Great British Food - Christmas 2025

Hunk of aged pecorino or parmesan (manchego or comté would also workwell) 1 blood orange 3 tbsps olive oil Juice of 1/2 lemon 1. Clean and carefully dry all the salad leaves, keeping them as intact as possible. Mix together in a serving bowl, ready to dress. 2. Using a potato peeler, shave shards off the hunk of cheese until you have a nice handful of shaved cheese. 3. When ready to serve, peel the orange, removing all the white pith, then slice into segments and arrange over the salad. 4. Pour the olive oil and lemon juice over the salad, add a generous pinch of salt and toss well. 5. Add the cheese, toss again and serve. Chocolate&Amarena CherryCake This is a dense, cherry-infused chocolate cake which can bemixed in one pan. It has developed as a variation over the years froma favourite recipe in our house, queenNigella’s spectacular chocolate andmarmalade sponge from her book, How to Be a Domestic Goddess. I love it as it’s pretty failsafe, quick and the ingredients are normally inmy cupboard, perfect for a winter’s night when I want something indulgent but can’t face braving the cold to go to the shops. Amarena cherries are black cherries fromEmilia–Romagna and preserved in cherry syrup. They are very easy to find in supermarkets in Italy and are sold in prettyArt Nouveau– style jars. They are available in delis outside Italy but are expensive; the cheapest I have found abroad are the 600 g (1 lb 5 oz) jars that can be bought online. They are a useful thing to have in the cupboard as you can throw together a last-minute dessert in seconds–if you have a tub of vanilla ice cream in the freezer, simply spoon over some of the Amarena syrup and a few black cherries. Serves: 4 Prep: 10minutes Cook: 50minutes 125g unsalted butter, plus extra for greasing 125g self-raising flour 120g dark chocolate, broken into small pieces Pinch of sea salt 100g Amarena cherries, roughly chopped, plus 3 tablespoons of the cherry syrup (see note) 200g cherry jam 100g caster sugar 2 large organic eggs, beaten FORTHETOP 250g fresh ricotta,drained 1 tbsp icing sugar 2 tbspAmarena cherries, plus 2 tablespoons of the cherry syrup (see note) 1. Preheat the oven to 150°C (300°F) fan-forced. Butter a 20 cm (8 inch) cake tin or loaf tin and line with baking parchment. 2. Melt the butter in a saucepan, then remove from the heat. Add the chocolate and salt and stir well until completely melted. Stir in the cherries and cherry syrup, then add the sugar and mix in the eggs. Bit by bit, mix in the flour. 3. With the help of a spatula, pour the batter into the cake tin and bake (without opening the oven door) for 45–50 minutes, until a cake tester inserted in the centre comes out cleanish. Remove the cake from the oven and leave in the tin to cool completely. 4. While the cake cools, drain the ricotta in a colander to rid it of excess moisture. Transfer to a bowl and whisk using hand-held electric beaters for about 1 minute, until velvety and smooth. Sift in the icing sugar and whisk again for about a minute, until shiny and smooth. 5. Once the cake has cooled, transfer it to a serving plate or cake stand, ready for topping. Spoon the ricotta on top of the cake in a heap in the middle, smoothing out the edges with the back of a spoon. Dot the cherries around the top of the cake, then drizzle the cherry syrup over from a height. Serve in slices, at room temperature. The cake will keep for up to 3 days in an airtight container. If keeping in the fridge, bring up to room temperature before serving. NOTE If you can’t find Amarena cherries or baulk at their cost, you can leave these out of the cake batter and use 300g cherry jam instead. For the topping, gently warm about 3 tablespoons of cherry jam for a few minutes until liquid, and simply drizzle it over the ricotta from a height using a teaspoon. Recipes extracted from Winter in Tuscany by Amber Guinness. Published by Thames & Hudson, photography by Valentina Solfrini. “This recipe is pretty failsafe, quick and the ingredients are normally inmy cupboard, perfect for a winter’s night when I want something indulgent but can’t face braving the cold to go to the shops” RECI PES | AMBER GUINNESS 83 greatbr i t i shfoodawards.com