Take three chefs: recipes to remind us of sunny days

ROSARIO SARTORE, LOCANDA DE GUSTI

“I have many dishes that remind me of back home in Naples. In the summer the fruit and vegetables are so full of flavour that you would have to go there to really savour them.

My all-time favourite summer dish that takes me back to my childhood is the very simple but wonderful Insalata Caprese, traditionally made with ripe sliced beef tomatoes, layered with buffalo mozzarella, extra virgin olive oil, basil, black pepper and sea salt. This is the version I prefer and also an elegant way to serve at a dinner party.”

INSALATA CAPRESE

Serves 6

Ingredients

6 martini glasses

8 large vine ripe tomatoes

Extra virgin olive oil

Pearls of mozzarella

Basil leaves

1 clove garlic

Sea salt and black pepper

2 ice cubes

Crostini

Method

1 Wash tomatoes and chop roughly.

2 Put the tomatoes into a blender with extra virgin olive oil, 1 garlic clove, season with salt & pepper, fresh basil.

3 Add the ice cubes and blend until smooth.

4 Pour into martini glasses.

5 Top with a few pearls of mozzarella and drizzle with the extra virgin olive oil

6 Decorate with a basil leaf and serve with crostini.

PAUL HART, THE SCOTSMAN HOTEL

Paul joins The Scotsman Hotel as executive head chef, after winning a string of awards and retaining three AA rosettes for three years at the Old Course Hotel

St Andrews.“Something that always brings a smile to my face about summer holidays is remembering all the yummy ice creams they make in Italy. Lots of Italian towns have these amazing little gelato shops, so I have devised a recipe for a British summertime classic turned into a tasty Italian gelato.”

STRAWBERRIES AND CLOTTED CREAM GELATO

Serves 10

Ingredients

700ml whole milk – hot

250g castor sugar

10 egg yolks

250g clotted cream

500g Scottish strawberries hulled (remove the green bit)

150g sugar

1 lemon, juiced

Method

1 Whisk together the sugar and egg yolks then pour on the hot milk, whisking constantly.

2 Pour mix back into a pan and gently heat, stirring all the time. You could do with a thermometer for this as you need to heat it to 82°C so that you cook the eggs enough to thicken the base but not enough to scramble the eggs.

3 Take off the heat and pour into a bowl that is either sitting over another bowl filled with ice or sit it in a sink of cold water as you need to take the heat out of it straight away to stop it overcooking, leave to cool, then whisk in the clotted cream. Leave to stand.

4 Cut 100g of the strawberries into small chunks. Blend the rest of the strawberries with the sugar and the lemon juice.

5 Place the strawberry sauce into a pot and bring up to the boil on the stove then turn down the heat and gently cook to thicken the strawberry sauce to a thick consistency, so it coats the back of your spoon, take off the heat and leave to cool.

6 To finish, churn the clotted cream base in an ice cream machine or a tub in your freezer that you will need to stir every hour until set. Once the mixture is thickened and semi-frozen, take out of the ice cream machine and place in a tub and drizzle with your cooled strawberry sauce, sprinkle in some of the chopped strawberries and gently stir through to create a ripple effect.

7 Freeze for another hour or as long as you can wait, close your eyes and enjoy.

GAVIN LINDSAY, MALMAISON

Gavin started with the Malmaison group in 2003 and has recently taken over as head chef at Hotel du Vin Edinburgh.

“I remember going to France when I was younger with my parents and their friends and watching them eating things like a giant globe artichoke with aioli, other classic dishes like tartiflette, and Bouillabaisse, which I have a lovely recipe here.It has been tarted up with some more expensive cuts of fish and shellfish –

ie, monkfish, langoustines – but can be done on a budget too if you wanted to use mussels, gurnard etc.”

BOUILLABAISSE

serves 4

Ingredients

1 whole red mullet

500g monkfish tail, trimmed

8 langoustines

1 large white onion, chopped

½ leek, cleaned and sliced

2 large carrots, peeled and diced

½ bulb fennel

1 red chilli

500g pollack, skinned and cut into pieces

100g tomato pureé

100ml dry white wine

6 sprigs of thyme

4 stalks of parsley

1 bay leaf

1 bulb of garlic

½ tsp saffron

½ tsp curry powder

½ tsp cayenne pepper

Salt and pepper

Method

1 Make fish stock with the bones from the red mullet, trimmings of the monkfish and pollack, using 2½ litres of water bring to the boil and simmer gently for 20 min then pass through chinos.

2 Sweat off the vegetables and the chilli sliced in half on a gentle heat for 20 min until soft, no colour.

3 Add the pollack and fry quickly with the veg for 3 min before adding the tomato puree, white wine, and fish stock, add the herbs and spices,except salt, pepper and Cayenne mix well and simmer for 1 hour.

4 Sieve the soup, pressing as much liquid out as possible using a ladle, and season.

5 Poach the langoustine tails in the soup for 3-4 mins, meanwhile sear the mullet and monkfish pieces in a frying pan before transferring to the soup with the langoustines.

6 Serve with saffron new potatoes, basil rouille and croutons.