Celeriac, potato and anchovy gratin

I love the idea of cooking everything in one dish (quick, easy, no washing up!) so Sue Quinn's book Roasting Tray Magic is right up my street.

I picked out this recipe which is like a cross between a gratin dauphinoise and the Swedish dish Jansson's Temptation with celeriac replacing half the potato. It's not vegetarian given the anchovies but you could obviously leave those out.

There is also you will notice a fair amount of cream! I think I'd be inclined to reduce the double cream to 300ml - the size of a mid-sized carton - which should be enough for the amount of celeriac and potato involved. (In fact I used slightly more of both I made it last night and it was fine) Sue is also right in saying a mandolin makes the task of cutting them a LOT easier!

Oh and the cheesy, crispy topping is absolutely irresistible!

Celeriac, potato and anchovy gratin

Serves: 4 | Takes: about 1 hour, plus 5 minutes cooling

Knobbly old celeriac is a sadly undervalued root vegetable. It might not be photogenic, but it’s absolutely delicious, with a sweet, nutty flavour reminiscent of the celery family of which it is a member. The anchovies add a gorgeous depth of flavour – no fishiness at all.

400ml milk, plus extra if needed

400ml double cream (see note above)

2 garlic cloves, crushed

3 anchovy fillets, very finely chopped

2–3 thyme sprigs

freshly ground black pepper

300g celeriac

300g waxy potatoes

100g grated Comté cheese

green salad, to serve (optional)

For the topping:

100g sourdough or country-style bread, torn into small pieces

2 tbsp olive oil

30g grated Parmesan cheese

Preheat the oven to 190°C/375°F. Combine the milk, cream, garlic, anchovies and thyme in a 30 x 20 x 5-cm roasting tray and season with pepper.

Peel and very finely slice the celeriac and potatoes, ideally on a mandolin, adding the vegetables to the creamy tray liquid as you go to prevent them browning. Bake for 20 minutes, shaking the tray halfway through. Add a little more milk if necessary so the vegetables are just submerged. Meanwhile, mix all the topping ingredients together in a bowl. Set aside.

When the vegetables have had their 20 minutes, sprinkle over the Comté, then the topping mix. Bake for a further 30 minutes – the vegetables should be beautifully tender when the time is up. Leave to cool in the tray for 5 minutes before serving – a green salad is the perfect accompaniment.

What to drink: We drank a bottle of Chablis which is what we happened to have open but other white burgundy and, in particular, Jura chardonnay would work well too.

From Roasting Tray Magic by Sue Quinn (Quadrille, £14.99) Photography © Faith Mason

Brown rice and potato pilaf

Brown food is a bit of a running joke on instagram but the fact is that monotone brown or beige dishes are often the most delicious. That's certainly the case with Sam and Sam Clark's brown rice and potato pilaf from their most recent book Moro Easy.

"The double carbs are the key to the magic of this pilaf. The two basic ingredients combine to create an opulent and luxurious texture. Perfect with labneh, mushrooms, sweet herbs and chilli butter (page 67), spinach, pine nuts and sultanas (page 133), lamb chops (page 240), duck breasts with walnut and pomegranate sauce (page 226) and roast chicken with fenugreek and coriander marinade (page 222). (You now see why you need the book!)

Serves 4

75g butter

1 ½ teaspoons ground cinnamon

1 ½ teaspoons ground allspice or baharat

2 leeks (white parts only) thinly sliced

500g potatoes, peeled, cut into 1.5cm cubes and tossed with 1 teaspoon salt

250g brown rice

700ml hot vegetable stock (2 tablespoons Marigold vegetable powder mixed with boiling water)

4 tablespoons crispy fried onions

150g Greek yoghurt, mixed with 1 garlic clove, crushed with a little salt

In a medium heavy-based saucepan, heat the butter over a medium heat. When it foams, add the cinnamon and allspice, fry for 30 seconds, then add the leeks and a pinch of salt and black pepper. Fry for 12–15 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the leeks are soft and sweet.

Add the potatoes and rice, stir well, then pour over the hot stock. Cover with a circle of baking paper and a lid and simmer gently for 30–40 minutes, or until the potatoes and rice are cooked. Remove from the heat, check for seasoning and let it rest for 5 minutes, then serve with the crispy onions on top and the yoghurt on the side.

What to drink: It's not a question of matching the pilaf as the dish it accompanies though I think we're probably talking about a red. I'd be inclined to go for a rioja reserva if it was lamb chops and a new world pinot noir with the labneh and mushrooms.

Extracted from Moro Easy by Sam & Sam Clark, published by Ebury Press at £30. Photograph © Susan Bell

Footnote: Roopa Gulati has a brilliant recipe for crispy onions in her book India in the World Vegetarian series. Basically you slice a couple of large onions, sprinkle them with salt, leave them for at least an hour, drain them and pat them dry then deep fry them in batches. But you should get the book which is brilliant. FB

Poppycooks' Bacon-y Garlic-y Potato-y

Given TikTok megastar Poppy O'Toole (aka @poppycooks) passion for potatoes I really had to pick a potato recipe from her fab new cookbook Poppy Cooks so here is the recipe she calls Bacon-y Garlic-y Potato-y - which really does what it says on the tin.

Bacon-y Garlic-y Potato-y

Okay. This is my official statement on achieving the perfect potato dish: bacon, garlic and potato are the ménage à trois that is out here changing lives. It’s the modern-day throuple that’s right every time. Unless you’re veggie, that is – in which case, this dish is still a stand-out with just the garlic.

