And if you're still hungry ... seven speedy snacks

Seven quick recipes for when you want to fill your stomach in no time

Bruschetta with anchovies and feta

Serves 6

salted anchovy fillets - 24

extra-virgin olive oil

sourdough bread - 6 slices

feta cheese - 200g

lemons - 3, halved

Prepare the anchovy fillets by carefully separating the flesh from the bones, keeping the fillets as whole as you can. Rinse them to remove the excess salt, then pat them gently dry with kitchen paper. Lay them flat in a dish and season with black pepper and a drizzle of extra-virgin olive oil.

Make the bruschetta by toasting the bread on both sides. Pour a little olive oil over each one, then crumble over the feta cheese and lay the anchovies on top. Serve immediately, while the bread is still hot. Squeeze the lemons over as you eat.

Mushroom crostini

Serves 3

butter - 50g

garlic - 1 clove, lightly crushed

mushrooms - 450g, sliced

chopped fresh parsley - 2 tbs


freshly ground black pepper

French bread - 12 slices, 5mm thick

Melt the butter in a small pan. Add the crushed garlic and cook gently until the butter smells sweet and garlicky. Remove the garlic before it turns brown and bitter, turn up the heat and add the mushrooms.

Cook for four or five minutes, stirring occasionally, until they soften and soak up the garlic butter. Stir in the parsley and add a little salt and pepper. While the mushrooms are cooking, toast the bread. Spoon the mushrooms over the toast; eat at once.

Welsh rabbit

I've had a number of minor disasters with traditional recipes for this savoury little delicacy. This is not a particularly authentic version but it is the one that never fails for me, and is far quicker than the norm. The best flavour will come from cheeses that have some bite to them. A stilton or a very mature cheddar have enough of a tang to be interesting, caerphilly or wensleydale slightly less so.

Serves 2 as a snack

cheese - 225g

butter - 30g

Worcestershire sauce - 1 tbs

English mustard - 1 tbs

beer - 2 tbs

toast - 4 slices

Grate or crumble the cheese and mix to a rough paste with the butter, Worcestershire sauce, mustard and beer. Spread on the toast and grill for a minute or so, till it singes in patches. If the toast is slightly charred at the edges then even better.

Different rabbits: Chutney rabbit: Spread the toast under the cheese mixture with a thick layer of chutney. Bacon or salami rabbit: Strips of bacon, grilled crisp, or slices from a salami can be laid on the toast before pouring on the cheese mixture. Asparagus rabbit: The late food writer Jeremy Round made a version of this. It is almost the only use I can think of for tinned asparagus. Lay the spears over the buttered toast and top either with the Welsh rabbit mixture or just grate cheese, then grill till bubbling. You could add slices of pickled walnuts, chopped olives and anchovies.


Serves 2

2 x 400g tins chickpeas

garlic - 6 plump cloves, crushed

ground coriander - 2 tsp

ground cumin - 2 tsp

1 medium onion, chopped

plain flour - 2 tbs

chopped parsley - 1 tbs

groundnut oil for deep-frying

Drain, rinse and dry the chickpeas. Blend in a food processor with the garlic, spices and onion till smooth. Scoop into a bowl and stir in the flour and the parsley. Season with salt and pepper.

Stir the mixture thoroughly - it should be thick enough to roll into balls. With floured hands, roll the chickpea mixture into balls about the size of golf balls, maybe a little smaller. Deep-fry the balls in 10cm of hot fat. Alternatively, flatten them into patties and shallow-fry them for 2 minutes on each side, till crisp.

Serve them hot, stuffed into warm pitta bread. Traditionally, a cucumber and tomato salad would be stuffed in there too. Although tahini is one of the traditional lubricants for these crisp fritters, I prefer yoghurt, particularly with a little cayenne pepper and some chopped mint stirred into it.

Stuffed tortilla

Here's a deliciously messy snack. Soft, wheat-flour tortillas are available in most of the large supermarkets and, should you decide to keep a pack in the deep freeze, will defrost in minutes. Like any flatbreads, they are candidates for stuffing. Cheese, cut in thick slices, probably works best of all. There are two ways to deal with them either bake them in a hot frying pan, whose edges will contain the oozing cheese till it has cooled enough to slice, or fold the edges in like a parcel and cook on a baking sheet.

Serves 2

tomatoes - 4 ripe, medium to large

spring onions - 5

coriander leaves - a good handful

taleggio or other easy melting cheese - 300g

tortillas - 2

olive oil

Slice the tomatoes thinly, though not paper thin, and put them in a shallow dish. Trim the spring onions then slice them into short lengths, tucking them in among the tomatoes. Tear up the coriander leaves and toss them with the tomatoes, onions, a grinding of black pepper and the olive oil. Set aside for an hour or two to marinate.

Preheat the oven to 200°C/gas 6, placing either a metal-handled frying pan or a baking sheet in the oven to warm up. (A frying pan is better because it will contain the molten cheese.) Slice the cheese thickly. When the oven is up to temperature, remove the baking sheet and lay one of the tortillas on it, then cover with the sliced cheese, tomatoes, onions and coriander. Season with black pepper as you go. Lay the second tortilla on top and press lightly down, then shake over a little olive oil. Bake till the cheese is oozing out of the sides, a matter of 10 minutes or less. Cut into four with a sharp, heavy knife.

Smashed cannellini beans on crostini

A quickly put-together snack, made by blitzing canned cannellini beans with garlic and olive oil and spreading thickly on toast. Leave room for a small pool of your favourite olive oil to sit on top.

Serves 2-4 as a light snack

cannellini beans 1 x 400g can

garlic - 2 cloves

olive oil - 2 tbs plus a little more

ciabatta or similar open-textured bread - 4 to 6 slices

sage leaves

Drain the beans and put them into a small pan. Cover with fresh water and bring to the boil. Turn down the heat and simmer for a few minutes, then drain.

Tip the beans into a food processor and blitz with the garlic and a little salt, black pepper and olive oil. You want a smooth paste.

Toast the bread on both sides. Spoon over some of the bean purée and scatter with sage leaves, a little olive oil and black pepper.

Chicken liver and mushroom pâté

Serves 6

mushrooms - 200g

chicken livers - 400g

milk - enough to cover the livers

butter - 110g, plus 50g at the very end

whipping cream - 90ml


Chop the mushrooms into small pieces and cook them with the butter in a shallow pan till soft. Remove and set aside. Trim any dark or green bits from the livers, put them in a bowl, cover them with milk and leave them for 30 minutes. This will rid them of any bitterness.

Soften two-thirds of the 110g of butter, not so far as to melt it. Melt the remaining third in a shallow pan. When it starts to foam, drop in the drained livers. Take care - they will spit at you. Let them develop a pale golden crust on one side, turn them over and let them do the same to the other. It is essential that the butter is hot enough for this to take only a few minutes, otherwise the centre will not stay pink and the pâté will lose its magic.

Now tip the livers, their butter, the softened butter and a generous seasoning of salt and pepper into a blender or food processor with the cream and blitz to a purée. Pour a couple of good glugs of brandy into the empty pan and bring to the boil. Pour the brandy into the chicken livers and continue to blitz till smooth. I now suggest you sieve it, by pushing it through a fine mesh sieve with a wooden spoon. This is not compulsory (and it is a bit of pain) but you will be rewarded with a truly smooth, silky pâté if you do.

Stir the mushrooms into the pâté and scoop into a serving dish. Place the dish in the fridge and leave for half an hour. Melt the remaining butter, scrape off the froth with a spoon or kitchen paper, then pour the butter over the top of the pâté to seal it. Refrigerate for three or four hours until set.