THE 1 YEAR ANNIVERSARY ONE

The Dinner Party is 1! Let's celebrate with a communal risotto!

MENU TO SERVE 6 PEOPLE 

CRISPY POTATOES, FISH DIP

ASPARAGUS AND SAUCE GRIBICHE

SAUSAGE RAGU, DOUBLE CREAM RISOTTO

SALTED ALMOND PANNA COTTA

On 4th April 2022, the very first Dinner Party episode went out into the world. Last week on the 4th of April 2023, 16 episodes,127 recipes and 6500 subscribers later, I cooked and photographed the 17th Dinner Party and felt immense pride and joy doing it. I am so, so proud of this newsletter and I am extraordinarily grateful to you all for joining me here. After Covid, having friends around just felt so much more special and exciting and I wanted to jump on that feeling. Deciding to write about how to cook cleverly and joyfully for a crowd has been immensely rewarding for me both creatively and professionally. When I get your emails, DMs or comments telling me how much you loved this or how well that went down with your guests it is clear to me how valuable this is and gets me through the hours of washing up post shoot and the headaches from staring at my screen. 

There is SO MUCH MORE to come from The Dinner Party! I have lots of exciting and delicious plans for this year and the next, and you are ALL invited. Keep your eyes peeled, your inboxes checked and your tummies rumbling. And thank you, again, for being here.

RIGHT. SO. The very first menu for The Dinner Party was inspired by the groaning tables of Italian American households and also represented my favourite way of dining ie. all to share (which I have harped on about ever since). For this Anniversary menu I wanted to revisit that concept with some new ideas with old favourites and a seasonal focus of course. 

Our snack is the stalwart of the small plates gang, the inevitable must order for the table in most mid-range independent restaurants, the honey of the London gastropub bar menu. It is, of course, the Fried Potato and Smoked Cod's Roe combo. It’s been floating around for years and let’s be honest, it doesn’t really get old. And we Brits love it because in reality, it’s basically souped up chips disguised as an elegant starter. I felt like it deserved a spot in The Dinner Party hall of fame, but smoked cod’s roe is bloody expensive and not easy to come by. So, I’ve developed a cheats version here using smoked trout that is extremely good and half the effort and price. The potatoes are, well, they are crispy fried potatoes. Need I say more?

Next is one of my FAVOURITE ways to serve the big April player in the British seasonal veg lineup - asparagus. It’s a vehicle for everything punchy, fatty and salty and Sauce Gribiche is all of those things. It’s comparable to tartare or salsa verde but with added chopped boiled egg and is just divine with the sweet, juicy stems of green goodness. Plus it’s one of those preparations that can only be done in a charmingly retro way which you know gives me great pleasure. 

For our main, I wanted to riff on a dish I saw featured on a Pasta Grannies episode; Frascarelli. It’s a kind of rice porridge thickened with flour, served on a giant polenta board with a sausage ragu on top. Polenta is often served this way in Eastern Italy - on giant boards to share communally over the table. The frascarelli with the added flour doesn’t lend itself to the Dinner Party method of getting ahead, so risotto is a good swap here, but I wanted to amp up the creaminess so went down the somewhat obvious route of adding lots of double cream. The sausage ragu of THIS family style menu (last year’s was a sugo with pork ribs too) is spicy and rich and heavenly with the risotto. I love the idea of plonking down a board in front of your guests, pouring out the unctuous risotto and then topping with the sauce, doling out forks and telling everyone to dig in. Of course if you don’t have a board that works for this then giant platters work brilliantly too. 

Finally for our pudding, we have AT LAST sashayed into the world of Panna Cotta. One of my all time favourite desserts and so deceptively easy to do well when you know how. This is a very special recipe and does require a little bit of a time investment but my GOD is it worth it. It tastes a lot like crunchy nut cornflakes in the best way, and served with a spoonful of lemony amarena cherries and a crispy almond brittle it is such a showstopping finish to this meal. You could argue that the single serves are not very family style BUT you could also argue that it’s a bit like giving everyone a Gu pudding pot or a petit filous which is how a lot of my family meals ended for years and years so bugger off I am doing it.

