I’m welcoming in spring with big Mediterranean flavours
A combination of the warmer weather, dusting off my sunglasses and the impending release of my new book, MEDesque (out on Thursday!), has got me fully focused on sunshine food and Mediterranean flavours.OK, so I’m not quite in rosé-in-the-garden territory just yet, but it’s close.And I am counting down the days.At home, I am leaning heavily on recipes from the queen of all things Med, Claudia Roden, to get my fix.Big hitters such as her bean stew with chorizo and bacon and chicken traybake with olives and boiled lemon deliver on all fronts, and immediately transport me to my favourite region.
And gone are cold, slow days spent labouring over a lasagne,Instead, I am gravitating towards lighter pasta dishes such as Georgia Levy’s broccoli and anchovy farfalle, Giorgio Locatelli’s pasta con le sarde (with sardines, anchovies, fennel, raisins and pine nuts) and Yotam Ottolenghi’s straccetti with red mullet, harissa and black olives – all effortless yet flavoursome,If you’re not quite ready to give up on wintry ragu and bolognese just yet, then Anna Tobias’s lamb shanks and orzo are a joy – it’s how many pasta dishes are cooked in the eastern Mediterranean and north Africa, where the pasta is stirred through the meat and absorbs all those juices and flavours,It’s my favourite way to eat pasta,While I’m not quite ready to eat outdoors, I have started cooking outdoors, and last week I reawakened our wood oven.
It was heated out of its winter slumber especially for Greek Orthodox Easter, because my yiayia (grandma) had requested kleftiko for Sunday lunch,Nothing screams summer and Med cooking as much as when I get that wood oven going, and not just for pizzas (although they do taste pretty elite when cooked outdoors),Nigel Slater’s pizette recipes are a great place to start if you are giving homemade pizza a go, and The Ultimate Wood-Fired Oven Cookbook, by Genevieve Taylor, was a bible when we first got acquainted with our new toy,I’m yet to dust off the barbecue, but that will undoubtedly be the next step, and I cannot wait for the smell of perfect pork souvlaki and charred, spiced adana kebabs to waft through the garden,For a sweet fix, I am a big fan of gelato and sorbet once the sun starts making an appearance.
Having a stash of lemon sorbet in the freezer is always a good idea, and this one by Felicity Cloake is a real winner,For a showstopping make-ahead pud, Helen Goh’s almond and honey semifreddo is perfect for when you have guests over, and will instantly transport you to a sunny Italian spot, too – as, indeed, would any of Yotam’s grownup granitas,Perhaps I will have my first rosé in the garden this weekend, and perhaps it will be in granita form? That would be glorious indeed,You say tomato, I say tomato | The first UK tomatoes are now being harvested, and you can order them direct from the brilliant Isle of Wight Tomatoes,I love it when a box of their colourful sweet toms turn up on my doorstep, plus they also have an excellent range of sauces and preserved tomatoes.
Greek salads are officially a go,Break the ice | Having tubs of gelato in the freezer, just because, is one of my adult “musts”,It started when London favourite Nonna’s Gelato began delivering its incredible Christmas range (sage and brown butter, anyone?), and I bought tubs and tubs of the stuff as treats over the festive season; they’re now a freezer essential,We’re also big fans of Baboo, which makes small batches of delicious gelato in Dorset, with local produce and delivery nationwide; there’s even a banana and peanut butter gelato especially for dogs,Get into the grill | While I am a dab hand at Greek and Cypriot barbecue, this year I have made a pact to learn a variety of techniques, to which end I’ve been devouring the latest release from barbecue master Melissa Thompson.
Her new book, Fired Up, has everything you’d want and more: weeknight grilled peanut and cumin lamb chops, and courgette and halloumi buns, as well as larger projects such as coffee-rubbed smoked short ribs and cornbread with brown butter, chilli and thyme.If you want to read the complete version of this newsletter please subscribe to receive Feast in your inbox every Thursday.
