Lorraine Pascale - Lorraine Pascale’s Fast, Fresh and Easy Food

+ For the tomato one, roughly chop the tomatoes and place in a small bowl. Drizzle a little oil over, rip up the basil and mint leaves and add them along with salt, pepper and sugar to taste. Toss everything together.

+ Then, for the white bean topping, put the cannellini beans in a small bowl, add a good drizzle of oil, season with salt and pepper and then mash roughly with a fork. Cut the slices of prosciutto in half.

+ Finally, for the goat’s cheese crostini, mash the goat’s cheese with a fork in a small bowl and season, then cut the figs into eighths.

+ Remove the crostini from the oven. They should be just crisp. Cut the garlic clove in half and rub the cut edge all over their tops.

+ Now, to assemble, simply spoon the tomato mixture onto eight of the crostini. Arrange the rocket on eight more, dollop the crushed beans on top, then lightly scrunch up the prosciutto and arrange on top of each one. Finally, spread the goat’s cheese over the remaining eight crostini, arrange a couple of pieces of fig on top of each, scatter the mint leaves over and drizzle with a little balsamic and honey.

+ Arrange the crostini on a large serving platter or cake stand and serve.

Crispy, crunchy chicken strips with honey mustard dip

Being a tactile person at heart, eating food with my fingers is pure luxury for me. I have a favourite surf-and-turf restaurant I frequent with the family and I regularly order their crispy chicken tenders for a starter. The piquant honey mustard dip has me getting right on in there with a spoon and eating up every last morsel.

Time from start to finish: 25 minutes

Serves: 4

Equipment: Baking tray, 2 wide, shallow bowls, small bowl

Vegetable oil (or spray oil)

2 medium eggs

100g dried natural breadcrumbs (or polenta)

1 tsp English mustard powder

2 stalks of fresh flat leaf parsley or thyme (optional)

4 medium skinless, boneless chicken breasts

Honey mustard dip

100ml mayonnaise

3 tbsp wholegrain mustard

2 squidges of honey

2 limes

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

+ Preheat the oven to 200°C, (fan 180°C), 400°F, Gas Mark 6. Lightly grease a baking tray with oil and set aside. I like to do this quickly with a spray oil.

+ Crack the eggs into a wide, shallow bowl and beat lightly to bring together. Tip the breadcrumbs (or polenta) and mustard powder into another wide, shallow bowl. Pick the leaves from the parsley or thyme then finely chop them before tossing through the breadcrumbs with some salt and pepper.

+ Cut each chicken breast lengthways into three strips. Dip each piece into the egg, shaking off the excess, and then into the breadcrumbs to coat evenly. Arrange on the baking tray as you go. I tend to get in a sticky mess with this as the egg on my hands becomes coated with breadcrumbs, but the end result is so worth it.

+ Bake in the oven for around 12 minutes, turning each piece of chicken over halfway through.

+ Meanwhile, to make the dip, put the mayonnaise into a small bowl with the wholegrain mustard and honey and stir to combine. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

+ Cut the limes into quarters and add the juice of one piece to the dip, squeeze by squeeze, tasting as you go until you are happy. The lime lifts the dip’s flavours a little and gives a nice balance. Spoon the dip into a small serving bowl and place in the centre of a large plate.

+ Remove the chicken from the oven. When cooked, it should be piping hot in the centre and crispy and golden brown on the outside.

+ Arrange the chicken around the dip on the plate and serve with the remaining lime wedges.

Pancetta & Parmesan puffs

I know, I have done it again. Pancetta. It’s that porky, tasty yumminess that I love so very much. Now these cheesy little numbers are made from choux pastry, which for me is the easiest pastry on the block. A positive word of warning: these are incredibly moreish. A just-cooked bowl of them will disappear in literally minutes.

Prep time: 25 minutes

Time baking in the oven: 25 minutes

Makes: about 25

Equipment: 2 baking sheets, small frying pan, medium pan, grater, 2 medium bowls, disposable piping bag (optional)

50g butter

125ml milk

50g pancetta cubes

Oil

25g Parmesan cheese

75g plain flour

1 tsp chilli powder (optional)

Pinch of salt

2 medium eggs

+ Preheat the oven to 170°C, (fan 150°C), 325°F, Gas Mark 3. Line two baking sheets with baking parchment and set aside.

+ Put a small frying pan on a medium heat for the pancetta.

+ Put the butter and milk in a medium pan over a low heat and leave the butter to melt.

+ Meanwhile, place the pancetta into the frying pan with a drizzle of oil and cook for about 4 minutes, turning every so often.

+ Once the butter has melted into the milk, whack up the heat and bring to the boil.

+ Meanwhile, finely grate the Parmesan and tip it into a medium bowl. Stir in the flour, chilli powder, if you like, and a pinch of salt.

+ As soon as the buttery milk boils, remove the pan from the heat and add the flour mixture to it. Beat it really hard with a wooden spoon until the mixture starts to leave the sides of the pan. Then tip it into a medium bowl, spread it out all around the inside and leave it for a few minutes until cool to the touch.

+ Once the pancetta is crisp and golden, remove from the heat and tip onto kitchen paper to drain off excess fat and set aside.

+ Once the flour mix has cooled down a little, add the eggs, one at a time, beating hard between each addition. When the egg first goes in, the mixture will look a little less than pleasant, as if it won’t mix in, but keep beating it really hard and it will come good. Then stir in the pancetta.

+ Now, here you can either spoon blobs of the choux pastry onto the baking sheets or (my favourite method with my piping bag obsession) pipe the blobs using a disposable piping bag cut to give a 1.5cm opening. Either way, make them about 2–3cm in diameter and space them a little bit apart. This makes about 25. Use a finger slightly moistened with water to push down any end bits that may be sticking up (so they don’t burn in the oven), then bake for 25 minutes.

+ The puffs should be crisp and golden on top when cooked. These are really best served piping hot when they are still slightly moist as they are cut open.

Crunchy black pepper halloumi dip sticks with harissa hummus

Before I tested this recipe I had not had the privilege of cooking halloumi. I’d eaten it many times, but never felt the urge to give it a go at home. Halloumi is an eccentric-textured-and-tasting cheese which is very salty on the palate. It prefers, unlike its cheesy counterparts, to be pan-fried and grilled as it holds itself together very well once cooked.

Time from start to finish: 15 minutes

Serves: 4

Equipment: Colander, blender or food processor, large frying pan, plate

Hummus

400g tin of chickpeas

1 garlic clove

100g half- or full-fat crème fraîche

1–4 tbsp harissa paste (easy to find at the supermarket)

Drizzle of extra virgin olive oil (optional)