7 Spread the broad bean purée over the base of a serving dish, then layer the chard or chicory and onions on top. Drizzle with extra virgin olive oil and finish with black pepper.
Swiss chard with butter, Parmesan and baked eggs
An egg and anything interesting that you have in the fridge is a really good meal. If I am at home by myself I love a fried egg; there is something very comforting about it, cooked slowly in a little bit of salted butter in a non-stick pan, so you really taste the flavour of the eggs – I am not a fan of eggs that have been fried hard and turn brown and crispy around the edges.
Lately I have a penchant for the breakfast made for me by Willie Harcourt-Cooze, who supplies us with his single-estate chocolate: fried egg and smashed avocado on toasted bread, with a little chilli, salt, and some bitter cacao shaved over the top. It has become my favourite thing. And in a way this very straightforward combination of baked egg, Swiss chard and Parmesan touches the same comfort zone. I always think it is a good dish for kids who are not keen on vegetables, because Swiss chard is not known for its huge flavour. It has a sweetness that counteracts the overly bitter edge that other leaves can have, and the umami action of the Parmesan really helps to bring the elements together and makes the combination so delicious – but if you can’t find chard, you can substitute fresh, or even frozen, spinach.
100g of Parmesan is great, but if you have 125g that is even better. And if you have an aged Parmesan of 24–36 months, which will have more depth of flavour, that’s better still.
Serves 6
Swiss chard 1.5kg
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
butter 50g
eggs 6
Parmesan 100g, grated
1 Preheat the oven to 180°C/gas 4.
2 Cut the stalks from the chard leaves. Blanch the stalks first in boiling salted water for 3 minutes, then add the leaves for a further 2 minutes. Drain, squeezing out the excess water with your hands.
3 Melt the butter in a pan, add the chard, season and toss in the butter briefly, then lift out into an ovenproof dish. Break the eggs on top, season, sprinkle with the Parmesan and put into the preheated oven for about 8–10 minutes, until the whites of the eggs are cooked but the yolks are still soft and the Parmesan is golden.
4 Take out of the oven and serve straight away.
Aubergines x 4
I can’t think of many ingredients that captivate me in the way that aubergines do. They are so much a part of Italian culture, but over and above the beauty of their many colours – which go from marbled cream and violet to inky purple – I love the aubergine’s great capacity to transform itself and agree with flavours and ideas from other cultures. In all the years I have been cooking, the aubergine has surprised me many, many times, and I know that, when I am not expecting it, it will happen again. What is special is that sponginess of texture that you can use to great advantage to absorb other flavours, which, in turn, enhance the slightly bitter flavour of the aubergine, rather than obscuring it.
My first real aubergine revelation, many years ago, was caponata, that Sicilian explosion of sweet and sour vegetables. Then in a fantastic Turkish restaurant in North London, I watched the chef/owner bury a whole aubergine in the ash of a fire pit, so it was protected all around and the skin didn’t touch any direct heat. He left it for about 10 minutes then held it upright by its little stalk, peeled it and roughly chopped it with spring onions, seasoned it with lemon juice and salt and pepper and it was so delicious: fresh, yet smoky. I have done the same thing many times since in the summer, burying the aubergines in the ashes of a barbecue. And one of my latest favourite ways to eat aubergine is roasted, covered with miso paste.
It is easy to forget that aubergines have a season, which in the Mediterranean lasts through the summer to autumn. A medium-sized aubergine that is perfectly ripe has a great freshness about it, whereas the older and bigger the fruit, the more bitter it becomes.
To prepare the aubergines for each recipe (apart from the caviar), slice them crossways into 1cm-thick slices. Sprinkle with sea salt and put into a colander to drain for 2 hours to remove some of their bitterness, then rinse and pat dry.
Each recipe overleaf makes enough for 6.
Char-grilled and marinated
This can be a starter or side dish with grilled or roast meat. If you are having a barbecue, you can put the aubergines on the grill first, and have them marinating, while cooking the meat.
1 Prepare 3 aubergines as here, season with sea salt and freshly ground black pepper, drizzle with olive oil and put on a griddle pan (or barbecue) until the flesh is soft and the skin is marked on both sides (alternatively you can pan-fry them in a non-stick pan with no olive oil over a very low heat until they dry out and become light golden), then lay the slices in a serving dish.
2 With a pestle and mortar, make a marinade by crushing 2 cloves of garlic to a paste, then adding 4 anchovy fillets (drained of their oil) and 20 fresh mint leaves.
3 Continue to pound the ingredients, adding a chopped hot red chilli and 2 pinches of dried oregano, and finally 4 tablespoons of white wine vinegar and 4 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil.
4 Pour the marinade over the aubergine slices. You can eat them straight away, but they are better kept in the fridge overnight, so that the aubergines really absorb the flavours.
Caviar
This is good as a starter, cooled and spread on bruschetta, or served hot with lamb (you can add some chopped mint at the end).
1 Preheat the oven to 180°C/gas 4.
2 Take 3 large aubergines and cut them in half lengthways, but keep them in pairs.
3 Lay a sprig of rosemary and a slightly crushed clove of garlic over one half of each aubergine. Sprinkle with a little sea salt, then put the halves back together and wrap in foil.
4 Bake in the preheated oven for around 1½ hours, until the aubergines feel soft to the touch.
5 Take out of the oven, discard the rosemary and garlic, scoop out the aubergine flesh and roughly chop it.
6 Heat some olive oil in a large sauté pan, add around 10 finely chopped spring onions and cook them gently until just soft, then add the aubergine and cook until the flesh begins to dry out.
7 Add a tablespoon of tomato purée and cook for another 5 minutes. Taste and season.
Parmigiana
This is a meal in itself, like a lasagne but with aubergine instead of pasta. You need around 1.5 litres of tomato passata and around 300g of Parmesan. Some people like to add mozzarella (you will need 2 x 120g) and chopped cooked ham (around 5 slices), but these are optional.
1 Preheat the oven to 180°C/gas 4.
2 Take about 7 aubergines, prepared as here. Either pan-fry the slices in olive oil (the traditional way) or grill them, brushed with a little oil. If you have fried them, drain them on kitchen paper before assembling.
3 Start by spreading a ladleful of tomato passata thinly over the base of a deep oven dish (this layer should