I cooked a favourite comfort food last night — chicken, pancetta and cannellini bean stew, topped with crispy fried sage, and served with baby chat potatoes and green beans (from Delicious magazine, issue 93, page 132). For all winter’s down-falls, I love winter food. I love cooking it and I love eating it. I bought an amazing book called ‘Winter in the Alps’ a couple of months back, and now is the perfect time to start whipping up some of the delicious-looking recipes. Such as: Zuppa Pavese (a chicken broth soup with a submerged slice of toast with melted cheese, on which you crack an egg, the heat of the soup cooking the egg whites, leaving the yolk deliciously runny); Tonno in Umido (tomato and tuna stew served with polenta); Pappardelle con Ragu di Anatra (pasta with red wine and duck ragu). The book also features some beautiful travel imagery — very inspiring! I poached a chicken for soup today, and burnt my fingers as I pulled the still-hot meat from the bones (I was being a little impatient). I love the way the smell of the chicken broth fills the house and steams my kitchen window.