Rukmini Iyer’s quick and easy recipe for beetroot and celeriac gratin with goat’s cheese and walnuts | Quick and easy

I make variations on beetroot gratin all the time, and this one with celeriac, dill and goat’s cheese is an absolute winner. You’ll want to use a mandoline (very carefully) for the celeriac, to make sure it’s sliced thinly enough to cook through in half an hour (alternatively, do everything in a food processor using the slicing/grating attachment). If you happen to have a bunch of salsify, or spot one when you’re out, by all means peel, slice and add that, too. This gratin tastes even better the next day, so it’s definitely worth having leftovers.Prep 15 min Cook 30 min Serves 4½ celeriac, peeled and very thinly sliced2 fennel bulbs, trimmed and very thinly sliced280g cream cheese 100ml full-fat milk 20g fresh dill, roughly choppedSea salt and black pepper 300g raw beetroot, peeled and grated200g goat’s cheese log, finely sliced40g panko breadcrumbs 50g walnuts, roughly broken1 tbsp olive oil Juice of ½ lemonHeat the oven to 220C (200C fan)/425F/gas 7

Rachel Roddy’s recipe for pisarei, or leftover bread pasta | A kitchen in Rome

Just like the other three bowls on the top shelf, the wooden salad bowl is full. However, unlike the other bowls, with their pick’n’mix of clothes pegs, coins, aspirin, Ikea pencils, cables, wet wipes, sunglasses, business cards, Kinder Surprise figures and Sellotape chewed by the dog, the salad bowl is a holding (or dumping) place for just one thing: bread crusts. In Italian, the crust of a loaf of bread is sometimes referred to as il culo or culetto, meaning bottom or little bottom, making this a bowl of bottoms.Its position on the highest shelf, plus the depth of the bowl, means I can’t be reminded of what’s inside until there are enough crusts that they start rising, like brown icebergs, above the rim. Then follows a period of days (or weeks) during which I keep seeing those tips, and reminding myself to do something with them, but don’t, so they continue to rise, and when the morning sun hits the shelves, I can see the dust drifting and settling

Notes on chocolate: top marks, sparks fly at M&S

The supermarket chain’s new range is surprisingly delightfulRecently, for reasons we need not go into here, I hadn’t really been out much, having been confined to rest by an imaginary matron. So when my friend, Tamsin, offered to take me to a state-of-the-art Marks & Spencer in the next county (we live in the countryside) I jumped at the chance.It’s not as if I’ve never been to huge M&S in London – I’m a regular visitor to both of the big branches along Oxford Street. But not lately, because: matron.There is something intoxicating about being out and about after being largely confined to the house, isn’t there? I was like an overexcited child

Fonda, London: ‘An exuberantly good meal’: restaurant review

This new Mexican restaurant serves up regional dishes so well crafted that conversation stopsFonda, 12 Heddon Street, London W1B 4BZ. Starters and small plates £7-£14, larger plates £23-£29, desserts £6-£11, wines from £39At Fonda, a new Mexican restaurant off London’s Regent Street, the staff have vital information and, boy, are they determined to impart it. Usually, speeches about ingredients and the best way to eat your lunch, feel like a nail puncture purposefully engineered to let all the air out of any fun you were hoping to have. Lunch becomes an exam to be passed. Am I doing this right? Will the staff approve? Oh, the social anxiety

Soak up the rays: wines tasting of sunshine

Escape the gloom with these big red wines bursting with the flavours of warm countriesThe Guardian’s journalism is independent. We will earn a commission if you buy something through an affiliate link. Learn more.Cuevas de Arom Altas Parcelas, Calatayud, Spain 2021 (£18.99, shelvedwine

How to turn store-cupboard staples into brilliant breakfast bars | Waste not

Today’s recipe is based on the pumpkin, mulberry and spelt breakfast bars in my book Eating for Pleasure, People & Planet. They were easily adapted for this column’s purposes, because they can be made with any bits and bobs in the store-cupboard that need using up.These are a nutritious and very tasty grab-and-go breakfast, so it was very welcome to see Emma Bread, an artisan sourdough baker from Cape Town in South Africa, recreating them on Instagram, not least because she called them “the greatest on-the-go breakfast going”, adding that they are “nutrient-dense and easy to change, depending on what nut, seeds and dried berries you have in the cupboard”.She gave her version an African twist with puffed sorghum, baobab powder and spelt flour, but you can make them with whatever flour you have in the house. There’s also no need to peel the diced squash, root vegetables or apples before roasting them, because the skin adds flavour, texture and nutritional value, including fibre