I love white onion soup, these are the closest recipes to the soup my mother served, though her´s did not have cream, just milk and stock, I think in equal quantities and I don´t think Mum ever used mace. I think when I fancy this soup again, I will try different herbs and a little olive oil rather than all that butter.

Recipe 1

1/4 cup unsalted butter
3 generous cups of finely chopped white onions
2 sticks of celery, washed and finely chopped
4 cups of vegetable stock (or chicken)
A blade of mace and bay leaf (in a muslin bag)
3/4 cup wholefat or semi skimmed milk
1/4 cup plain flour
2/3 cup of single cream
Sea salt and white pepper to taste
Herby croutons, if you like them

Sweat the onions and celery for about 5 minutes in melted butter (best not to brown for this soup). Or try half butter and half olive oil
Add the stock, mace and bay leaf, stir and gently bring up to boiling point, cover, reduce the heat and simmer gently until the vegetables are tender (I like sage with onions, but don´t know whether it would work with this soup)
Remove the muslin bag, leave the soup to cool, then blitz to a puree
At this point, add seasoning to taste
Blend the flour with the milk and slowly whisk into the soup
Return the pan to a gentle heat and bring up to a boil, stirring constantly
Reduce the heat and simmer gently for 5 minutes
Taste and adjust seasoning, if necessary
Stir in the cream and reheat gently before serving, do not allow the soup to boil
Serve with herby croutons, or if you like cheese on toast, mini cheesy toasts grilled, float on the top of the soup

Recipe 2

2 tbsp unsalted butter
1 lb white onions, thinly sliced
2 cloves
2 rounded tbsp plain flour
1 pinch freshly grated nutmeg
A bay leaf
1 litre chicken or vegetable stock
300 ml milk
Salt and white pepper
150 ml single cream
3 tbsp grated cheshire cheese

Melt the butter in a saucepan, add the onions and cloves, sweat until they begin to soften, but do not allow them to brown
Sprinkle over the flour and mix well, cook – while stirring – for about 1 minute then add the nutmeg, the bay leaf and stock
Continue stirring while bringing it up the a boil
Simmer until the onions are softened, remove from the heat then gradually stir in milk
Continue stirring while the soup comes up to the boil, remove from the heat and take out the cloves and bay leaf
Serve as is, or liquidise if you like a smooth soup, add the cream and gently reheat (or do the cheffy thing and drizzle the cream onto the soup after you have served it into bowls)
Serve with grated cheese or cheesy toasts or croutons

My mother did a very basic stew, ie she prepared whatever vegetables were in season, as this was “winter” food, that would include potatoes, turnip, carrots and onions. She browned the meat and added flour to thicken, any herbs or spices that we had to hand (always fresh or dried at home and in muslin – remove before eating), had to be herbs that would suit the meat, usually either beef or lamb, she then added the water and stock cube, or homemade stock, brown ale or beer if available, salt and pepper, vegetables, not cut too small, and left it to cook on the hob for what seemed like forever. She believed in cooking out the salt (whatever that means but I am sure most people will know), so she didn´t season at the end as she knew just how much was needed to suit our tastes.

We had it with Yorkshire Pudding or plain suet dumplings which were cooked on top of the stew, she never timed anything, just seemed to know exactly when it would be ready.

And brown sauce, why did I use this, don´t know, but it annoyed both Mum and Dad, perhaps that´s why. I was (and still am) an awkward little sod.

Many years ago my father grew some spaghetti marrow, quite a new thing really. We pricked the marrow all over using a fine skewer, then baked the marrow in the oven until tender (as far as I can remember this took about 90 minutes at 180ºC), cut it in half lengthways, scooped out the seeds then removed the “spaghetti” strands with two forks. This was served with a simple buttery sauce and it was delicious. Amazing how the simplest of dishes lives on in your memory, in this case for 50 years! Fresh veggies out of the garden cannot be beaten for taste and goodness.

You can serve this with almost any pasta sauce, but not I think ones that are too strong flavoured, at least not for me. I usually eat it with a simple vegetarian sauce with cheese

2 tbsp olive oil
1 cup yellow Zucchinis, diced
1 cup small broccoli florets
1 1/2 cups young snow peas
1 cup petit pois
4 young and tender asparagus spears, sliced
8 button mushrooms, sliced
2 cloves garlic, crushed
1/3 cup pine nuts
1/3 cup finely chopped flat-leaf parsley (leaves only)
1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan or Pecorino
6 tbsp butter
1 cup double cream
1/3 cup fresh basil leaves, torn
2 Marmande tomatoes, skinned deseeded and diced
Sea salt and black pepper – to taste
Garnish – Parmesan shavings

Steam or lightly boil the zucchini, broccoli, snow peas, petit pois, asparagus and mushrooms for about 3 minutes, immediately rinse under cold running water, leave to drain

Meanwhile, heat a tablespoon of oil in a large frying pan set over a medium heat, add the garlic and pine nuts, while stirring cook until the pine nuts start to turn brown, this will take about 2 minutes

Add the remaining oil followed by the vegetables, parsley and seasoning – to taste. Cook for about 2 minutes

Add the “courgette pasta” to the sauce, stir in the Parmesan, butter, cream and basil, heat thoroughly, toss gently then scatter over the tomatoes and Parmesan shavings, serve immediately with crusty Spanish or French bread

I remember my first experience of pasta, Ian (then my brother in law) made it and it was fantastic as he was a natural cook, he made an excellent lemon drizzle cake, the best I had ever tasted until my daughter made one a couple of years ago. This dish has similar ingredients, but Ian’s had been adapted to include some British ingredients, ie Cheddar Cheese, the much maligned “Spam”, bacon bits, thin sausages that had been cooked and skinned, then roughly chopped and condensed tomato soup. When I made the dish I used chopped plum tomatoes instead of the soup. It wasn’t quite as tasty though. Perhaps there was an unknown ingredient in there somewhere.

125 grams macaroni
1 tbsp olive oil
1 clove garlic, crushed
4 salad onions, finely sliced
60 grams Morel mushrooms, quartered
1 tinned red pepper, diced
90 grams dolcelatte, roughly crumbled
2 tbsp single cream
1 tbsp freshly chopped flat leaf parsley
Sea salt and black pepper
1 egg, beaten
50 grams mozzarella cheese, sliced or torn

Preheat the oven to 200° Celsius
Cook the pasta following instructions
While the pasta is cooking, heat the oil in a large saucepan and gently cook the onion, mushrooms and pepper until softened, towards the end add the garlic and stir to combine
Stir in the crumbled dolcelatte, cream, parsley and seasoning, to taste
Add the egg and drained pasta shapes, stir to combine then spoon into a lightly buttered or oiled ovenproof dish
Arrange the mozzarella cheese over the top
Place in a preheated oven for 20 minutes or until a light golden brown
Serve with a tomato and basil salad and crusty bread