This is a very quick post for a very quick and easy canapé dish that showcases the abundant crop of green salad leaves and delicate herbs flourishing at this time of year. Here in Dorset, we have wild rocket, basil, chives, mint, peashoots, wild garlic and sage in the Explore …

Barba Juan, or Barbagiuai if you’re over in Liguria, translates as ‘Uncle John’, and the name’s relevance for this delicious, local dish remains a mystery for most. In his book ‘Flavours of the Riviera’, Colman Andrews offers one or two possible explanations, and the one that seems most plausible is …

January seems the perfect time of year for a hearty beef casserole, a warming, bold dish full of protein and lower on fat than much of the standard Christmas fayre, unless you incorporate lard into your recipe as Jacques Médecin does in his book Cuisine Niçoise. With just Explore this …

I’ve written about chickpea flour before. On the Côte d’Azur and in Liguria, it’s the common ingredient for delicious pancakes cooked in large, flat copper pans. Topped only with black pepper in Nice, where it’s called socca, Ligurians often add herbs or thinly sliced onions to their farinata. Explore this …

For friends of ours who also lived in the area some years ago, any visit back to Nice involves a search for the perfect pan bagnat, and until this most basic of food cravings is satisfied, no trip is complete. Inspired by their enthusiasm, we have become fans too Explore …

In the city of Nice, swiss chard has long been a kitchen staple and its beautiful, green, sometimes pink-stemmed leaves are known in France as blettes. Both here and over the border in Liguria, greens of all descriptions are used extensively in tarts, soups, tians and for colouring Explore this …

A cousin of the Ligurian focaccia, which is also known as fugassa over there, fougasse is a provençal loaf easily recognised by the slashes cut through it prior to baking. Back in August, after a mooch round the beautiful Cours Saleya food and flower market in Vieux Nice, Explore this …

It’s full-on tomato season here in Dorset, and hugely satisfying to see so much ripe, red fruit both in the garden and the greenhouse. We might even be saved from the usual gallon of green tomato chutney this year. Over the summer we’ve munched our way through Explore this Post

It never ceases to amaze me how most people know exactly what pesto is yet when you mention the term pistou, it’s blank faces all round. This no-nut French cousin of pesto is just as delicious and even easier to make. No toasting of pine nuts required here. So, Explore …

I’ve been consulting my provençal cookbooks again, this time for jam recipes as there are loads of plums, blackberries and other fruit just waiting to be preserved around here and I thought it would be fun to try something a little bit different this year. I was intrigued to Explore …