Nigel Slater’s linguine with nduja and tomatoes recipe

The recipe

Bring a deep pan of water to the boil, salt it, then add 250g linguine and cook it for 8 or 9 minutes, until the pasta is tender.

While the linguine cooks, make the sauce: in a shallow pan – one to which nothing will stick – warm 140g of nduja over a moderate heat, stirring it regularly.

Slice 300g of cherry tomatoes in half then fold them into the warm nduja and continue cooking. Stir in 30g of cornichons, sliced in half lengthways, and 2 tsp of capers.

Leave to cook for 3 or 4 minutes until the tomatoes have started to give up some their juice. Then stir in 2 tbsp of olive oil.

Drain the linguine, then toss it with the sauce, folding the spiced tomatoes through the pasta.

The trick

The nduja sauce is very spicy. If you feel the need to tone down its heat, simply stir in more tomatoes, halved or crushed or as you serve the dish, and fold in a spoonful of yogurt or cream.

Nduja burns easily, so keep the heat moderate while it warms, and stir regularly to prevent it from scorching.

The twist

Instead of using pasta, the spiced tomato sauce can be spooned on to thick toast or bruschetta. Top the toast with a soft goat’s cheese, or a spoonful of goat’s curd or mascarpone. It is also good as a dressing for vegetables, such as baked courgettes, pumpkin or potatoes.

How You Can Help Save Local Kids From Going Hungry This Summer

For many children, summer vacation evokes images of their favorite foods: backyard barbecues, fresh farmer’s market produce, s’mores by the campfire and frozen delights from the ice cream truck. However, for the 13 million children in America living in food-insecure households — homes lacking the adequate resources to purchase the food needed for an active, healthy lifestyle — summer vacation offers less relief than it does hunger and uncertainty. During the school year, free or reduced-price school meal programs often serve as the front line of defense against food insecurity for millions of children. But when school is out, the overwhelming majority of these children lose access to this assistance, and their rates of food insecurity increase.

Childhood food insecurity is a tangible problem for millions of families throughout the country — in suburbs, exurbs, small towns, and urban centers from coast to coast. As of 2015, over one in six American children lived in households with food insecurity, and in five states the rate surpasses one in four. Despite steady declines since the depths of the Great Recession, these rates remain unconscionably high.

Fortunately, some students continue to have access to school lunches in the summer, through summer school programs or year-round schooling. Others may benefit from additional U.S. Department of Agriculture–funded programs run by local organizations (such as the YMCA, Boys & Girls Clubs, churches, schools and parks) aimed at feeding children when school is out of session. Last summer, over three million children received lunch through these critical summer food service programs. And in some areas, the USDA has offered a summer-only program, awarding electronic voucher benefits of $30–60 per month per child that can be used to purchase food in grocery stores. Research has shown that increasing food benefits is a particularly effective method to combat food insecurity among families.

Nevertheless, while these USDA initiatives and community-based programs provide a much-needed lifeline for some children and their families, they serve only 15 out of every 100 children who receive free or reduced price lunches during the school year. These programs have also often been unable to reach their full potential due to factors including burdensome regulations imposed by USDA (such as certifying that all meals meet USDA nutrition standards) and limited access in rural and suburban areas due to lack of transportation for children, which deters many organizations from creating or expanding summer meals programs.

The good news is that there are actionable steps you can take to reduce the indignity of childhood hunger in your local community — which do not require much time, energy or resources (unless you would like them to).

First, know what’s already in your area. The USDA has a summer meal program locator, which tells you where your region’s summer meals programs are located. Then, spread the word. Share it on Facebook and other social media. Speak about it with other families at camps or daycare or, really, anywhere. Too often, a lack of awareness about existing summer meal programs currently available can prevent kids from accessing the nutrition they need.

Next, build more. Encourage both public and private organizations in your area — libraries, parks and recreation departments, tutoring programs, religious congregations, athletic leagues — to open their doors and offer meals programs to children this summer. Talk for a few minutes after the next meeting with the leaders you know. There are plenty of obvious benefits: Comprehensive and enriching summer programs will help meet the needs of kids and families, reduce summer learning loss, improve health and keep children safe and out of trouble. The cost of providing summer programs to kids is reduced when USDA funding for food is there to help defray costs.

Then, expand your reach. Write a letter (not a tweet) to your Congressional representatives to advocate for funding for comprehensive and enriching summer programs. If this fails: Try writing an opinion-editorial for a regional newspaper in your Congressperson’s area. While there is currently funding available for summer meals, there is not adequate funding to support summer enrichment programs at which children can also be fed — and President Trump’s proposed budget calls for even greater reductions to summer enrichment programs. This is problematic because although some cities (such as Seattle) are able to serve children free meals in enriching, summer day camp settings — made possible by USDA support for meals, coupled with local government and philanthropic funding — many others (including Washington, D.C.) lack the funding to offer enriching activities to accompany their summer meal programs. Fortunately, Congress has the power to make it easier for rural and suburban organizations to adopt and grow these programs, by funding transportation to summer feeding sites and expanding the summer food voucher program so more families can purchase additional groceries for their children during the summer.