CRISPY POTATOES, FISH DIP

At my old school, one of the ways they got away with giving us chips more than once a week was to cut the potatoes into discs instead of sticks and rename them “sautéed potatoes”. This is exactly the kind of energy I wanted to bring to my starter of approximated chips and approximated cod’s roe dip. Speaking of dip, this is an absolutely ESSENTIAL cheats version with taramasalata-esque flavours and I am very proud of it. Beyond this it would be great with bread, crudités, in a sandwich or on a mezze table. But of course, it is really great with a chip too. 

For the potatoes

• 1kg small maris piper potatoes, peeled and sliced into 3mm ish discs.

• 1l veg oil, for frying

• salt

For the fish dip

• 100g smoked trout, roughly chopped

• 1 small clove of garlic, peeled

• Zest of half, juice of a whole lemon

• 2 tbsps extra virgin olive oil

• 1 tbsp water

• 170g full fat cream cheese

• 80g mayonnaise

• ½ tsp smoked paprika

• A few splashes of Tabasco

Put the sliced potatoes in a large pan and cover with cold water. Season the water well and then bring it up to a rolling boil. Once boiling, let the potatoes cook for around 2 - 3 minutes until just tender. Drain carefully, try not to break your slices, and then leave to cool completely spread out on a couple of trays. The sides can be roughed up a bit, like you would with a roast potato, if you like. 

To make the dip, put all of the ingredients into a blender and blitz until smooth. I did this in my nutribullet for a super whipped texture. 

Heat the oil in a large, deep pan or in a deep fat fryer to 170 degrees. In batches fry the potatoes until deep golden and crisp, turning them a few times during their cooking. Drain on kitchen paper. You can serve the potatoes hot from the fryer, or you can leave them to cool and then reheat in a 180 oven for around 15 minutes with a couple of teaspoons of vegetable oil as if they were an oven chip.

Serve the hot potatoes with some flaky sea salt and the glorious floofy dip. 

MAKE AHEAD - 

• The potatoes can be boiled and cooled, and then even fried and cooled up to 24 hours ahead, which is especially handy if you don’t want to fry when your guests are in your home. 

• The dip keeps in the fridge for up to 4 days, the only problem is you might end up eating it with other things before you need it.

SUBSTITUTIONS - 

• If you can’t be bothered to make the potatoes then of course you have various options open to you - posh crisps or oven chips or even popping out to the nearest kebab shop and picking up a bag. Or you can serve the dip with something entirely different like I suggested above.

ASPARAGUS AND SAUCE GRIBICHE

Just as the culinary world recovers from wild garlic fever, it then goes into overdrive for the spiky lusciousness of asparagus. The thick, juicy spears of British asparagus are worth waiting for and a Sauce Gribiche is a fabulous way to do them justice. If you wanted you could even make this a main for a lunch, serving the asparagus and sauce on top of thick slabs of grilled sourdough with furls of parma ham or mortadella alongside. But here, with all that’s going on in our menu, I like it simply piled onto platters and shared. 

For the sauce gribiche

• 3 large eggs

• 1 egg yolk

• 1 tbsp dijon mustard

• 1 anchovy, finely chopped

• 6 cornichons, finely chopped

• ½ banana shallot, finely chopped

• 2 tbsps capers

• A handful of dill, finely chopped

• 20g tarragon leaves, finely chopped

• 150ml extra virgin olive oil

• Juice of ½ a lemon

• 500g British asparagus, hard ends trimmed off

Cook the eggs in boiling salted water for 9 minutes, then refresh in iced water to cool them completely. Peel the eggs, finely chop them and set them aside. Whisk together the egg yolk, dijon mustard and lemon juice, then slowly whisk in the olive oil to make a smooth emulsion - you can do this in a food processor if you prefer. Fold in all the chopped ingredients including the cooked eggs and check the seasoning.

