will depend on the strength of your grill. Remove and leave to stand for at least 5–10 minutes before serving.