All the while, keep it simple. Donate food, money or a few hours of your time to your local food bank and the other community organizations already working hard to feed kids this summer. Even better, organize a group of friends and go.Our nation’s children deserve to experience summer breaks filled with fun, not hunger pangs. In order to make this a reality, all of us — from private citizens to community organizations to our nation’s leaders in Washington, D.C. — must step up to the plate to strike out childhood hunger.

Nigel Slater’s lamb steak and caper dressing recipe

The recipe

Slice 300g of new potatoes into coins. Warm 4 tbsp of oil in a frying pan then add the potatoes and cook for 12-15 minutes, over a moderate heat, till they are golden.

While the potatoes cook put 150ml of soured cream into a small bowl. Stir in 1 tbsp each of Dijon mustard and capers. Chop 1 tbsp of tarragon leaves, then add to the soured cream. Halve lengthways 6 small gherkins then stir into the dressing, together with a little salt and pepper. Cover and refrigerate.

Remove the potatoes with a draining spoon and keep warm. Season a couple of lamb steaks, each about 180g in weight, then sauté them for 4-5 minutes on each side, until they are cooked as you like them. Remove the lamb and let it rest for a few minutes. Briefly return the potatoes back into the pan, tossing them in the meat juices.

Serve the lamb steaks with the sour cream dressing and the potatoes. Enough for 2.

The trick

The principle of resting meat between cooking and serving benefits small cuts like a lamb steak as much as large joints. In this case, a matter of just 7-10 minutes in a warm place will ensure juicier lamb.

The twist

Young, sweet carrots are good here. Slice them in half lengthways and use in place of the potatoes. I’d add chopped mint leaves, too, when the carrots are returned to the meat juices in the pan. This method also works with pork steaks and chicken breasts.

WHY GELATO IS GOING TO BE THE FOOD OF 2018

Something weird happened to me the other day. It was a balmy July evening, so I headed out with my flatmate to grab a cool glass of white wine or a crisp Aperol spritz at the new food market near our flat. But instead of heading to the bar, I went straight to the gelato stand without a second thought, as if pulled to it by an invisible force.

Intense pistachio. Moreish black sesame. Bitter coffee. Creamy stracciatella. My head was swimming with the possibilities. Two hours later, we left. But I hadn’t even had a snifter of wine, and my friend, disappointed by the knok-off Aperol she was served, abandoned the full glass on the table. The gelatos, on the other hand, were demolished in minutes, in a flurry of groans, moans and eye rolls.

I got to thinking, I can’t be the only person who has uncharacteristically ditched booze for a dinky cup of pistachio gelato, or at least forged a new love affair with the dessert. Gelatos beautifully presented like roses or pressed into gourmet waffle cones seemed to be popping up across social media more and more, and gelatarias opening up across the country. Plus, the third annual Gelato Festival in London in June almost sold out. I, coming to terms with the fact that I had an addiction, decided to investigate.

My suspicions were confirmed by Alex Beckett, global food and drink analyst at the Mintel forecasting agency who specialises in ice creams and its sub-categories like gelato and sorbets. After some probing, he excitedly predicted that 2018 will indeed by the year of the gelato.

He says he has also noticed stores opening up across the UK, from Swoon in Bristol, to Badiani at the Mercato Metropolitano in London, and the newly-refurbished Unico in the capital which offers delicious vegan takes on favourites like moody dark chocolate. Google searches for the term have reached their highest ever point in the UK. Remeo, meanwhile, has this year become the first Italian gelato maker to start selling in the UK, with deals with Waitrose and Ocado rolling out earlier this year. All of this is great news for someone like me who has a habit to prop up.

At this point it's important to arm you with some facts if you want to enter the year of the gelato like a true pompous foodie. First, ice cream and gelato are most certainly not the same thing. Yes, they’re very similar, but not the same.

Gelato contains more milk than cream, making it freeze at a lower temperature and taste cooler, lighter and, arguably, more refreshing. Churned slower than ice cream, it is more dense and has a more intense flavour. According to Maggie Rush, the president of the Ice Cream Alliance, the ingredients and the fact that it contains less air than ice cream means it also has a short shelf life and generally must be sold the same day that it is made. As gelato must be produced in smaller batches, this makes it ripe for experimentation with the highest quality ingredients, from sweet lychee or fig to black olives and wasabi.

“The quality of the gelato on offer in the UK is increasing and people are enamoured by the discernible flavour of gelato, which is less ‘diluted’ than ice cream,” adds Charlotte Vile, a spokeswoman for the Nationwide Caterers Association.

This, says Beckett, taps into the overall demand for healthier, artisanal, “craft” foods containing ingredients with an engaging story of provenance... and all the other buzzwords that make something a surefire hit these days.

“We are on the cusp of gelato becoming mainstream," says Beckett. "There is a latent understanding that it is high quality. It’s just that supermarkets are so competitive it's hard for brands to break through into retail." He says once a global manufacturer like Unilever takes the plunge, gelato will be everywhere.

