It’s a good time of the year for a bake, a great user-upper of all that super-ripe, tail-end-of-the-season produce. A bake, for me, is also a delightful catch-all, because it lets me make something that pays tribute to, but doesn’t quite follow, the tradition of another dish.
Today’s sweet bake, for example, is part friand and part clafoutis. Andwith the pissaladière gratin, I’ve taken the classic flavour combination of pissaladière (the southern French take on pizza, with a caramelised onion and salted anchovy topping) and simplified it into a base-free bake. The result is like a cream-free dauphinoise – so, again, a dish that nods in two directions. As for the lamb bake, well, I’d normally call that a meatloaf, but that seems to put some people off from the start.
What unites all these dishes, whatever you call them, is that they are perfectly suited to this time of year. That contrast between the crisp, browned surface and the soft filling beneath is like the kitchen’s answer to how it feels outside – where it’s increasingly crisp, before heading indoors to somewhere soft and cosy. It’s the combination of those two things that makes autumn for me.
Courgette, tomato and pesto gratin
This works as a side dish (to go with roast chicken or fried salmon, say) or as a main in its own right with some bread or rice alongside. Serves six as a main, eight as a side.
60g basil (leaves and stalks)
60g blanched almonds, lightly toasted
120g parmesan, coarsely grated
70ml olive oil
Salt and black pepper
8 courgettes, cut widthways on an angle into 0.5cm-thickrounds
8 large plum tomatoes, cut into 0.5cm-thickrounds
1 50g slice sourdough, crusts left on, blitzed into chunky breadcrumbs
Heat the oven to 200C/390F/gas mark 6. Put the basil, almonds and 80g parmesan in a food processor with four tablespoons of oil, a quarter-teaspoon of salt and a tablespoon of water. Blitz to a rough pesto, then tip into a large bowl. Add the courgettes and tomatoes, as well as half a teaspoon of salt and plenty of pepper, and mix to combine. Spoon the vegetables into a 30cm x20cm high-sided baking dish, pressing them down as much as possible, then bake for 30 minutes. Remove from the oven, press the vegetables down again and baste with the juices, then bake for a further 15 minutes.
Meanwhile, mix the breadcrumbs with the remaining 40g parmesan and two teaspoons of oil. Once the vegetables have been baking for 45 minutes, sprinkle the breadcrumb mix all over the top and bake for a final 15 minutes, until golden brown and crisp on top. Leave to rest for five minutes and serve warm.
Pissaladière gratin
This would make a lovely side for aroast shoulder of lamb or a roast chicken, along with a crisp, green salad. Serves four to six.
60ml olive oil
3 garlic cloves, peeled and crushed
3 large onions, peeled and very finely sliced (on a mandoline, ideally)
Finely grated zest of 1 lemon
1½ tsp caraway seeds
2½ tbsp thyme leaves, finely chopped
Salt and black pepper
50g Kalamata olives, pitted and roughly chopped
750g desiree potatoes, unpeeled and cut into 3mm-thick slices (again, on amandoline, ideally)
20g anchovies, roughly chopped
350ml vegetable stock
Heat the oven to 180C/350F/gas mark 4. Heat three tablespoons of oil in a large saute pan on a medium-high flame, then add the garlic, onions, lemon zest, caraway, two tablespoons of thyme and a quarter-teaspoon of salt, and fry for 10 minutes, stirring often, until soft and golden. (If the onions take on too much colour, just turn down the heat.) Off the heat, stir in the olives.
Cover the base of a20cm x 30cm baking dish with a quarter of the potato slices, overlapping them slightly, and season with a pinch of salt and some pepper. Top with a third of the onions, then dot a third of the anchovies evenly over that. Repeat the three layers twice more, and top with a final layer of potatoes. Pour the stock over the top, drizzle over the remaining tablespoon of oil, then cover tightly with foil and bake for 30 minutes. Remove the foil and bake for 40 minutes more, until the potato is cooked and the top is crisp and golden brown. Sprinkle over the remaining teaspoon and ahalf of thyme and leave to cool for five to 10 minutes before serving.
