THE COSY LAP DINNER ONE

A Dinner Party for the sofa

To serve 6 people

BURRATA WITH GRAPES AND FIGS

LASAGNA AI FUNGHI 

BLACKBERRY FOOL, ANZAC COOKIES

September has arrived, bringing with it rain, rain, and more rain; or at least that’s the case here in the UK. While the weather is dire and drab, I am still riding a wave of joy from our wedding in late August. It was just the most happy and love-filled day and I wish we could live it again and again and again. We were wed under the Bolognese sun surrounded by our family and best friends, had the most spectacular dinner (3 courses of pasta, naturally, followed by ice cream), a big old dance and then at 1am wrapped things up with a metre-wide lasagna (not big cake eaters). Heaven on Earth. I will write more about it and the 4 days we spent recovering in the breathtakingly beautiful wine country of Langhe later this month in More Please. 

And from one life-altering, mind-blowing thing to another, my debut cookbook Good Time Cooking is out THIS THURSDAY the 12th. I’ve hosted 2 dinner parties from the book this week, both a roaring success, and I am currently in the thick of prepping the food for the book launch, as well as various bits of media, content etc. It’s a lot and I am tired and I am stressed, but, as my wonderful husband reminded me, Me two years ago would have killed to be in the position I am in now. So I am unendingly grateful to you all for getting me here - this book wouldn’t be possible without my subscribers.

If you haven’t yet ordered it yet, well good news! I have managed to get 40% off for paying subscribers, making it only £15.60!!! You can find the code for this in Today’s More Please and all paid posts this month!

Right. I am, as usual, coming to you with an Autumn mood for September. Given my schedule and workload, I was craving the kind of dinner that gently heals you from within, by way of it being very easy, and being able to eat it on your lap. It’s cosy food for a cosy, casual night with close friends, movies, gossip and plenty of wine. Plus it has the palette of the season - violets, pinks and rusty browns. 

To begin we are using old faithful, the world's most crowd-pleasing ingredient since 2021, burrata. It’s just such a good base for a starter when your brain is mush and your back is sore. Served with sweet roasted grapes and figs in a vinegary dressing, it’s divine and decadent.

For our main, we have a dish I used to make for hen do’s funnily enough - Lasagna ai Funghi. Mushrooms pan roasted with sage and garlic, a nutmeg-rich bechamel, mozzarella and shop-bought lasagna sheets make up the layers of this wonderfully easy to put together and uber comforting pasta. 

Pudding is a Blackberry Fool served with Anzac Cookies. I have long been a blackberry sceptic, but this year they are particularly good - sweet and rounded and rich. Here they are cooked down into a compote and swirled through cream and yoghurt, to be served with oaty, coconutty and caramelly cookies. It's an elevated version of a favourite meal I sometimes have when I am really run down, which I call Yoghurt Dinner. A heaping bowl of yoghurt is served with fresh and stewed fruit, granola and lots of honey. Yes, it’s a classic breakfast, but I like to have it for dinner. Anyway this pudding is Yoghurt Dinner in jazzy dessert form.

Over on More Please this week, we have 3 One Pot Sofa Suppers for nights where you want to avoid washing up and actual chairs. There’s a nourishing and glorious Chicken Chowder, spiced Sausage and Date Pilaf and a comforting Chard, Cabbage and Butter Bean Hot Pot. Coming up next - a Seasonal Supper for September celebrating the Shallot. 

BURRATA WITH GRAPES AND FIGS

Burrata really does go with anything, but I think it holds up really well against sweet and sour in particular. And one of my long held opinions is that we are not cooking with grapes enough. When roasted they are these amazing, sweet flavour bombs, especially when combined with a bit of vinegar. Because it is September figs are excellent too, so really the math is easy here. I recommend letting the burrata come to temperature a bit before serving, and make sure you have appropriate quantities of crusty bread for dunking. 

Serves 6 as an antipasti 

• 500g red seedless grapes

• 4 ripe figs, halved

• 6 tbsps red wine vinegar

• 6 tbsps extra virgin olive oil

• 6 sprigs rosemary

• Plenty of salt and pepper

• 2 burratas

• Bread to serve

Preheat the oven to 200 fan. 

Spread out the grapes, still on their vines where possible, on one oven tray, and the halved figs on another. In a bowl combine the oil, vinegar, salt and pepper. Drizzle the mix over the grapes and figs. Arrange the rosemary sprigs over the two trays.

Roast the grapes and figs for 15 minutes or so, until just collapsing and beginning to caramelise. Warm the bread while the grapes and figs cool slightly - piping hot fruit equals blisters in mouths.

