In her book French Country Cooking, Elizabeth David acknowledges that delicious meals can be cooked with the sole aid of a “blackened frying pan and a camp fire”, but writes about assembling her ideal batterie de cuisine to “cook something less primitive in the way of food”. Holiday cooking shouldn’t require intense packing, and I prefer to take a minimalist approach: pared-down techniques with sparser kitchen equipment and ingredients, and meals that can be cooked in no more than two pans. After all, who wants to be left doing the dishes when staycationing?
Sweet-and-sour sausages with peaches (pictured top)
Summer peaches, with their ripe, sticky sweetness eked out by the scorch of the oven, and plump sausages are perfect bedfellows in this one-tray bake.
Prep 15 min
Cook 30 min
Serves 4
8 good-quality thick pork sausages
2 red onions, peeled and cut into thick wedges
4 peaches, halved, stoned and cut into wedges
1 tsp Chinese five-spice (optional)
Salt and pepper
Rapeseed or other neutral oil
1 thumb ginger, cut into very fine matchsticks
2 tbsp toasted sesame seeds, to garnish
1 long red chilli, sliced on the diagonal, to garnish
Boiled or steamed rice, to serve
For the sweet-sour sauce
100ml tomato ketchup
1-2 heaped tbsp hot sauce (such as sriracha), depending on how spicy you like it
1 tbsp honey
1 tbsp rice-wine vinegar
3 tsp soy sauce
1 tsp rapeseed oil
Heat the oven to 220C (200C fan)/425F/gas 7. Put the sausages, onions and peaches in a roasting tray, sprinkle over the five-spice and season with salt and pepper. Drizzle with oil and roast for 15 minutes, until lightly browned.
Meanwhile, make the sauce by mixing all the ingredients in a medium bowl; add a little water to thin it out, if you prefer. Pour the sauce all over the part-cooked sausages and peaches, scatter the ginger on top and stir well. Return to the oven and roast for another 10 minutes.
Remove, sprinkle the toasted sesame seeds and chilli on top, and serve with plain rice.
UK readers: click to buy these ingredients from Ocado
Pasta fatteh with tahini sauce and pine nuts
Fatteh is a Levantine feasting dish that normally combines layers of meat or pulses, ladles of garlic-spiked yoghurt and toasted Arabic bread, but I have used pasta instead. This is a wonderful summer dinner.
Prep 15 min
Cook 50 min
Serves 4
Olive oil
1 small white onion, peeled and finely chopped
3 garlic cloves, peeled and finely chopped
400g ground lamb or beef mince
1 heaped tsp allspice
1 heaped tsp cinnamon
100g passata
400g pasta shapes – strozzapreti or cavatelli, for preference
Sea salt and pepper
For the sauce
500g Greek yoghurt
75g tahini
1 garlic clove, peeled and finely grated or chopped
Sea salt and pepper
Juice of ½ lemon
To top
40g butter
2 tsp dried mint
1 tsp pul biber, or mild chilli flakes
1 handful toasted pine nuts
1 handful finely chopped parsley
To make the sauce, mix all the ingredients in a small bowl, season to taste, then set aside while you cook the mince.
Heat a drizzle of olive oil in a pan or casserole, then fry the onion for about 10 minutes, until soft and translucent. Scatter in the garlic, fry until fragrant, then add the mince and fry until browned all over. Add the spices, fry briefly, then pour in the passata and cook for 10 minutes more, while you cook the pasta. Season with salt and pepper.
Boil the pasta in plenty of salted water until al dente. Drain, transfer to a large platter and top with the cooked mince mix. Wipe out the mince pan, return it to the heat and melt the butter. Once foaming, add the mint and pul biber, cook for 30 seconds, then take off the heat.
Spoon the tahini-yoghurt sauce all over the pasta and mince, drizzle with the mint butter, then strew the pine nuts and parsley on top and serve.
UK readers: click to buy these ingredients from Ocado
