Baked Pears and Ricotta Salad

Pears are very good at the moment, but still I'm impatient for them to ripen. This recipe shortcuts the wait by baking them in the oven. I also picked up some plain baked ricotta from the deli, but if you had time you could make your own at the same time as you cook the pears.

• 2 large pears
• 1 tbsp sugar
• 2 tbsp butter
• 3 big handfuls of rocket (arugula)
• a big handful of walnuts or pecans (or in a pinch, sunflower seeds)
• a 200g chunk of baked ricotta
• 3 tbsp olive oil
• 1 tbsp white wine vinegar
• 1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
• 1 tsp runny honey

Preheat the oven to 200C; peel, core and quarter the pears; place in a roasting tin, dot on the butter and shake over the sugar. Bake for 30-40 minutes, until golden and tender. Five minutes before done, place the nuts or seeds on a tray and toast in the oven for a few minutes, until crisp and nutty. Combine the dressing ingredients together; taste and season if necessary. Cut the pear and ricotta into bite-size pieces and toss with the rocket, nuts and dressing. Spike with croutons or serve with crusty bread.

Red Pepper and Goat's Cheese Pizza

A quick end-of-week pizza using up some roasted red peppers and lovely crumbly sharp goats cheese. A handful of rocket on top and we're good to go!

Potato and Rocket Soup

Our shipment from the UK arrived at last, and after half a day spent supervising and unpacking, I was absolutely exhausted. This was a quick throw-together to use up the last of the chicken stock and the very spicy rocket I bought earlier in the week. It turned out ok, but like all blended potato-based soup, it was really quite bland. I cheekily spiced it up with a bit of pesto and creme fraiche.

Ingredients

• half a white onion
• three white potatoes, scrubbed
• 500ml of good chicken stock (vegetarians obviously substitute vegetable stock)
• 200g rocket
• green (basil or rocket) pesto
• creme fraiche

Finely chop the onion and potatoes and fry them in a little olive oil for five minutes. Add the stock, and simmer for ten minutes, until the potatoes are cooked. Add the rocket and blend with a hand blender. Taste and season - it may well need a fair amount of salt, and maybe a splash of lemon juice. Serve swirled with green pesto and creme fraiche.

Pumpkin and Rocket Risotto

The carcass of the chicken from the other night boiled down to some great stock, and I used a good half of it in this lovely risotto, full of flavours I was simply craving. The rocket I bought turned out to be very spicy, so it needed a little more cooking time than a milder leaf like watercress.

Ingredients:

• 250g pumpkin, peeled and diced
• 100g feta cheese (optional)
• two sprigs of rosemary
• half a white onion
• a stick of celery
• half a carrot
• two bay leaves
• 200-300g of risotto rice, depending on how hungry you are
• 500-700ml of good chicken stock (vegetarians obviously substitute vegetable stock)
• a generous handful of rocket
• pumpkin seeds, to scatter over

Roast the pumpkin, rosemary and feta (if using), drizzled with a little olive oil, at 220 C for half an hour, until golden and tender. Meanwhile, finely chop the onion, celery and carrot, and fry for a few minutes, until the harshness of the onion has cooked away. Add the bay leaves and rice, fry for a further minute, then add the stock a third at a time every five minutes, stirring well with each addition, to bring the gluten out and make the risotto creamy.

When the rice is cooked to your liking (I prefer mine with just a tiny bit of bite), stir through the rocket and roasted pumpkin mixture, carefully so as not to break up the pumpkin. Serve immediately, scattered with pumpkin seeds.