Arrange the warm grapes and figs on a platter, then place the burratas in the middle, bursting them at the table. Drizzle with any remaining juice from the trays and serve with the crusty bread. 

MAKE AHEAD -

• This is super easy and best made fresh, but once roasted the fruit will be delicious at room temperature, so feel free to let it sit for a couple of hours before serving.

SUBSTITUTIONS

• Use a mix of grapes if you like, or even swap figs for greengages or plums.

• Buffalo mozzarella would be delicious here instead of burrata, or you could use stronger soft cheeses like taleggio, gorgonzola or robiola.

LASAGNA AI FUNGHI

A lasagna is just a great way to feed people, especially as you can layer it up and let it sit, cooking it just before you need it. This one celebrates the beautiful mushroom season we now find ourselves in, and is toasty, rich and so very very good. I don’t really eat ready meals now (simply because I have so much food lying around already), but I have in the past and while some may think comparing a home-made dish to a ready-meal might not be a compliment I disagree. When I was a student M&S used to make an amazing mushroom pappardelle ready meal and this lasagne reminds me of it - heavy with garlic, herby from parsley, really rich and lusciously creamy. 

Serves 6

For the mushrooms

• 600g shiitake mushrooms, halved or quartered

• 900g chestnut mushrooms, sliced

• 15 cloves of garlic, sliced

• 60ml olive oil

• 60g butter

• 50g parsley, finely chopped

• 60g dried porcini

• Salt and pepper

• 20g sage, leaves picked

For the bechamel sauce

• 1.5l whole milk

• 120g butter

• 120g plain flour

• 100ml double cream

• A lot of nutmeg

• Salt and pepper

To assemble

• 600g fresh egg lasagne sheets

• 200g cooking mozzarella, diced

• 100g parmesan, finely grated

30cm / 37cm lasagne dish

Start with the mushrooms - you will need to cook them in 3 batches.

Cover the dried porcini with water in a pan and bring it up to the boil. Simmer for 5 minutes, then turn the heat off but let them soak for another 20 minutes. Heat ⅓ of the oil and butter together in a large casserole or frying pan. Add ⅓ of the mushrooms and mix well. Let them cook until they soften and turn light brown in the fat, around 8 - 10 minutes, before adding ⅓ of the garlic and sage. Fry everything together for another 5 minutes or so, seasoning generously with salt and pepper. Remove the mushroom mix from the pan and set it aside while you repeat with another batch. Remember to season each batch generously. Drain the soaked porcini mushrooms. Once all the mushrooms are cooked, mix them with the porcini and chopped parsley, cover them and set aside.

For the bechamel, heat the milk in a saucepan, and in another medium saucepan melt the butter. It is important to heat the milk here - it helps you make a smoother sauce. If you use cold milk it will cause the butter and flour to seize more and make whisking more difficult and the whole process will take longer. When the butter has melted, whisk in the flour and cook for 1 minute, whisking again before adding a ladleful of milk. Whisk to combine the milk - the mix will become thick and claggy briefly but keep whisking until smooth. Add another ladle of milk, whisk again and allow the mix to start bubbling again before adding more milk, continuing the process steadily. Once all the milk is in, allow to simmer for 5 minutes gently and taste the mix - you should not be able to detect any flour texture on the tongue. If you do, let it cook a little bit longer before removing from the heat. Add the cream, then season generously with salt, pepper and lots of fresh nutmeg. Set aside, covering the surface with clingfilm to prevent a skin forming. Chop the mozzarella and grate the parmesan.

To assemble the lasagne make sure your béchamel is hot. Bring a large pan of water to the boil and season it well with salt. It is super important to briefly cook your fresh pasta before it goes into the lasagne or it will be spongy and you won’t get lots of beautifully defined layers. I find it’s easier to blanch and layer as I go, so I don’t end up with tonnes of cooked lasagne sheets all spread out over my kitchen. Prepare a dish with iced water and a dish with a clean tea towel on. For each layer of pasta, you will need to par boil 2 or 3 pasta sheets for 1 minute, refresh in ice water and then drain on the tea towel before layering.

Preheat the oven to 180 fan.

On the base of your lasagne dish spread out one large ladle of hot béchamel. Blanch and refresh 3 sheets of pasta, dry briefly on the tea towel and then lay them in to cover the bottom. Add another ladle of béchamel and scatter over a couple of generous spoonfuls of the cooked mushrooms. Spread them over the pasta, dot a few pieces of mozzarella over and a small amount of parmesan and repeat with another layer of cooked lasagna sheets. Continue building like this, using all the mushrooms for the centre of the lasagna, and finishing with a final layer of bechamel, mozzarella and parmesan. You should have a lasagna of 4-5 layers. Now cover the top with foil.