Lamb bake with tahini sauce and grated tomatoes
You can serve this in two ways: just as it is, warm, as part of a main meal; or leave it to cool and set, then cut into thick slices – these are great piled into a sandwich or warm pitta with the tahini sauce and tomato drizzled on top. Makes one loaf (or eight slices),to serve four to eight.
1 courgette, roughly chopped
1 carrot, peeled and roughly chopped
1 onion, peeled and roughly chopped
3 tomatoes – 1 roughly chopped, 2 coarsely grated and skin discarded
500g lamb mince, at least 20% fat
4 garlic cloves, peeled and crushed
80g pecorino, finely grated
50g fresh breadcrumbs
2 large eggs
2 tbsp tomato paste
2 tsp ground cumin
2 tsp ground allspice
Salt
100g tahini paste
3 tsp lemon juice
2 tsp olive oil, plus extra for greasing
Heat the oven to 190C/375F/gas mark 5 and grease a 20cm x 10cm loaf tin with a little oil.
Put the courgette, carrot, onion and chopped tomato in the bowl of afood processor and blitz until it’s of a similar consistency to the mince. Transfer to a sieve set over abowl and squeeze out as much liquid as possible. Put the vegetables in a large bowl, add the lamb, two garlic cloves, all the pecorino, breadcrumbs, eggs, tomato paste and spices, and a teaspoon of salt, then use your hands to bring it all together until well combined.
Transfer to the loaf tin, then put the tin in a high-sided baking dish. Carefully fill the dish with enough boiling water to come halfway up the sides of the tin, then bake for an hour and 10 minutes, until golden brown.
While the meatloaf is cooking, make the sauces. Put the tahini, one garlic clove, two teaspoons of lemon juice and an eighth of a teaspoon of salt in a medium bowl, then slowly whisk in 80ml water until you have a smooth sauce.
In a second bowl, mix the grated tomatoes with the remaining garlic, a teaspoon of lemon juice, the olive oil and an eighthof a teaspoon of salt.
Once the meatloaf is cooked, lift the loaf tin out of its water bath and leave to cool for 10 minutes. Pour off and discard any liquid and fat in the loaf tin, then, using a wide spatula, transfer the meatloaf to a platter. Pour a third of the tahini sauce over the meatloaf, followed by a third of the tomatoes. Serve warm, with theremaining sauces alongside, orleaveto cool and cut into slices toserve in pitta bread with the sauces drizzled on top.
Plum and blackberry friand bake
Friands are light, moist almond cakes that are traditionally made as little individual cakes, but here I cook the batter in a single baking dish. Serve with custard, vanilla ice-cream or adrizzle of cream. Serves eight.
200g blackberries
4 ripe plums, stoned and cut into 1cm-wide wedges
1 tsp vanilla essence
60g caster sugar
3 fresh bay leaves
1 tsp ground cinnamon
60g plain flour
200g icing sugar, sifted
120g ground almonds
⅛ tsp salt
150g egg whites (ie, from 4-5 large eggs)
180g unsalted butter, melted and slightly cooled
Heat the oven to 190C/375F/gas mark 5. Put the fruit in a bowl with the vanilla essence, sugar, bay leaves and half the cinnamon, and set aside for 30 minutes. (Don’t be tempted to leave it sitting around for too much longer, otherwise the fruit will release too much juice.)
Put the flour, icing sugar, ground almonds, the remaining half-teaspoon of cinnamon and salt in asecond large bowl.
Lightly whisk the egg whites for 30 seconds, so they just start to froth, then stir into the flour mix with the melted butter, until well combined.
Tip the batter into a 20cm x 30cm baking dish and top with the fruit and juices. Bake for 35 minutes, then cover the dish with foil and bake for 10 minutes longer, until thebatter is golden brown and the fruit bubbling. Leave to rest for 10minutes before serving.