Bring a large pan of well salted water to the boil, then drop in the asparagus. Cook for around 3 minutes - the tip of the spear should gently bend to the touch but still have a little push back. Drain the asparagus and arrange on a couple of plates or platters. Dress the centre of the spears with the sauce gribiche and serve immediately. 

MAKE AHEAD - 

• The sauce gribiche is best made on the day but will sit happily at room temperature for a few hours before serving. 

• Feel free to boil the eggs in advance and keep in the fridge for up to 2 days.

SUBSTITUTIONS - 

• Feel free to play with the herbs in this - parsley and mint would also be gorgeous. 

• Gribiche goes beautifully with boiled leeks, new potatoes or artichokes if you don’t like asparagus. 

SAUSAGE RAGU, DOUBLE CREAM RISOTTO

This is filthily good, I must say. The risotto enriched by the cream is incredibly comforting, but somehow even more so with the bright and spicy ragu on top of it. It's a wonderfully harmonious pairing and also looks spectacular on a dinner party table. It’s also excellent made ahead - just follow my instructions for par cooking the risotto base, and as always with ragu it’s greatly improved with a day's rest. This is a generous serve for 6 but expect there to be plenty of people going back for more. 

For the ragu

• 2 tbsps olive oil

• 1 onion, diced

• 1 bulb of fennel, trimmed and diced

• 2 sticks of celery, diced 

• 4 garlic cloves, sliced

• 70g guanciale or pancetta, diced

• 1kg sausage meat - I use Italian sausages that I skin and crumble 

• 1 tsp fennel seeds, crushed

• 1 - 2 tsps chilli flakes depending on how hot you like it

• 150ml white wine

• 60ml whole milk

• 2 tins whole plum tomatoes

• 2 bay leaves

• 2 tbsps ‘nduja (optional)

For the risotto

• 500g carnaroli rice

• 6 shallots, finely diced

• 1 tbsp olive oil

• 65g butter

• 150ml white wine

• 1.6l chicken stock

• 80g parmesan plus extra to serve

• 175ml double cream

To make the ragu, start the guanciale off in a large saucepan or casserole and slowly bring it up to a medium heat so that it gently renders off it’s fat and crisps - about 10 minutes. Add a couple more tablespoons of olive oil and then add the onion, fennel and celery. Fry the veg with the guanciale for about 10 minutes until softened and lightly golden while you crumble your sausage meat. Add the garlic, fennel seeds and chilli flakes to the veg and fry for a minute before adding the sausage in, mixing well. Cook for a couple more minutes, breaking down any big bits of sausage with a spoon if necessary. Then add the wine and scrape down the bottom of the pan, then bring the sauce back up to the boil and add the tomatoes, milk and bay leaves. Cover with a lid and leave to simmer gently on a low heat for 1 hour and a half. Right at the end, melt in the ‘nduja and check the seasoning - the sausage is usually well seasoned so it’s worth waiting until the end to check.  

For the risotto base take a large heavy bottomed pan and heat the oil and 45g of butter on a medium heat. When the butter sizzles, add the shallots and sweat for 8 minutes or so - you do not want them to take on any colour. When the shallots are soft and translucent, add the rice and mix really well. At this point you need to keep an eye on the rice as it can burn quite easily. What we want is the rice to move in the fat and toast, which forms a protective shell around the rice grain. I like to toast my rice, moving it all the time to prevent burning, for around 4 minutes until it smells intensely ricey. Season the rice generously at this point with salt. After the rice has toasted, add the wine and stir well to combine. Keep stirring the rice and wine until the wine has been completely absorbed and the mix has dried out. Now you can add 2 ladles of your hot stock, stir well and set a timer for 14 minutes. You don’t have to stir constantly but you do need to keep things moving, and each time the stock has been completely absorbed and the mix is dry, this is the right moment to add more. After 14 minutes of this, take the pan off the heat and pour the mix onto a large tray and spread it out, this helps it cool down much quicker, you can also draw diagonal lines through the mix with my spoon to help the heat escape. If it's a cool day, stick this outside for 20 minutes or so before fridging, if not, let it cool to body temp before covering with cling film and popping in the fridge until needed. Keep the remaining stock for finishing the risotto later. 

