The proud ingredient in these delicious meatballs is smoked paprika. It’s a wonderful ingredient, though it should be used carefully. We’ve tweaked the proportions to what we feel is perfect. We love these as party food. They are always popular with guests.

This lovely rich ragu is perfect as an accompaniment to spaghetti or used as a filling for tortellini, as we do. It freezes well and will keep in the fridge for several days.

Vegetable stock · Sweet potatoes · Potatoes, such as kipfler · Fennel, cut into quarters · Roma tomatoes, cut in half · Chichpeas, cooked · Bell pepper, cut into thick strips · Baby eggplant, cut in half lengthways · Zucchini, thickly sliced · Red bell pepper, roasted · Shallots, whole, skin and root removed · Prunes, pitted · Lemon flesh, seeds and pith removed · Flat-leaf parsley, roughly chopped · Red chili · Coriander, roughly chopped · Garlic, minced · Cinnamon, whole · Cumin seeds, whole · Coriander seeds, whole

These gorgeous little filo triangles are superb as a lunchtime snack in place of normal sandwiches. This is a great recipe to make for meat eaters. You can make the pesto in a food processor although we find there is some satisfaction and additional texture if you use a mortar and pestle.

Vietnamese curries typically use powders, rather than pastes as is common in other Southeat Asian cuisines. In our version of this mix, we toast the whole spices and grind them to a fine powder for a deep flavour.

This velvity winter soup combines hearty vegetables with aromatic herbs and spices, which are believed to have properties which boost the immune system.