Here is the secret to making authentic pesto. Big thanks to author and chef Samin Nosrat, who shared her experience of making pesto with a Ligurian home cook in her fantastic series, Salt, Fat Acid, Heat. My version is adapted from Samin’s recipe.

Eggplants are at their absolute best in early autumn. The late summer sun gives these Mediterranean plants the kick they need to form fruit, which means they are still ripening right now as the autumn deepens. This is one of the ways we’ve been cooking them and I highly recommend trying it. These walnut-stuffed eggplant rolls are simple, yet absolutely delicious.

To me, autumn is a season of soft beauty and bitter-sweet nostalgia. I love the deep blue skies, gentle breezes, warm colours and the rusty-gate autumn call of the magpies. Autumn is a time of bounty in the veggie garden. It’s a time to celebrate the good things we find in our lives and to let anything that is holding us back fall away.

A healthy microbiome consists of millions of bacteria, some beneficial to humans and others less beneficial. We inherit our microbiome form our mother at birth. It has been with us since day one and has developed and changed with us throughout our life.

This is a fantastic summertime soup. It’s wholesome, mineral-rich and digestible, which is just what’s needed in the hot weather to keep the body cool and light, and to replenish minerals lost through sweating.

Dashi broth forms the flavour foundation for many Japanese dishes. It’s used as the base for soba or ramen, or as a poaching liquid for fish.

If you’ve always fancied trying your hand at sourdough, this fantastic Danish rye bread is a great place to start. It’s fairly failsafe and doesn’t require shaping; you just spoon it straight into the tin.

Just before Christmas we experienced the summer solstice; the longest day and shortest night of the year. At midsummer, Yang Qi (warm, expansive energy, associated with movement) reaches its peak and Yin Qi (cool, contracted energy, associated with fluids) is at its smallest.