When you have eaten your starter, reheat the stock, pop the risotto base into a pan, breaking up any really solid bits with a spoon to speed up heating and add a ladle of stock to it on a medium heat. Be attentive, the risotto will absorb lots of stock here and potentially catch, so add more stock if you hear it sizzling. In another pan gently reheat the ragu to simmering. Once the risotto is bubbling, continue adding stock as before until the grains are just tender, around 6 minutes. Let your last addition of stock be absorbed and then remove from the heat and beat in the parmesan cheese and remaining 20g of butter. Then gently stir in the double cream and check the seasoning before pouring onto your board or platter and then topping with the piping hot ragu and finishing with some extra parmesan. 

MAKE AHEAD - 

• The ragu can be made up to 3 days ahead as can the risotto base. 

SUBSTITUTIONS - 

• Veggie sausage and vegan ‘nduja could work here, as well as plant based substitutes for butter, cream and cheese in the risotto. 

• If you can’t get hold of ‘nduja then don’t worry! It can be omitted.

• Italian sausages are best but in their absence good quality Cumberland sausages work well.
  
  
  
  SALTED ALMOND PANNA COTTA

A panna cotta is a truly beautiful thing when done well and this one is especially great as it kind of tastes like the milk from my favourite cereal - Crunchy Nut Cornflakes. Years ago when I was in restaurants I spent my brief stint on the pastry section playing around with lots of different ice cream flavours and infusions. My favourite creation was salted almond - deeply toasted flaked almonds are simmered then left to sit in the cream and milk mix and impart an amazing, complex and comforting aroma. Add a pinch of salt and it’s heaven and it works brilliantly as a silky smooth panna cotta too. As an experiment I mixed the leftover almonds from the cream infusion with a bit of sugar and baked them again, and to my utter delight they made an insanely delicious toasty almond brittle and a fabulous crispy topping for the Panna Cotta and general kitchen snack. We love to see some zero waste cooking!

For the Panna Cotta 

• 200g flaked almonds

• 600ml double cream

• 200ml whole milk

• 100g soft brown sugar

• 3 gelatine leaves - I use Dr Oetker

• A pinch of flakey sea salt

• 6 dariole moulds or glasses

For the brittle

• The soaked almonds, drained well

• 65g caster sugar

To serve

• The zest and juice of half a lemon

• 70g amarena or maraschino cherries in syrup 

At least 36 hours before you want to serve your panna cotta, preheat your oven to 160 fan. Spread the almonds out on a tray and bake them for 20 - 25 minutes , tossing every now and again for an even cook, until they are a lovely even colour that is similar to a strong builder's tea. They will smell divine too. Meanwhile, heat the cream, milk and sugar gently and when it is just steaming, pour all of the nuts into the mix. Cook very gently - the mix mustn’t boil, for about 2 minutes then remove from the heat, cover with cling film and leave to cool and infuse for at least 6 hours or overnight. After the nuts have infused, strain the mix well through a fine sieve - let the nuts drain for at least 15 minutes and do not throw them away. Soak the gelatine leaves in some iced water to soften it. Bring the flavoured cream back to a gentle simmer, remove from the heat and then whisk in the softened gelatine leaves one at a time, squeezing out any excess water from the gelatine before adding it. Strain this mix again through a fine sieve into a jug and leave to cool for 10 - 15 minutes. Pop the moulds or glasses you are using onto a tray and then pour the mix between them. If you want to be really accurate you can weigh the total mix and then divide by 6 and weigh the correct amount into each receptacle. Cover the moulds with clingfilm and then place into the fridge on a flat surface for at least 12 hours to set. 

