Rosie Lovell - Spooning with Rosie

2 handfuls of fresh rocket

freshly ground black pepper

Preheat the oven to 200°C/Gas 6. Divide the sausages, but do not prick them (that way you will keep hostage all the wetness and flavour that is waiting inside for you). Line a baking tray with greased paper and lay the sausages on top. Place in the oven on the top shelf for 20 minutes, turning once. Remove the sausages from the oven but leave the oven on. Cut the ciabatta into 2 square hunks, and slice each again in half. Place these back on the top shelf of the oven, dough side up, to warm and crisp and colour.

Meanwhile, slice the tomatoes into roundels, and the sausages in half. These will be divided between the two sandwiches, giving each one 1 1/ 2sausages. When the bread is beginning to colour, which will take 3 or 4 minutes, remove from the oven, generously butter, and add a teaspoon of Dijon mustard to 2 of the slices. Add 3 sausage slabs to the Dijon-decorated sides and split the tomatoes between each sandwich. Finally grab a handful of rocket, shower with freshly ground pepper and seal with the singularly buttered top layer of ciabatta. Tuck in.

For 2

This is a great way of using up a leftover tomato pasta sauce. It is basically an egg poached and baked at the same time, in a tomato nest. Many countries have a version of it. I recently found a Turkish variation called menemen. This nestles in a vegetable ragout and is on offer as a quick snack in train stations and ports, which goes to show that it’s another one of these breakfast recipes that’s just as good, any time of day.

Anyway, Alice and I first ordered eggs en cocotte without really knowing what we were getting, in a brilliant little café in Camden Passage, giggling our morning heads off. Needless to say, I ate both hers and mine, as she had, as always, lost her hangover appetite, and because I thought it so tasty and clever. I wanted it over and over.

They will be most successful if you have those lovely shallow terracotta ramekins, but a small oven dish will do. If you just fancy this for breakfast, but don’t have the necessary leftovers, you can quickly rustle up a simple sauce for the eggs’ bed. I eat it for a light supper when it looks like there’s nothing in my very occasionally unloved cupboards.

450ml leftover tomato sauce, or

1 tablespoon olive oil

1/ 2medium onion

1 garlic clove

5 large tomatoes

1 teaspoon tomato purée

1 teaspoon sugar

Maldon sea salt

freshly ground black pepper

Preheat the oven to 160°C/Gas 2. If you are making the tomato sauce from scratch, first warm the olive oil in a frying pan on a medium heat. Peel and finely dice the onion and add to the hot oil. Sweat for a minute, then peel and crush the garlic and add this to the pan. Chop the tomatoes into about 12 pieces each, and add these too. Simmer for 15 minutes, or until the sauce is reduced and quite smooth. Finally dissolve the tomato purée in the sauce, with some sugar and seasoning.

2 large free-range eggs smoked paprika

Decant the sauce into either two big ramekins or one smaller oven dish. Make two deep holes in the bed of sauce for the eggs, and crack them in, pinching a little paprika over each yolk. Place in the oven for 10 to 15 minutes, or until the egg is just firm on the top and the sauce is sizzling with a deep redness at the sides. Serve with some good buttered bread. One of my favourites is sourdough.

Food and love are hopelessly entangled in my mind. I for one have a hungry heart. Feeling giddy with excitement, eating oysters at Borough Market, while my boy held my hand. Slipping out of bed on a Sunday morning, to the Portuguese for café con leche and pastéis de nata. Preparing a big winter hotpot together for our friends, listening to Radio 4. And the simple stuff, like shelling beans, while the heart goes boom. It’s all to do with the senses.

Here is a gathering of recipes, all successfully tried and tested, for seduction in the kitchen. Whether it’s an emergency date, or one of those evenings planned long in advance, full of anticipation and palpitation, my advice is to crank up the music, and let the juices flow. It’s one of the finest things to do for the one you love. You should really enjoy working your magic, and casting some culinary spells.

Generally I like to eat quite simple foods when I’m in for seduction. Simple but really impressive, like for instance duck breasts, or really good steak. Your meal should be full of impact and thought, without appearing fussy or over-zealous. And don’t forget, if you are cooking for men, the demands are altogether different: Raf’s face frequently falls when I realise I’ve not incorporated massive potatoes, pans of rice and wedges of plantain into every meal!

I once shared a Bramley sorbet with verbena jelly in a dark and seducing booth in Black’s. It’s in the depths of sultry Soho and is one of my favourite places to go for simple food and uncomplicated dining. It was subtle, refreshing and lip-tinglingly good. Inspired by this, I have kept these puddings simple but suggestive, because hopefully you’ll be too enthralled by your date to want to be clattering around in the kitchen blow-torching a brûlée.

For 2

I first made this for a clandestine, last-minute dinner date. Alice and I had been drinking rosé in Brixton when he called (‘Oh God, Al, what am I to wear? Crap, the flat’s a tip!’). I rushed round the corner, a little tipsy, to get express advice from Manuel in the Portuguese deli and butcher, O Talho. He recommended this simple risotto, with the rich addition of morcilla (Spanish black pudding). The greenery and risotto are a perfect contrast of crunchy and fresh with wet and warm, and the Parmesan brings all the flavours together. So there is a happy relationship on the table already. It turned into a whole weekend of delirious fun together. Eureka.

This is a simple salad but rather depends on the seasons. Asparagus is in season from April through to June. When shopping for vegetables I try and bear this in mind, especially on the rare occasions that I’m in a supermarket. In these larger shops there always tends to be a choice – you just need to look closely at the label. As everything tastes much better if rightly in season, it’s in your interests to make that little extra effort.

a bundle of asparagus lots of olive oil

3 generous handfuls of fresh rocket

juice of 1 lemon

freshly ground black pepper

Maldon sea salt

50g Parmesan shavings

To make the salad, bend the asparagus spears until they snap. This will have them breaking at just the point of tenderness, and eliminate any woody stumps. Heat some olive oil in a griddle pan, and when it is really hot, and just beginning to smoke, add the spears. Sear until they are tattooed with black lines, then remove from the heat and allow to cool a little. This will only take a few minutes. On a flat serving plate, lay out the rocket leaves and scatter the asparagus over them. Simply season with the lemon juice, the oil from the griddle pan, and lots of pepper and salt, before piling on the shavings of Parmesan.

Although risotto is easy to cook, it is a challenge getting perfect results. This dish should not be a sloppy rice pudding, neither should it look like an oily paella. It is somewhere in the middle. Sophisticated but soothing.

Regarding the stock, it’s preferable to have made a good chicken one. However, few have the time to labour over bones. I mostly use a good European powdered stock. If you are feeling lavish, however, you could buy a fresh jarred stock. These are available in some delis and better supermarkets. The John Lusty brand is pretty trusty.