Polenta with roasted courgettes, tomatoes and basil and Bardolino

After months of lockdown it’s been such a pleasure to return to favourite restaurants like Elliott and Tessa Lidstone’s Box-E and I couldn’t have had a more perfect day to enjoy it. The food too - especially this quintessentially summery dish of courgettes, tomatoes and basil with the lightest, fluffiest polenta - was just perfect for sitting outside on a hot day.

We’d had a glass of orange wine (not on the list) with our starters so fancied moving onto a light red rather than back to a white and picked on the Raval Bardolino Classico, an Italian red that tends to get overlooked but actually hits the spot perfectly at this time of year. It was full of lovely fresh cherry fruit - we asked for it to be lightly chilled - and really matched our mood as much as the food. I’d also love it with cold meats and cheeses or with smoked duck

It’s not that easy to track down in the UK but you can buy it from a London deli and wineshop called 8 rocks for £13.75 (and, I've now discovered, from Box E themselves who have acquired an off-licence for £15).

The Raval family also has a rather glorious agriturismo if you fancy a trip to Lake Garda. Who wouldn't?

See also The best wines to pair with courgettes

Courgette, seed and curry leaf cake and dry German riesling

The more I taste authentic Indian food the less I think it causes problems for wine. A group of us cooked up a whole load of recipes on Saturday night including this savoury cake called handvo from Anjum Anand’s I love India.

It was based on semolina and gram flour and was flavoured with courgette, peas, curry leaves and pumpkin seeds. Despite also containing ginger and green chilli it was fragrant rather than hot and the most brilliant match for a lovely dry German riesling

The wine came from a producer I very much admire - Peter Jakob Kuhn from the Rheingau who works biodynamically. The wine is beautifully pure and fruity but not the slightest bit affected by the spice. In fact I think it was even enhanced by it. It makes the perfect aperitif.

You can buy the wine from Tanners shops and online and find the recipe - if you feel inspired to make it - on the Australian SBS site or, of course in Anjum's book.