To make the almond brittle, preheat your oven to 120 fan. Take the drained almonds from the infusion and mix with the caster sugar. They will be soft and will be covered in the cream still but that’s ok - that will dry out! Line two baking trays with greaseproof paper and spread the almonds over them, then pop them in the oven for 45 minutes to an hour. In this time the milk, cream and sugar mix will dry out and caramelise gently along with the nuts creating a delicious toasted milk and nut flavour brittle. This makes a large quantity so you will have plenty of this leftover to use in granola, crumble, on rice dishes or roast chicken or even salads - it’s great for sweet and savoury! Just leave the brittle to cool before placing in shards in an airtight tupperware. 

To serve the panna cottas, mix the cherries with the lemon zest and juice. If you are using moulds then carefully dip the moulds in a bowl of hot but NOT boiling hot water for around 60 - 90 seconds. Then put your serving plate on top of the mould and invert the plate. Let the panna cotta gently settle onto the plate, tapping the mould if necessary. Top with a couple of shards of brittle and a spoonful of cherries. If you are serving the panna cottas in glasses then just crumble over some brittle and pop a couple of cherries on top. 

MAKE AHEAD - 

• It goes without saying that it is imperative you start the panna cotta process well ahead of time so that the nut flavour can be properly infused and the gelatine can set. I recommend starting the morning before, infusing the cream mix all day and then making the panna cottas and the night before you want to serve them. 

• The brittle will keep for a week in an airtight container.

SUBSTITUTIONS - 

• Fresh cherries, raspberries, blackberries or peaches would be a lovely accompaniment to this in the summer months.

• Experiment with different toasted nuts! Chopped hazelnuts or pistachios would be delicious as well.

TIMEPLAN 

This first plan should help you see what you can get done in advance, so that for each course on the day you have at least 1, maybe 2 major parts of it taken care of. I appreciate that not everyone’s weeks are easily peppered with dinner party prep, but if you’re hosting after work or on a day where you can’t be in the kitchen, getting ahead is going to save your arse.

MISE-EN-PLACE

This is the fancy name we give to the food prep each section in the restaurant needs to do for their dishes. Hopefully breaking down each dish like this will help you feel organised. 

Use the hour before your guests arrive to organise your space too- I find it helpful to group ingredients by dish so it is all in the same place. Little ramekins are really useful for this.

STYLING 

CRISPY POTATOES, FISH DIP

A floofy pale pink dip like this looks pretty great however you plate it. I went for a piped pile (ew) in my shoot of this menu, but a dollop from a hot spoon or a smoosh with a palette knife would also be glorious. Because the dip is pale but the potatoes golden, I think pastels work best here. You can of course also just keep the dip in a bowl and the potatoes in their own dish. 

ASPARAGUS AND SAUCE GRIBICHE

This looks most spectacular to me on large plates or platters, all the asparagus pointing the same way and the sauce adorning it centrally. It feels very Downton Abbey. However of course if you don’t have that option then heaps of asparagus and sauce for the table work too. I love the glaring green of this on white or blue. 

SAUSAGE RAGU, DOUBLE CREAM RISOTTO

As in the Pasta Grannies video, this is a fabulous opportunity for a big board and no plates. I realise this might be unachievable so of course go down the platter route too, or even individual serves will work. With the fierce red of the ragu I think muted warm tones match - yellows, oranges, terracotta, beige. 

SALTED ALMOND PANNA COTTA

If you don’t have moulds or are worried about the risks involved with having to extricate your panna cottas, then I thoroughly recommend setting them in lovely glasses. They still look glorious and you can have fun with mixing and matching, plus they are a lot easier to manage. If you do go for the moulds then pop them onto your prettiest plates - the oatmeal colour of the panna cotta works well with pinks, purples, yellows and blues.