Serves 4

The core

1 recipe quantity of Cheese Sauce (see below)

For the gratin

4 large potatoes, peeled, and sliced into 5mm-thick (2 inch) rounds

1 tsp salt, plus extra to season

200g/7oz smoked bacon lardons

3 garlic cloves, peeled and chopped

2 rosemary sprigs, leaves picked and roughly chopped

100g/3.oz cheddar, grated

black pepper

1. Preheat the oven to 200°C/180°C fan/400°F/Gas 6.

2. Tip the spuds into a large saucepan and just cover with water. Add the salt and place over a high heat. Bring to the boil, then cook for about 7 minutes, until tender.

3. Drain the potatoes in a colander, then suspend the colander in the potato pan and cover with a clean tea towel for about 5 minutes, until the potatoes have steamed off and dried out a bit.

4. While the spuds are boiling, add the lardons to a cold frying pan and place over a medium heat. Fry for about 6 minutes, until cooked through and golden. Remove the lardons from the pan and set aside on a plate lined with kitchen paper.

5. Tip one third of the spuds into a medium ovenproof dish, spreading them out in an even layer. Season with salt and pepper and sprinkle over one third each of the garlic, rosemary, lardons and cheese. Top with a good ladleful of cheese sauce (if it’s been chilling in the fridge, you may need to spread it out a bit) and repeat twice more (potato, garlic etc, cheese, sauce), until the dish is full and you’ve finished with a final sprinkling of cheese. Bake for 30 minutes, until golden and a bit crispy on top. Dig in!

Cheese Sauce

It ends here. No more packet cheese sauces. It is literally so easy to make your own (it’s just the béchamel with cheese in it) and I promise you’ll be able to tell the difference. Forget the powdery texture and the 10,000 unknown ingredients that you just ignore on the packet. You know everything going into this baby, and it’s all good stuff. Good stuff = good sauce.

Serves 4-6 (depending on how you use it)

500ml/2 cups whole milk

50g/2oz butter

70g/2.oz plain flour

1 tsp salt

1/4 tsp ground nutmeg

200g/7oz your choice of cheese, grated (I’d go for cheddar and double Gloucester, but a traditional mornay sauce usually just has gruyère in there)

1. Pour the milk into a medium saucepan and place it over a medium heat for 7 minutes, until warmed through. Set aside.

2. Place a second, smallish saucepan over a low–medium heat. Add the butter and allow it to melt. Then, using a spatula or wooden spoon, gradually beat in the flour, about a tablespoon at a time, until you have a thick paste. You don’t want the paste to start browning – if you’re worried just take the pan off the heat to slow things down a little as you add.

3. Once all the flour is in, cook, stirring, until you have a dough-like consistency and the paste is coming away from the sides of the pan.

4. Little by little, add the warmed milk, making sure you allow the first addition to fully incorporate into the paste before adding more. Keep mixing to avoid lumps – switch to a whisk if you need to.

5. Once all the milk is in and you have a smooth, thick sauce, season with the salt and nutmeg.

6. Now, simply add your cheese and stir to melt in and combine for the perfect cheesy sauce! If you’re not using the sauce straight away, transfer it to an airtight container (leave it to cool before you put the lid on). You can store it for 3 days in the fridge and 3 months in the freezer.

What to drink: I'm not sure how much of a wine dish this is but a Chablis or lightly oaked chardonnay would work pretty well. Or a Belgian-style blonde ale like Leffe.

From Poppy Cooks by Poppy O'Toole published by Bloomsbury at £20.

Mamma Lucinda’s Pizzoccheri

This recipe, the subject of my Match of the Week, was so delicious I've persuaded Christine Smallwood, whose lovely book An Appetite for Lombardy it comes from, to share it on the site.

The recipe comes from Anna Bertola of Trattoria Altavilla in Bianzone. As Christine says "Anna uses delicious local mountain potatoes and serves very generous portions. You may well only require half of the quantity given here, unless you’ve had a particularly energetic day."

If you don't have the time or inclination to make the pasta from scratch you can buy a dried version from Italian delis such as Lina in Soho.

Serves 6

Pizzoccheri:

600g buckwheat flour

300g white 00 flour

1 tsp salt

400-500ml water, as needed

300g potatoes, peeled and cut into cubes

150g Savoy cabbage, cut into wide strips

300g young Valtellina Casera DOP cheese or Fontina, thinly sliced

150g Parmesan, grated

1/2 white onion

150g butter (this may well be authentic but seems an awful lot of butter. Think I'd probably use a third as much! FB)

Salt and pepper, to taste

To make the pizzoccheri, mix the two flours and the salt together. Add the water and knead for about 10 minutes. Roll out to about 3mm thick with a rolling pin. Cut out lengths of about 8cm wide and then cut these widthwise so that you have tagliatelle of about 7mm wide

Cook the potatoes in salted water and after about 5 minutes add the cabbage. When the water returns to the boil, add the pizzoccheri and bring the water back to a gentle boil.

After about 10 minutes drain some of the pizzoccheri, potatoes and cabbage with a perforated spoon, placing them into a baking dish. Place some slices of cheese on top, along with some Parmesan and then continue alternating layers of pizzoccheri and cheese.

Fry the onion in the butter and when browned, scatter over the top of the pizzoccheri. Serve on a pre-heated plate, with freshly ground pepper to taste.

What to drink: A Valtellina red such as the one we tried at Wild Artichokes or a Carterìa Valtellina Superiore Valgella D.O.C.G which is made from Chiavennasca, the local name for Nebbiolo.

This recipe comes from An Appetite for Lombardy by Christine Smallwood which is available to buy off her website for £18.