Some Interrail travellers told to cancel passports as hacked data posted online
Holidaymakers across Europe are facing the stress and expense of getting new passports after their personal data was posted on the dark web after a hack of the Interrail company Eurail.Personal data, including passport numbers, names, phone numbers, email and home addresses and dates of birth of more than 300,000 European travellers was accessed in December. But this week Eurail revealed to customers that “data copied during the security incident has been offered for sale on the dark web and a sample dataset has been published on Telegram”.The announcement has led to renewed anger and confusion. The UK Passport Office has told at least one customer they needed to “cancel their passport to prevent it being used for fraudulent activity”, with the Home Office agency also indicating they needed to pay the full £102 fee for a replacement
Chinese hackers using everyday devices to target UK firms, warns cybersecurity agency
British businesses are being urged to step up their vigilance against a China-linked hacking ploy that uses everyday devices for espionage.The UK’s National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) and agencies in nine other countries have warned of persistent attempts by Beijing-backed groups to hack equipment such as wifi routers to launch cyber-attacks.Known as “covert networks” or “botnets”, they typically target vulnerable equipment – for instance devices that have not had a software update or are old – as a base for staging activities such as surveillance and data theft.The NCSC said the technique was used by the majority of China-linked hackers. Richard Horne, the centre’s chief executive, said on Wednesday that China’s intelligence and military agencies had an “eye-watering level of sophistication in their cyber-operations”
Criminal gangs profiting as child sexual abuse websites double, experts say
The number of commercial child sexual abuse websites has doubled in a year as experts say that criminal gangs are making “huge profits” from online sexual exploitation.According to data collected by the Internet Watch Foundation (IWF), 15,031 commercial child sexual abuse sites were found in 2025, compared with 7,028 found in 2024, a 114% increase.An analyst who worked on the report but did not wish to be named said that this content exists “across all social media platforms” and is “very easy” to find.“I can find child sexual abuse content, the worst categories, category A content, which is penetration of children as young as babies on any social media platform in as little as one search term and two clicks,” said the analyst.“I think the public have this perception that this sort of material is hidden away in dark and dirty corners of the internet, but it’s not, it’s in plain sight
Tesla reports mixed financial results as Musk pivots automaker to AI and robots
Tesla reported its first-quarter earnings on Wednesday, disclosing some better-than-expected results but faltering in some key areas. The report failed to significantly buoy Tesla’s stock, which has limped along this year while its CEO, Elon Musk, has tried to sell the company’s new vision of humanoid robots and self-driving robotaxis. Its core car business has struggled in the face of competition from Chinese counterparts and backlash against his close involvement with the Trump administration.“There remains significant effort and hard work to realize our mission of Amazing Abundance,” Tesla said in its report, while claiming that demand for its vehicles was rebounding.Tesla revealed earnings of 41 cents a share on Wednesday after market close, more than the 37 cents per share that Wall Street expected
What is Mythos AI and why could it be a threat to global cybersecurity?
Anthropic has ruled out releasing its latest AI model, Claude Mythos, to the public because of the threat it poses to global cybersecurity.However, the US tech startup behind the Claude chatbot confirmed on Wednesday it was investigating a report that a group of people had gained unauthorised access to Mythos. The alleged incident has raised concerns over the pace of development and the ability of tech companies to keep their riskiest products out of the public domain. Here, we examine Mythos and its potential impact.Mythos is an AI model – the underlying technology that powers tools such as chatbots – that, according to Anthropic, represents a serious potential threat to any organisation’s cybersecurity
‘Get back to work’: Amazon faces fresh scrutiny over workplace safety record
Amazon, one of the world’s largest employers, has for years faced scrutiny over its safety record. When Billy Foister, a 48-year-old worker, died after a heart attack inside one of the tech giant’s warehouses in September 2019, managers were accused of telling staff to “get back to work”.When another worker died this month at a distribution center in Troutdale, Oregon, an Amazon spokesperson claimed they had collapsed from an “existing medical issue”. They denied a report that a nearby employee was told: “Please get back to work.”As Donald Trump’s administration continues to overhaul federal government oversight of workplace safety, workers inside Amazon and labor advocates say the company’s injury rates, and how it treats injured workers, remain a problem
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