Bake the lasagne in the preheated oven for 20 minutes covered and then 20 - 25 uncovered, until golden and bubbling. Set aside to rest for 10 minutes before serving.

MAKE AHEAD - 

• You can make all the elements for the lasagna up to 2 days ahead, and you can assemble the actual thing up to 24 hours ahead. I would only bake when you want to eat it though. 

SUBSTITUTIONS - 

• Add in stronger cheese like taleggio, fontina or even gruyere.

• You can of course use home-made pasta, recipe here. 

BLACKBERRY FOOL, ANZAC COOKIES

If I am struggling with a dessert idea, a fool is always a fabulous fall back option. It’s simple, delicious, looks impressive and is cheap to make too. In Somerset where I grew up, Anzac cookies are actually also known as Cottage Crunch. I recently went home and ate half a dozen that we bought in the local farm shop and reignited my love affair with them. So I decided it would be nice to make some to serve them alongside the fool; you end up with a sort of wholesome cookies and cream vibe, and as I said above, it’s also very similar to yoghurt dinner, but better.

For the Anzac Cookies - makes roughly 20 - 22

• 100g soft brown sugar 

• 70g plain flour

• 30g ground almonds

• 100g desiccated coconut

• 150g porridge oats

• Pinch of salt

• 125g salted butter

• 75g golden syrup

• 1 tsp bicarb

• 2 tbsp warm water

For the Fool

• 450g blackberries - 350g for the compote, the rest to stir through/garnish

• 50g golden caster sugar

• Juice of 1 lemon

• 1 tsp vanilla bean paste

• 400ml double cream

• 50g honey 

• 450g greek yoghurt (5% fat)

Preheat the oven to 180 fan. Line 2 - 3 oven trays with baking paper.

Put the sugar, butter and golden syrup together in a pan and heat together gently, stirring to dissolve the sugar. Meanwhile add the remaining dry ingredients to the bowl. When the butter mix is simmering and has turned into a thick sauce (this will only take a few minutes), pour it into the bowl of dry ingredients, as well as the warm water. Mix it all together really well with a wooden spoon to make a sticky, shaggy dough. Essentially this is a flapjack mix and you could press it into a tin and bake it as such, but I like to make cookies. Using wet hands, shape the dough into roughly 30 gram balls, space them out over the three trays. You can either bake them straight away, or chill them and bake when you need them. Bake for 12 minutes at 180 degrees until they are a deep golden, then remove them from the oven and let them cool on the tray. Don't try and move them before they have cooled - they will fall apart! These are best stored at room temperature in a container, and for a dinner party I would make them fresh on the day. 

To make the fool, take 350g of the blackberries and put them in a pan with the sugar, lemon juice and vanilla. Bring the mix to a boil on a medium heat, then turn it down and let it blip and bubble for around 8 - 10 minutes. Some but not all of the blackberries will have broken down, and you should have a syrupy compote. Pour into a bowl or container and leave to cool completely in the fridge.

For the fool itself, use a whisk to very gently combine the yoghurt, cream and honey. It will thicken up quickly, you don’t need to whip it! 

With a couple of strokes of a spoon, swirl 2/3rds of the compote and the remaining fresh blackberries through the yoghurt mix, hardly mixing it at all. You can chill this to serve later at this point, if you wish.

Pile the fool into bowls or glasses, topping with the remaining compote and serving with the Anzac cookies. 

MAKE AHEAD - 

• The compote can be made up to 3 days ahead

• The fool can be made up to 6 hours ahead. 

• The biscuits will keep for 3 days in a container.

SUBSTITUTIONS -

• Blueberries, gooseberries or plums would be welcome additions / substitutions in the compote.

• I like using yoghurt here, but crème fraiche would work too.

• Use plant based butter to make the cookies vegan if you like.

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

Firstly, this beautiful Autumnal spread is simple and casual, so I wouldn’t go too hard on the styling of this. Not to mention the palette across the dishes does sort of style itself. I was, as usual, tempted to brighten things up with flecks of green herbs or salad whilst plating it, but those rosy, rusty hues are so evocative and perfectly plush I didn’t want to break them up. Of course, if it feels too dull for you then bung on some parsley. 

I love our starter on an oval platter, it allows the grape vines to stretch and twirl around the burrata and figs. If you have a silver one, excellent, but if not something beige/yellow or pink would be beautiful. Lasagna is a self-styler, the only tip I have for this is let it rest as per the recipe, or you will end up with a pile of slop.

Finally, the fool! I really love serving desserts like this in sundae glasses or coupes, I got mine from a charity shop, but here are a few great options online that you can purchase.

1. Ebay

2. Etsy

3. Chefstuff