Martino’s, London SW1: ‘Beautiful bedlam’ – restaurant review | Grace Dent on restaurants

Does central London really need another fancy Italian restaurant? Well, yes, apparently it does …Does the area around Sloane Square in central London really need another fancy, Italian-leaning restaurant that serves up tortellini in brodo and veal Milanese? Well, yes, apparently it does. One Saturday lunchtime late last year at Martino’s was hectic even in the delightful reception area, where we were waiting to check in a coat with the elegantly uniformed front-of-house ladies. All the tables in this hot new all-day brasserie were booked and busy, and plenty of walk-ins were champing at the bit for cancellations.Actually, “delightful reception” is not a phrase I’ve often uttered, or even thought, but this is a Martin Kuczmarski restaurant, so the small things tend to add up to a larger picture – this cocoon-like holding pen keeps would-be queuers away from the diners. Why was I so charmed by this weird, crisply officiated bends chamber that operates as a liminal space between the real grubby world outside and the glitzy, sexy, mock-Italian trattoria inside? Well, it turns out that’s because it solved a problem that I didn’t even realise I had

Helen Goh’s recipe for baked apples with lemon and tahini | The sweet spot

After the excesses of December, these baked apples are a light, refreshing vegan pudding. The filling makes good use of any dried fruit lingering still from Christmas, and is brightened with lemon and bound with nutty tahini. As the apples bake, they turn yielding and fragrant, while the sesame oat topping crisps to a golden crown. Serve warm with a splash of cream, yoghurt or ice-cream (dairy or otherwise), and you have comfort that feels wholesome and indulgent.If need be, you can make these vegan and/or dairy-free with a few simple tweaks

Health by stealth: the rise of drinkable no- and low-alcohol beer

As the last of the liqueur bottles are consigned to the recycling and the festive hangovers subside, even those of us who scorn the very concept of Dry January (no booze at all? In the gloomiest month of the year? Are they mad?) tend to take our feet off the alcohol pedal and give our livers something of a rest.The Guardian’s journalism is independent. We will earn a commission if you buy something through an affiliate link. Learn more.Water, of course, is the easiest, cheapest and probably most effective way to detox; it’s also the most boring

Mark Hix’s recipe for roast pumpkin and pickled walnut salad

I try to grow a few varieties of squash every season, but in the past couple of years the results have more or less failed me. I originally put that down to the lack of time and attention I’d given those poor plants, but I’m now starting to wonder if the soil in my raised garden beds overlooking Lyme Bay in Dorset is actually right for them.I’m not giving up just yet, though, and this year I’ll be trying different varieties in a different bed that I’ve prepared and composted over the winter with seaweed mulch. As luck would have it, however, my friend Rob Corbett came to the rescue a couple of weeks ago by giving me several specimens when he delivered some wine from his Castlewood vineyard a few miles away in east Devon. If you know your gourds even a little, you will also know that squashes keep for months, which is handy, because they ideally need to cure and ripen before use

Premium peaches and luscious lychees: Australia’s best-value fruit and veg for January

Apricots are here for a good time, not a long time. “We’re eating some really good Victorian ones at the moment, then towards the end of this month we’ll get into the Tasmanian ones,” says Graham Gee, senior buyer at the Happy Apple in Melbourne.He’s selling them for $5 to $8 a kilo, depending on variety; his favourite is the Moorpark apricot. “They’re not the most beautiful to look at,” he says. “But the flavour is so rich

How to turn excess hard veg into fridge-raid sauerkraut – recipe | Waste not

The dry-salting fermentation method used to make sauerkraut works brilliantly on almost any firm vegetable, so you can happily explore beyond the traditional cabbage. I had a couple of carrots and a piece of squash that needed saving, so I turned them into a golden kraut with ginger, turmeric and a little orange zest for brightness. Use whatever you have to hand and let the ingredients lead your creativity.Fermenting is an enjoyable way to make the most of a seasonal ingredient or to use up surplus produce. At our restaurant, whenever we had a glut that needed using up, we used to rely on fermentation, because not only did it saves us money in the long term, it also helped us to create imaginative, delicious new products to cook with