Summer in Siena

Summer is my favourite season, on a culinary level , due to the ease with which it lends itself to deliciously quick puddings, such as those in the style of Nigel Slater whose book on the subject, I worship. Unaccustomed to the heat of Siena in July, I have fast developed an aversion to slaving over the stove for excessively long periods of time and am now appreciating the value of these types of recipes even more for their reliance on raw ingredients. Easy, refreshing recipes like these, equivalent to the English classic of strawberries and cream at Wimbledon, have been my saviour whether I have been on my own after a hard training session under the sweltering sun or hosting dinners for family and friends over the days of the Palio where routine goes out of the window in all of the frenzy.

All one needs is some great seasonal fruit, particularly abundant in Italy, and a bit of imagination. Here, I bought some peaches that unfortunately were not ripening as quickly as I would have liked so I resigned myself to cooking them lightly just to soften them a little. What I deigned to cook them in was determined purely by a recent obsession of mine and could easily be substituted with whatever you fancy (within reason clearly, I'm not advocating peaches in Guinness for example):

Dessert For One

2 peaches
1 cup almond milk
1tbsp honey
Ground cinnamon

Slice the peaches thinly, whether or not you remove the skins is up to you (I prefer to retain them for their nutritional value). Put them in a pan with the milk and honey over a medium heat until they are soft and the liquid has reduced slightly and taken on a pinkish hue from the peaches. Serve with a sprinkling of cinnamon.

Another recently installed staple into my mental catalogue of instantly gratifying desserts is anything that revolves around figs. At our local greengrocers you can choose between the bruised-looking black figs which are soft and sweet or their white alternative which taste less intense but have a clean freshness to them. For an impulsive farewell dessert, I bought a mixture, quartered them and and piled them atop a marscapone mountain drizzled generously in runny acacia honey - a classic flavour combination. Figs also work brilliantly for quick savoury dishes though, for example, scattered among slices of soft pecorino with a smattering of rocket leaves and again, a drizzle of honey.

 Figgy Salad (adapted from the Bible of Caldesi cooking)

Serves 4

This is a salad best created in layers rather than tossed together as it becomes rather messy otherwise and loses the contrast of flavours and colours a little.

400g goat's cheese cut into chunks
50g toasted chopped hazelnuts
4 figs
100g rocket leaves
The outer leaves of a lettuce
1 punnet of rasperries
2 tablespoons of runny acacia honey
2 tablespoons of olive oil
Black pepper

Fan the lettuce leaves out on a plate as a base for the salad, then place a layer of rocket on the top. Roll the chunks of goats cheese in the hazelnuts so that they are well coated, quarter the figs and gently break the raspberries up taking care not to squash them. Arrange these ingredients how you see fit on the greenery and then drizzle with oil, honey and a twist of freshly ground black pepper.