Sophie Dahl - From Season to Season - A Year in Recipes

Take a big griddle pan or large heavy-bottomed frying pan and melt the butter. Put the egg-soaked bread in, in batches if needs be. Cook it for about 4 minutes on each side, until the bread is bronzed on the outside and soft on the in. Serve on warmed plates, with the smashed berries and yoghurt on top.

Mushrooms on toast

This is also perfect for a Sunday night supper when there are few around and you can eat this on your lap, a poached egg on top of it, watching a good old costume drama.

SERVES 2

A good few handfuls of mixed wild mushrooms, roughly chopped

1 tablespoon of olive oil

1 clove of garlic, peeled and finely chopped

A handful of fresh parsley

A pinch of fresh chopped tarragon

A knob of butter

A whisper of single/light cream

Salt and pepper

Slices of soda bread or dark rye, toasted and buttered

First of all, make sure your pan is searing hot. Otherwise, your mushrooms can get soggy and unpleasant and, frankly, a soggy mushroom is a bit grim. Toss in the mushrooms at the same time as the olive oil and the garlic. You should hear an angry hiss. Hurrah!

Keep throwing it all around and when the mushrooms are the burnished shade that appeals to you, toss in the parsley, tarragon and butter. There should be lots of juices in the pan and I suggest you add to them with a trickle of cream. And maybe a splash of white wine? But I suppose it is breakfast. Season to taste and serve on crispy buttered toast with a big cup of tea.

Apple cider omelette

There is nothing more English nor more autumnal than an apple swollen from the tree in late September. This omelette celebrates that in my house. Put your scarf on and kick some leaves!

SERVES 1

2 tablespoons of butter

¼ of a small onion, peeled and finely chopped

2 teaspoons of apple cider vinegar

Salt and pepper

3 eggs

50g/½ cup of mature/sharp Cheddar cheese, grated

1 teaspoon of sumac

1 teaspoon of fresh chopped thyme

Melt 1 tablespoon of butter, on a medium heat, in a non-stick frying pan. Add the onion and turn the heat down, cooking until it is soft. Add the apple cider vinegar and season, cooking until the vinegar is absorbed. Whisk the eggs and, adding the rest of the butter to the frying pan, pour in the eggs over the onion mixture, making sure it’s distributed easily. Agitate it a bit and add the Cheddar, sumac and thyme. Flip it, cooking for another 30 seconds or so until cooked, and serve.

Gooseberry yoghurt

Dedicated to my Aunt Lucy – a gooseberry fan. So much so that when she was in Amsterdam and saw gooseberries on the menu, she began shouting ‘Gooseberries!’ at the top of her voice and did a little joyous dance, much to the amusement of my cousins, her daughters. She does live in Los Angeles, so is gooseberry deprived, rather than just a bit weird.

SERVES 4

400g/14oz of gooseberries

2 tablespoons of brown sugar

1 teaspoon of orange flower water

185ml/¾ cup of Greek yoghurt

Preheat the oven to 180°C/160°C fan/Gas 4. Put the gooseberries in an ovenproof baking dish and sprinkle with the sugar and orange flower water. Cook, uncovered, for about 20 minutes, take out and leave to cool thoroughly. Strain the gooseberries, pour into the blender and purée for a minute or so.

This can be eaten in a multitude of ways. Pour on the top of the yoghurt so it drips through, leave on the bottom of the yoghurt to find as a surprise or ribbon through it.

Autumn Lunches

Heartbreak carbonara (or the first thing I ever cooked for a boy)

To marry with the wistful theme of my autumn, here is the first thing I ever cooked for a boy who I loved quietly and secretly. The carbonara in the pan lingered longer than he did — he wolfed it down with a bottle of Chianti, and informed me he was actually in love with a dancer called Willow (or something infinitely more exotic than Sophie). Then he disappeared into the night. I lay sobbing on the floor, wishing I could be angular and coordinated like Willow. Indeed, I cried such a ridiculous amount that in the morning I looked as if I had a black eye, and my mother gave me a heartbreak dispensation day off school.

SERVES 4

125g/4½ 0z of pancetta, bacon or ham

2 tablespoons of olive oil

4 egg yolks

30g/¼ cup of grated Parmesan

A splash of white wine

2 tablespoons of single/light cream

Salt and pepper

500g/1lb 2oz of spaghetti

Cut the pancetta into bite-sized pieces. In a medium-sized frying pan, put a small glug of oil and cook the pancetta until crispy. Put to the side.

In a mixing bowl, beat together the egg yolks, Parmesan, splash of wine, the cream and some salt and pepper. Add the pancetta and mix it all together. Cook the pasta and, as soon as it is ready, mix it quickly with the sauce so the egg doesn’t cook.

Heartbreak not essential.

Squash and Parmesan soup

This is what blowsy October days are made for. Comforting and golden, this soup is a hymn to autumn. I first made this clucking around in upstate New York when I had some leftover squash. It works just as well with pumpkin or sweet potato.

SERVES 4

50g/½ stick of butter

1kg/2lb of squash, cubed

1 onion, peeled and finely chopped

1 clove of garlic, peeled and finely chopped

2 tablespoons of sherry

875ml/3½ cups of chicken or vegetable stock

½ teaspoon of cayenne pepper

A couple of bay leaves

Salt and pepper

2 tablespoons of double/heavy cream

A handful of toasted pumpkin seeds

A handful of fresh chopped parsley

A handful of grated Parmesan

In a heavy-bottomed pan, melt the butter and add the squash, onion and garlic. Cook for a few minutes. Add the sherry, stir and then add the stock, cayenne pepper and bay leaves. Cook until the squash is tender, about 10 to 15 minutes. Remove the bay leaves and blend the soup either with a hand-held mixer or in the blender. Season and add the cream. Serve with a topping of pumpkin seeds, parsley and grated Parmesan.

Spanish omelette

Like a frittata, a bit of a recycling dish for what you’ve got lying around. Also great for a lunchbox for a small or big person – just wrap in greaseproof/wax paper.

SERVES 4

3 tablespoons of olive oil

225g/1½ cups of potatoes, peeled and thinly sliced

150g/1⅓ cups of onions, thinly sliced

8 eggs

Salt and pepper

Preheat the grill to a high setting. In a large non-stick frying pan, heat 2 tablespoons of the oil on a medium to low flame. Add the potatoes and the onions and cook until golden. Take off the heat and reserve.

Whisk the eggs and season them. Pour the onion and potato mixture into the eggs and heat another tablespoon of olive oil in the pan. Add the egg, potato and onion and turn the heat down to low. Loosen the edges and agitate the pan.

When the bottom is set and golden brown, take an oiled plate, turn the omelette out and put it back in the pan, this time face-side down. Transfer the omelette to under a hot grill and cook for another minute or two until the top is set, then turn out, serving happily either hot or cold.

Bonfire night

I had been raiding the memory bank in order to come up with a recipe that captured all of the hissing November glory of Bonfire Night, but I first arrived at a feeling rather than a taste. Whether wrapped in the crisp skin of a twice-baked potato, or hidden amidst the charred sweetness of a sausage, rolling anticipation is the abiding sense of that night for me. Maybe it’s a hangover from those teenage days – crushes seen through a wreath of bonfire smoke, against a backdrop of technicoloured sky, or the electric feel of cold fingers handing over an oozing marshmallow. Either way, the visuals are made flesh as soon as you eat something with a November tinge, from jaw-locking candy apples to mellow roasted pumpkin, and how....