If you're stuck for ideas for summer entertaining here's a re-run of a feature I wrote last year on some inspiration I'd picked up from various restaurant meals, together with some suggested wine matches:

Henry Harris’s anchovy crostini
A really good nibble I had when I went to Racine for a steak tartare lunch the other day. Henry brought out some delicious crostini made from toasted sourdough topped with very good preserved anchovies and a sprinkling of gremolata (chopped parsley, garlic and lemon zest). A rustic, punchy start to a meal that would be great with a glass of manzanilla or a crisp, citrussy white like a Verdicchio



Smoked mackerel and beetroot
Beetroot is everywhere this summer - as a salad ingredient, as a vegetable, as a garnish. At one of my local Bristol pubs The Albion a little raw beetroot salad was paired with smoked mackerel and horseradish cream. We happened to be drinking a dry rosé but a minerally cool climate Sauvignon Blanc would have been the perfect match


Suckling pig carpaccio
This seems to be one of the cult starters this summer - I’ve had it at Il Baretto and at Anthony Demetre’s Arbutus. Happily it’s not actually raw like beef carpaccio but very finely sliced roast suckling pig served with a drizzle of oil and topped with a few salad leaves and, in Demetre’s case, parmesan shavings. Very umami. I came across a similar idea at the Champignon Sauvage in Cheltenham - a carpaccio of pigs head served with seared scallops. A good white burgundy with a bit of bottle age would be a perfect pairing

Roast lamb and redcurrants
A lovely summery twist on lamb with redcurrant sauce I came across when I was judging in the Organic Food Awards at the Duke of Cambridge pub: cold rare roast lamb with couscous salad and fresh redcurrants. Fantastic as an al fresco lunch or supper platter, I’d love this with a cool Loire red like a Saumur-Champigny




Peaches and raspberries
It’s the height of the peach season so it’s good to enjoy them at their peak. One way is to peel them and combine them with a simple sieved, sweetened fresh raspberry sauce or coulis as in the peach melba I had at Terence Conran’s new restaurant Lutyens. A friend served a similar dessert with white nectarines, raspberry purée and double cream. So simple and delicious I don’t think you really want a drink to go with it.




Prettying up a sorbet
Sorbets make a refreshing end to a meal but can look a bit plain. Here’s how Anthony Demetre of Arbutus serves a scoop of strawberry sorbet - on an Eton Mess-like bed of broken meringue and sliced strawberries with a sprinkling of black pepper and a few summer savory (I think) leaves entwined round the top to pretty the dish up still further. A glass of Moscato d’Asti or other light Moscato would have been a nice accompaniment