"We know that alcohol consumption is declining and people still want their treats. Ice cream is one of the biggest treat foods out there. Millennials want to pay out for quality and authentic foods that have a clean label with fewer ingredients,” he adds. “Ice cream struggles in UK, but in the US gelato has been its saviour. We expect to see the same thing happening here."

For Jacopo Cordero di Vonzo, the founder of Remeo, it's not just data that plays into why he decided to bring gelato to the UK, but a bit of raw, carnal desire.

“We are convinced that Gelato is a better product than ice-cream  - tastier, healthier, sexier,” he tells The Independent. "In the last five to ten years gelato has grown enormously in US and Brazil so we expect this to happen in the UK as well, and we are seeing this already."

Established gelaterias are already noticing a difference. “Our sales continue to grow year on year and if you needed any evidence to support that you just have to look at the queues that form outside our shop," says Owen Hazel, the co-owner of Jannettas in St Andrews, which has been open for over 100 years. "Where once our customers waited perhaps five to ten minutes they sometimes, during peak periods, have to wait 40 minutes."

“I think the Brits are now embracing gelato,” adds Jon Adams, who founded Brighton’s Gelato Gusto in 2012. "I think in general people today are more discerning about the food they eat. Brighton in particular is a very foodie city and people appreciate the fact that we are an artisan producer making small batches of fresh gelato and sorbetto each day above the shop and they are willing." Meanwhile, Swoon in Bristol says it has seen as 43 per cent rise in sales up on last year.

Gelato, it seems, is set to explode in popularity across the UK. But there’s just one small problem to solve before it becomes embedded in British culture like it is in Italian, says Adams: "it would also be helpful if we had a little more sunshine."

Jeremy Lee’s recipe for vanilla pots with raspberries

Who ate all the ice-cream? This is all I had for lunch!” cries our beleaguered pudding chef, all too often. On warm summer days, he fights off steamy cooks, who seek out bowls of cooling ice-cream to soothe them in the heat of the kitchen.

There is rarely any pity for the pudding cook, just hoots of laughter and an outstretched hand for more. I am as guilty, if not more so, for heading up the ice-cream raids on his section, particularly when there is a delivery of fine fruit at the restaurant. Freshly churned vanilla ice-cream and a punnet of the best raspberries is a formidable pairing – peerless even, and consistently irresistible.

The raspberry has a quality that rises above its rather odd daily availability. Unlike most harvests that defy the seasons and outstay their welcome, offering little more than shape or colour, a raspberry out of season is sort of OK when a little cheer is needed. However, at its allotted time, when the fruit harvest begins its great summer season, the raspberry rises to the fore of the avalanche mightily.

Amid the many puddings that enjoy the company of raspberries, one in particular stands out, surpassing even that bowl of ice-cream: the vanilla pot.

Simply put, it is a vanilla custard, gently baked in a bain-marie until just set, then put aside to cool. Then it’s heaped with a raspberry sauce and served with a bowl of raspberries alongside, a clean, delicate conclusion to lunch or dinner when temperatures are on the rise. Or indeed, any time in between those two meals. I confess to being found in the kitchen all too often with an empty ramekin in one hand and a telltale splash of cream and raspberry pink down my front, rumbled by cooks whose suspicions were aroused by a half-eaten punnet of raspberries sitting upon a bench.

In the words of Messrs Gilbert and Sullivan in HMS Pinafore … “With a bit of burglary” … although I’m not sure those masters of topsy-turvy quite had the contents of a fridge in mind.

Vanilla pots with raspberries and raspberry sauce

Makes 8
600ml milk
1 vanilla pod
30g sugar
7 egg yolks

Fresh raspberries and caster sugar, to serve

For the sauce
250g raspberries
Juice of 1 lemon
1 tbsp icing sugar

1. Preheat the oven to 130C/250F/gas mark ½. Prepare a deep roasting pan and a kettle full of hot water. You will also need 8 little pots, cups or ramekins.

2. Pour the milk into a heavy-based saucepan. Split the vanilla pod and scrape the seeds into the pan. Gently bring the milk to a simmer, then remove from the heat.

3. In a bowl, stir the sugar into the egg yolks. Pour the infused milk into the bowl and stir well. Let the custard sit for 15 minutes or so, then spoon away any foam that may have formed on the surface. Pour the custard into the pots.

4. Put the pots in the roasting tray. Put the tray in the oven. With great care, pour the water from the kettle into a jug, then fill the roasting tray with enough water to reach halfway to two‑thirds of the way up the side of the pots. Bake for 40-50 minutes. There should not be a bubble upon the surface.

5. Carefully remove the entire tray from the oven. Put it down on a wire rack and let the custard pots cool in the water. Once cooled, put the pots on a tray and transfer to the fridge. They do not suffer for sitting, covered, overnight.

6. To make the raspberry sauce, put all the ingredients in a blender and render smooth. Put a sieve over a bowl and pour the sauce into it, pushing through with the back of a spoon to leave the myriad pips behind.

7. To serve, heap the raspberries in a bowl. Have a small bowl of caster sugar alongside. Put each pot on a plate and pour on a spoonful of the raspberry sauce. Leftover sauce can be poured into a jug for people to help themselves.